Really frustrated right now - can she be a reference, or not?

[HansonGirl]

Ok, so as i've posted before, I am in this job that is a term position that will be ending later this year. I am not sure if I have made it clear that my hours are long. I worked this weekend 8 hours on Saturday, then 12 hours on Sunday, and then worked til midnight on monday (that'd be 16 hours); yesterday til 7pm only because i had plans at 7; today tile 6pm because i had plans today too. otherwise i'd have stayed later

 

If i didn't already have a full plate of assignments to work on, i'd actively seek out other assignments.

 

well today my boss starts asking me about my job hunt, and i said i'm focused on this public interest type stuff, but I am also going to apply for corporate as well (don't want to rule out an entire category of employers). So then she starts saying how oh no, my personality would not be good there. I wouldn't like it there. I said I didn't understand. Then she said, oh well, like the intern "Lisa", she's a go-getter, she'd do well in corporate. I am not sure I looked offended by that comment - i happen to supervise this intern Lisa, and to me she is a brown-noser who likes to pat herself on the back. Lisa is also not thorough at all, and i have had to correct her work significantly before turning it in to the boss. But I also don't understand the implication that i am not a go-getter. I think the fact that i work these long hours, am consistently the one working the latest almost every night, never complained once about it, I don't understand how that's not a go-getter. The reason the intern asks for work is because she rushes through her assignment (maybe that's why it's not thorough) and then has nothing to do. If i had nothing to do, i'd be asking for work!

 

I went to one of the top universities in the country, one of the top 5 graduate schools in the country, and frankly I don't understand what I am doing wrong to suggest I don't have a go-getter personality

 

then she started adding how oh, well i have interests in public service, and there's a lot of greed in corporate and i don't think you'd be happy there. Which to me sounded like backtracking

 

So i need REFERENCES for my job search and frankly now I am wondering if she has my back at all. To me, this is not very supportive. I don't know any more. I certainly disagree with her, and I am not going to change my view just because someone told me i couldn't do something - but I am not even sure what to make of this comment.

[Mind-Chants]

How long is your employment period with this company ??? If it's recent long term employment, boss's reference would matter a lot. I always look into recent employment (boss's reference) while hiring.

 

I believe there is a personality - job fit. She may be referring to your personality traits not matching with your future job roles you are exploring. Again that doesn't mean she is pointing out any negative personality traits. May be you are a people's person who care about all and have empathy. Go-getters tend to have shades to arrogance in them which pushes them in their goals. I have reasons to believe that you have an introvert personality and have a lot of patience. Impatience and extroversion are associated with go-getter type personality.

 

My point is you don't have to feel bad about not being called a go-getter. You could clarify with your boss regarding that at an opportune moment. If she regularly criticizes you then it's another issue. But I felt she just made a comment about future job compatibility. Yeah open comparison is bad.