Worried About a Badly Formatted Experience Certificate? How It Might Affect Your Job Hunt

Context: I worked in a small private engineering firm for over 3 years. Throughout my service, I did everything with perfection and even helped other departments beyond my scope upon the owner's requests. Due to unprofessional behavior, I resigned citing personal reasons. The owner didn't want to let me go and tried to convince me to stay, but since I rejected his "future appraisal," he didn't take it well. I was harassed by passive-aggressive behavior throughout the notice period, and in the end, he wrote a terribly formatted experience certificate.

Note: Nothing wrong is written in it. The dates and designation are accurate. However, it is written in extremely small letters, with no punctuation, no capital letters, or even a full stop. It was clearly intentional since he used to be obsessed with the formatting of documents.

Questions:

1. Does this letter's format create a bad image in the mind of any recruiter, employer, or HR?

2. Does it convey that I worked in a company so insignificant that it can't even write properly?

Thanks in advance for your kind opinions.

Hi, Yes, there are probabilities. HR might doubt the genuineness of the document. A prospective employer might carry out a background verification (BGV) process as well. In such a scenario, the feedback from your ex-employer might not be positive (this is my assessment based on your narration).

Yes, the quality of the experience letter also matters. As long as it contains the correct dates and designation, I don't think there is anything to worry about. It ultimately depends on how the future employer perceives it.

Thank you for the help. Interestingly, there was a background verification (physical), and I seem to have passed it. But the issue still bothers me. What is the remedy? The person is so determined to harass ex-employees; he even spies on them and tries to contact their current employers. It seems like something that will bother me forever. It has started to affect my mental health since it's in my head 24/7.

Hi, if you have cleared the BGV, why worry about this? Ignore such issues and join your new employer's office. I don't see any remedy for this.

Employer Grudges

Employers, especially those with monopoly power, may hold grudges for some time, but over a period, their perceptions might change.

Forgive my overthinking nature. It's just that this might bother me in the future. I don't want to miss out on good opportunities later because of something irrelevant from the past. Your response really gives me some relief. Thank you.

This is literally my current situation. I joined as a non-IT undergraduate, overworked like a slave, often even on weekends, day or night. I took on all the extra burdens and responsibilities that were rejected by even all seniors. Thanks to my extremely low self-esteem that always resisted me from saying NO, yet I received miserable treatment and negative reviews solely to get more out of me with little to no wages. It was during the lockdown in 2019. I was politely fooled many times; the entire management was like sweet poison. Leaving was not an easy task. I really had to lie, yet they didn't allow me to leave and extended my notice period because they couldn't find any replacement. They kept leaving one after the other (the same thing happened to many other ex-employees, too, the innocent hardworking ones). But until I got to know about all this, it was too late.

I worked there for two years, joined 6 months before the lockdown. They didn't give us confirmation letters until the lockdown ended, and also very little salary was given. I worked night shifts and partial day shifts due to not having a personal system but a shared one at home.

At the time of relieving, the documents were given after the last day, even the resignation acceptance was given at the last minute after serving my extended notice period. On the documents, THEY EXTENDED my internship from 6 to 12 months, reducing experience count from 1.5 to 1 year. Moreover, the letter had only one sentence written below:

"This is to certify that Ms. XYZ with ID 123 has worked with ABC as per: (altered dates) and designation. His/her final settlement of accounts/payments has been settled, and the company holds no liabilities towards her."

That's it. Not even a word of appreciation at all. I formally put in my papers without burning the bridges, politely lied to keep their egos satisfied in order to get an easy release, yet things were extremely delayed from their end. I basically needed time to study for my higher education, which wasn't possible while working with them at all. So, I lied to get a new job and insisted on a timely release after the notice period as the new employer wouldn't wait any longer. They kept calling and made me do their work even months and years after, calling from different contacts. In the end, I had to block them all.

I was so happy to have gotten out of that place that I didn't notice this earlier. But now, as I'm almost done with my MCA and going to start applying soon, I see how I had been played in the past and how it will reflect on the future. Though I've gained a lot of confidence during these years, such things might indeed create a bad image with a new employer. The only thing I worry about is salary. I really don't want to waste my time again working as cheap labor. Even getting a 300% hike won't be good enough. I work for a 10,000 in-hand salary. 