A recent college graduate was thrust into the world of employment after a lengthy job hunt only to be fired within five days. Her experience is bringing people out of the woodwork to commiserate about how companies and hiring processes seem to work these days.
Sierra Desiray Frederick (@sierra_fred) told TikTok viewers she had been looking for a job related to graphic design or social media marketing since graduating from college last August. But when she finally scored a position, the alleged training process turned out to be a joke, she says.
“In those five shifts, I spent probably…three or four out of those five days doing nothing. Because there’s two other people on my team and they didn’t know how to train me,” she says. “Every day it was like, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to give you today,’ or, ‘Oh, I don’t know what to show you today.’”
Throughout two videos, Frederick details getting shown the same training videos over and over and not having access to the specific software she was supposed to be learning for the job, among other issues. She says it got to the point where she had planned to talk to someone in charge about what was going on—but instead walked into work the second week to find the CEO waiting for her at her desk.
“And he goes, ‘We’re letting you go. It’s just, you’re not working out,’” she recalls. “’We’re going to continue our search for somebody.’ I’ve been there for five days. Barely been trained. And I’m not working out?”
Anyone who’s had to job hunt in recent years probably knows how brutal things are out there. According to Zippia, it can take between 21 and 80 job applications to get a single job offer—and that doesn’t even mean one worth taking. Complaints about job listings for “entry-level” positions with low pay and the expectation of years of experience have become more common, as have many other frustrations. And apparently, poor training experiences are one of the issues that Frederick’s commenters understand well.
“Not having an onboarding process/schedule is now a red flag for me,” wrote @ehemen1746. “If I don’t get a schedule for first week, I know you’re a mismanaged business.”
“Most jobs training today is: Figure it out yourself. It’s amazing. 30 years ago we had trainers,” @breezylouise2 shared.
Several people claimed to have been fired under similar circumstances, and at least one viewer suggested it may have just been a workaround because “an employee wasn’t vibing with” her and therefore “didn’t bother to really train” her. If that is the case, Frederick likely dodged a bad work environment—but it doesn’t change the frustrations surrounding trying to find a job in today’s world.
“Literally every job these days wants you to be pre-trained with 5 years of experience- design jobs particularly,” @aislinkorvin lamented.
@sierra_fred i still dont know what happened. live love adulting #aldis #what #gotfired #lol ♬ original sound – Sierra Desiray Frederick
Frederick is already back on the job hunt after venting to TikTok, though she admits, ” I still dont know what happened,” in terms of what went down with this last attempt. And hopefully whatever employment she finds next will actually bother to train her—something most people agree is the best way to ensure workers know what they’re doing.
“I didn’t realize my job had to be perfect the first time I did it,” she quips, “so that’s my bad.”
The Daily Dot has reached out to Frederick via TikTok comment.
