What looks worse on a resume: quitting or being fired?

If you had the job less than 6 months, I wouldn’t put it on a resume, even if it ended amicably.

You could make an exception to this rule if you don’t have a lot of other job experience to put on your resume, but at such a young age (just going to college) no one is going to expect you to have years of experience working.

If you feel you must put it on a resume or application, just don’t mention the reasoning for leaving, or if they ask simply say you were leaving for school. It’s legit enough.

This is the way I see it. It may not work for other people, but it’s the way I roll.
A person quitting doesn’t necessarily mean they failed in doing something, or messed something up, or are incapable of doing the job. It can also mean the person is aware of what they want to do, or don’t want to do, what they feel comfortable with, or uncomfortable with, and that they show a sense of understanding when they need to leave someplace.
A person can work for a few months here, and then quit and move to another job to gain more experience and obtain a variety of skills.
Being fired just simply says that they weren’t good at the job.

You are 18, it was a part-time job, you were there for six months. You omit both options.

Work experience:

January – July 2012; Worked part-time at Joe Idiot’s Store as a saleswoman, cleaner, server, etc.

I would read that as commendable since you were, I presume, a student for part of the time.

Wait until next spring to check in.

I agree with @gailcalled. To answer your title question, though, it is always better to quit than be fired. Leaving on your own—especially if you can say it was for some perfectly understandable reason, like leaving for college—looks much better than having to say “they terminated me for lackluster performance.”

You are allowed to plead your case in a work situation. But if I were you, I would formally resign my position before explaining that your coworkers misrepresented you. This puts you in a better position because it makes it clear that you are not acting out of desperation to keep your job or anything like that. Your only motivation is to let the truth be known.

After telling your boss that you were misrepresented, you might say something like: “Despite the unfortunate behavior of my coworkers, I enjoyed working here and would be willing to consider doing so again next summer. Perhaps I will contact you in the spring to see if you will need any help.” This places you above the negativity and again puts you in a stronger position.

Thank you, @SavoirFaire. I appreciate the fact that you read at least some of the question (haha) and responded to other questions I’d posted. I also appreciate the advice.

Having never quit before, what would be a good, polite way to word it? Saying “I’m quitting,” sounds like I’m giving up, which is what I got my shifts taken away for. Since some of the other managers and I joke around a lot, I thought if I saw them, I’d say something like, “I guess there’s no better time than now to give my two weeks’ notice. . .” Or should I be more professional and say I’m “resigning,” the way you said?

Keep it straightforward and skip the loaded words; “It am sorry not to have had the chance to work for the next two weeks.”

“I have enjoyed working here in spite of some minor misunderstanding.”

“Do you have a minute for me to clear the air?”

Mention them briefly

“I hope that I can re-apply after school finishes next year.”

How old are you?

It sounds to be like you’ve already been fired. If your boss gave away your last two week’s worth of shifts, then that means he’s letting you go. It’s too late to quit at that point.

I wish I knew what the job was and what type of company it was so I could answer this better, but I’m assuming it was a sales or cashier job. Honestly, you haven’t been there very long, and any part-time job you get in college probably won’t care whether you have experience or not just because many students will be coming in with no work experience.

I wouldn’t put it on my resume at all. At your age, the majority of restaurants/stores don’t even expect you to have a resume. Even if you do, they’ll probably look at the actual application rather than the resume that has one tiny little part-time gig on it. This first job isn’t going to break you or ruin your future, that’s for certain.

In general, it’s better to quit than get fired from an employers point of view. Both are negative unless you leave one job for a better job or for school or something. And to be honest, when you put your last employers contact info on a resume, and IF your potential new employer calls, your old boss can only legally confirm the dates in which you worked there. He shouldn’t say anything else, by law. But like I said, it’s only your first job, I wouldn’t worry too much about it.

It looks better to have quit. For sure. You just have to say that you quit to get ready to go back to school.

@flash74686 You are most welcome! In response to your latest questions, I think the polite way to quit while still being straightforward is to go in and speak to your boss in person. Say “I just wanted to formally give you my two weeks’ notice; and if you have a moment, can I speak with you about something?” I don’t think I’d joke about it because being formal is yet another way of keeping your position strong. It says “this is my decision.” Humor can be misinterpreted in situations like this as an attempt to deflect shame.

