| My Company Performed Poorly |
Just as it is possible to enjoy some of the positive ruboff which comes from working for a highly respected company, it is also possible to suffer from the negative image of a company which has failed or has a poor reputation. If you have worked hard and made contributions that were overshadowed by your employer's overall lackluster performance, you run the risk of suffering by comparison to others who may have done less, but for a more successful company. Fortunately, this liability can be overcome easily, provided that you communicate the situation to your advantage.
Mindset
Keep in mind that the achievements of one individual can have little or nothing to do with the results achieved by the organization. It is not logical for you to take responsibility for events or circumstances that were not under your control. A seemingly lucrative market may suddenly shrink. A window of opportunity originally estimated at 30 months is cut to 15. You might have done an excellent job in manufacturing, but you had no control over the poor marketing efforts which led to failure, or vice versa.
Keep in mind that your appeal to employers will be based on the knowledge, skills and knowhow you bring, which can be applied to the challenges facing them in the immediate future. If you can show achievements in your department or function, they are not likely to place much significance on the fact that the company you worked for couldn't take advantage of them. Most employers realize that in today's fast-paced, competitive environment, a company can do nine out of ten things well, but fail because it performed poorly in that tenth area.
Resume
On the resume, be sure to separate your achievements from the overall results of the company. There is no need to write about negatives which have nothing to do with your ability to contribute. Know "when to stop telling the story." Write only about results in those areas over which you had control. If there were no clearcut achievements you can point to, then emphasize the functions you filled and the tasks completed. You may appeal to an employer merely because you have certain experience, regardless of achievements.
Interviews / e-mail / Letters
If the subject is brought up in the interview, you should of course point out that the overall results were due to forces beyond your control. You can go further, though. You can turn this potential liability into an asset by characterizing the entire experience as a valuable learning experience, emphasizing that you are a better performer or manager today as a result of having been successful in a difficult environment.
Use stories with a situation-actions-results format that clearly illustrate your talent for taking actions as needed to achieve results in specific circumstances, and which show how you prevented the employer's situation from becoming worse. Your work may have enabled the organization to survive for a far longer period. Achievements in your area may have offset damage which occurred elsewhere in the organization. Sell yourself as a person who was part of the solution rather than part of the problem. This approach can be especially effective when you are coming from a declining or low-profit industry.
Actions
Prepare a number of situation-action-result stories and rehearse them several times before you get into an interview. Let your references know how you intend to communicate your experience, and request that they characterize it the same way. Find a way to measure your achievements in tangible terms, e.g., dollars saved, percentage improvement in productivity, or the number of months in which you cut losses. That will give your achievements more weight when compared to the nebulous concept of "poor performance" by the overall organization.
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