Fired from first engineering position

What's the best way to proceed after being fired? (Short of an hero)

After 7.5 months at my first "real" job (sales engineer, lol), I've been shitcanned. Unfortunately, my boss, the president of the company, is autistic and extremely anal about punctuality and accuracy. So after a few too many slip-ups, I was let go. Coincidentally, this happened on the same day that I scored an interview with a much better company, leaving me in a bit of a pickle.

I was planning on using my current employment to leverage the best possible pay at the new job, should I be hired. e.g., new company makes me a salary offer, I come back and tell them my current employer offered me more to stay, then the new employer makes me an even better offer and I take it. In theory, at least.

Now I have arguably even less bargaining power than when I was a fresh graduate so I'd really appreciate some input as to what I should do.

Pic unrelated, just a mummified rat I found.

So far I've come up with 2 halfway decent ways to proceed:

1. Lie my ass off, pretend I still have my current job, and go through with original salary negotiation plan. I specified on my application that I didn't want my new employer contacting my current one, so I figure there's a fairly good chance this could work out. The only problem is there may be some other avenue of them catching me in the lie that I haven't considered.

2. Tell the new employer that after hearing that I got an interview, I went to my boss out of consideration and told him I had begun looking for a new job and that he should line up a replacement. As a result, he fired me on the spot. Again, nowhere close to perfect but in the event they do look into my employment, this seems less likely to bite me in the dick.

bump

I'd go with option 2. I've had to lie before myself. Gotta act like you still have a job.

Depends on the country. In some EU countries like Germany bosses are wired to eachother and call each other up. Atleast if it's in the same city. Atleast it's like that in the IT field. It's not unusual that your previous Boss or the HR sloots are gonna get a call from your potential new company and ask about you and your perfomances.
Plus letter of recommendations are sometimes a thing too; even though it's not relevant in your case since you were employed and already had your interview.

I would be silent about it. Best case it won't be investigated or no questions asked and they just ask when you can start. Getting fired seems like a red flag in the industry so it's nothing you should be toooo open about. If they ask, tell them politery the story that you have been fired for intern company reasons and all that. Don't go too much into detail

I'm in the US, but I think you make a good point.

Did you give references for this new job? Would any of those references know about your firing?

>my boss, the president of the company, is autistic and extremely anal about punctuality and accuracy.
Is this bait? Can you try to (anonoymously) elaborate on this?

No and no.

Not bait. Boss was very critical of any mistake. I dealt with providing quotes and creating technical drawings for custom assemblies (almost entirely) many times a day, while adhering to our quality system. Occasionally I would miss something in the order review process.

In regards to the late thing, my punctuality could use some work and so I would end up being 5 minutes late or so somewhat regularly. That being said, I was one of the few salaried people there, so legally as long as I showed up for a minute out of the entire day they had to count me as present. Kind of silly but it was just his preference.

Is this your first real job?

Not exactly, I've interned in a machine shop and did a semester-long internship at a rather large company.

>internships

So it is basically your first REAL job. In the real world, (or at least the Western world) if you are consistently late, you get fired. This isn't just your boss being autistic, it's part of professional culture.

I'm not trying to be a huge dick or anything, but if the thing you take out of this experience was "aww man, it's too bad I ended up with an autistic anal boss" then you're going to fuck up again.

>I was not at work when I was supposed to be and also did my job incorrectly
>fuck my boss right guys?

Shit you have a point there.

At least you learned early on. But yeah, you might get a second chance, but people rarely get a thirds chance, so I guess you need to shape up.


Good luck man. I know you can use this as a chance to improve.

Like actually five minutes late? Or more like 15? Also, minor slip ups are expected of a junior engineer, as I doubt you have your P. Eng. so shit should be given to your higher ups and if its minor it should really be no big deal. Honestly how bad did you fuck up?

You're lying in both cases. Don't lie people, will find out and then you'll have an even greater chip on your character.

I would not mention your employment status at all. Start lining up more interviews in case you don't get this job.

You're supposed to be 15-30 minutes early for everything. Your next boss is also going to have a problem with your lack of professionalism.

Get a good laptop so you can show up early and get work done while you wait.

>sales engineer
no such thing

Thanks for the advice everyone. I've been dealing with depression and a marijuana habit (even dumped my girlfriend because I couldn't quit with her constantly doing it), both of which made it quite difficult to be on time and motivated to work. I'm going to do everything I can to make a habit of showing up to work early at my next job.

I like to think I'm a halfway decent engineer (relative to how early I am in my career), but poor time management skills have plagued me for years. With college's relatively open schedule (and the tendency for most of my professors to not take attendance), I certainly haven't made as much progress as I would have liked in that regard.

I feel like a bit of a jackass now that I realize I was projecting a lot of the blame onto my boss, when really the requirement of consistency in the workplace is by and large the norm. Thanks again for helping me cut through my own bullshit, Veeky Forums.

>showing up and working for a half hour early without getting paid for it.

If you don't do that, eventually you'll be like OP and not be paid at all.
The rules are stupid? Yes. But if you can't or won't bother changing the system, just follow them.

>being on time is the same thing as being late
>not being early is the same thing as being late

First post:
>Lol my boss is a faggot guise
Later:
>wait actually I'm an unmotivated junkie
Lol'd. At least you realized it and faced the truth, OP.

Hey good on you lad, here's to your success professionally, just remember to live a fulfilling life.

Yes. Like I said: the rules are stupid.

5 minutes is not that bad really.

>I would not mention your employment status at all.

This. Option 1 is stupid and risky at this point, Option 2 is almost as bad as telling them the truth outright...it makes you look expendable to your old boss.

Which, to be quite honest, you are...how do you fuck up punctuality enough to get fired for it?

> salaried position
> being on time. ever

Fucking LOL

I got fired from my first real engineering job after eight months too. It was a job I hated. If I'd been smarter I'd have never started working there or quit long before I was fired.

This was all ten years ago. It hasn't impacted my career at all. For the next job I just impressed the hell out of people at the interview; and as a reference for the last job I gave a co-worker who liked me instead of the boss who fired me. If you're asked about why you don't work there anymore bend the truth by saying "laid off". Talented engineers lose their jobs all the time because their company made bad business decisions.


> I come back and tell them my current employer offered me more to stay, then the new employer makes me an even better offer..

Don't do this. It doesn't work like that for any job. Managers have no patience for this bullshit. Get to a point where you leaving would mean a year of training someone new to do your job. Then you can get your employer in a salary war to keep you.