If your boss accepts the invitation to speak with you further, that’s when you can talk about being misrepresented by your coworkers. I would personally start out by putting it in neutral terms such as “I think there has been a miscommunication about my dedication to this job” and then explain myself. While you know that the real problem is others misinterpreting you, stating the issue more neutrally and not laying the blame on anyone is more professional. Let your boss be the one to conclude that your coworkers made a mistake.

This would mean slightly modifying my suggestion about how to close your explanation. Above, I suggested saying “despite the unfortunate behavior of my coworkers, I enjoyed working here and would be willing to consider doing so again next summer.” You could still say this if your boss appears sympathetic after you explain yourself, but it could be a bit too strong. Alternatively, then, you could simply say “despite this unfortunate miscommunication, I enjoyed working here and would be willing to consider doing so again next summer.”

I still like “perhaps I will contact you in the spring to see if you will need any help,” though. It is strong, but not too strong. Saying that you hope you can reapply next year sounds too pleading to me, and it provides another opportunity for your boss to think you are accepting blame. You have a better chance of being welcomed back next year if you can dispel the impression that you are leaving because you’ve done something wrong. Besides, it’s not worth staying at any job that requires you to plead for it if there are any other options.

Now, you also asked about obtaining references. Just as it is better to quit than be fired, it is easier to get references from a job you left voluntarily than one from which you were dismissed. From what you have said so far, it sounds like you have multiple people who could be called your supervisors. If this is correct, then you can simply approach those with whom you are on the best terms and ask them for permission to use them as references. Do not be afraid to ask straightforwardly whether they are willing to give you positive recommendations. It is not unprofessional to ask this, and it would be unprofessional of them to lie about it.

(Hint: this will also be true in college if and when you need to get recommendations from professors. It is never impolite to ask whether or not someone’s recommendation would be an asset to whatever application you are preparing. People who are offended by the question are not worth asking and tend to give bad recommendations anyway.)

@livelaughlove21 With all due respect, I have to disagree with two things you said. First: if @flash74686 has not been formally terminated, it is not too late to quit. That’s why you see those scenes in movies where people say “you can’t fire me, I quit!” Films are fictional, of course, but here the fiction has a foundation in reality. Unless all of the paperwork has been prepared in advance—which managers tend not to do unless they are firing someone for stealing or other dubious behavior—workers can typically forestall being fired by quitting. Even in a right to hire state, a formal notice of resignation trumps a formal notice of termination when delivered first.

Second: it is not at all true that a previous employer can only confirm your dates of employment. This is a pervasive myth, but is exactly that—a myth. While previous employers are typically careful about what they say to avoid potential lawsuits for slander, legally they can say almost anything they want. Indeed, the most common question asked by potential employers when calling previous employers is “would you hire this person again?” and that question can be answered without incurring any significant legal risk. Another common one is “did this person leave voluntarily?” which is to confirm that the potential employee filled out the application honestly.

I dunno why you guys are all arguing about this.

It was a job the kid held for under 6 months… I wouldn’t even waste my ink putting it on a resume.

@True for you as an adult, but this young woman is just beginning to learn about life after high school. In a real sense, she and we are doing a seminar on on-the-job-training and life-with-nasty-people training. I wish I had had more of it when I was 18; I would have stumbled about less.

@tedd I don’t see anyone arguing. I see some advice being given and some claims being corrected, but no arguing. Fluther is a Q&A site, and we are answering the question. Besides, one of the reasons we do not delete questions after a week or two is because the archive might be useful in the future to people in similar situations; but the next person might not be in the situation of leaving a job held for only six months. Thus it is worth covering all aspects of the question even if @flash74686 could get away with omitting this job entirely from all future job applications.

@SavoirFaire I meant why are they going back and forth debating the better option (ie, arguing). Just cuz it’s not like swearing and yelling and name calling as it often becomes on here doesn’t mean it’s not an argument.

But I appreciate you making half your post off topic, and causing me to make an entire post off topic.

@tedd I have no issues with the direction these answers have taken. Like @gailcalled said, I’m still learning, and every point that’s been made has been helpful to me. I highly appreciate all of their time and effort, especially the back and forth. I probably learned more with this question than I would have if I’d asked my parents. Special thanks to both @SavoirFaire and @gailcalled