I've been moved at work. A year after my former boss the VP told me he thought I should be in the other building, the small crowded building with the call centers, it finally happened. I've been dreading it, but nothing I said would make any difference. It's loud in here, there are frequent distractions, and a lot of my job is analyzing, which ideally would require thinking and concentrating. My job title is Analyst, after all.
And I don't have the same boss anymore. Despite the fact that I work with multiple departments, my former boss the VP has decided that I should report to the director of one of the departments. There is a whole other operations/technical department and they are the obvious fit for my position. I have spoken to the two heads of that department and they agreed and said they would love to have me, but again, my former boss the VP doesn't agree. Coincidentally, that department is in the other, quiet building.
I got the news while sitting in a meeting with the director guy - my former boss the VP came in and said that, if I didn't already know, I wasn't reporting to him anymore, I was reporting to the director. If I didn't already know? How could I have known?
So here I am in the noisy and crowded call center reporting to a person who doesn't understand what my job is, exactly, and whose department is only one part of my job.
I've worked here for a little over three years now, and it's really a good company. The benefits are decent and it's a growing, obscenely profitable company. I'm hoping to possibly get a promotion... and I'm hoping that will mean more money for me.
In the time I've been here I've gotten much better at many aspects of working in an office. I can be aggressive when I need to, taking charge of meetings, standing up for myself, blah blah blah. I am quite a wimp by nature so it has been really good practice for me to be in a situation where I have to take control and make things happen. (I failed to win the battle of where I would sit and who I would report to, but it wasn't for lack of aggressive trying on my part.)
I've also learned about selling. I am not a natural salesperson, but now I understand the importance of sales techniques in everyday life. Really, in just about every interaction with other people you are trying to sell them on you, to some degree.
My Dad was a great salesperson. He worked in department stores and opened up two women's clothing stores of his own. But then he decided to move back to VA to raise me, and he transitioned into a broker position, where he sold stocks and retirement plans. He worked with a lot of the universities and community colleges in the southwestern VA area.
Looking back on it now, I can see what he was doing - as he got older and closer to retirement, he was smart enough to realize he needed continuing income without having to continue to work for it. After he retired he got commission for years and years from the sales he had made, in addition to his Social Security and his Veteran's benefits.
What a cool guy. I sure wish I could talk to him about it now, and ask questions.
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label job. Show all posts
Sunday, October 11, 2015
Monday, July 30, 2012
Congratulations Are In Order. Kinda.
While I was in GA visiting Mom, I saw on my iPhone that I had a message from a recruiter who'd seen my profile on a social networking job site. At my last job, I used two main programs for the majority of the decade I spent in the Call Center Operations department, and apparently they were looking for someone with experience in both.
I emailed back, they didn't answer. A couple of days after I returned to Orlando I figured why not search for the job and apply? I was clearly qualified. Even though it was not at all the kind of job I was hoping to find. I applied online and sent my resume early afternoon on Wednesday, and they called me and did a phone interview about an hour later.
Good grief, someone really does look at those applications/resumes, apparently.
They asked me to come in for an interview the next day. Well, okay, I said, thinking it would be good practice. I'd been applying for writing/editing jobs, but hadn't had any interviews.
It was a nice building, and I know it's a good, profitable company. But it took me around 40 minutes to get there, and that was with paying $6 in tolls. No thanks. At that point I was positive that I really, really didn't want the job.
The recruiter called me 10 minutes after I left the interview to ask me to come in on Friday for a second interview. Well, okay, I said again. Who knows what'll happen, might as well go ahead.
Friday I interviewed separately with five different people, I was there for more than two and a half hours. At one point, I started to feel guilty for wasting their time. I really, really didn't want this job. When I left my old job, everyone kept telling me that this was my big chance to change directions, to stop putting numbers in spreadsheets and be creative, to find my joy, etc. I want to be creative!
They didn't ask me typical interview questions, they all focused entirely on what I knew and what I could do. Asking me about two programs I had literally used daily for nearly a decade was no biggie. I wasn't remotely nervous, since I really, really didn't want the job. I demonstrated my knowledge of the scheduling program easily, at one point leaning over the interviewer's desk and pulling up a screen on her computer to illustrate exactly what I (and the program they don't know how to use) could do. I think they were impressed.
A couple of hours later they called and offered me the job, at a more than 30% salary increase over what I had been making. My first thought was: Oh crap, now I have to take it.
I spent the weekend agonizing. Greg kept telling me that it was completely my decision, we'd be fine either way, and he'd happily support whatever I decided. It's a lot of money and we need money, I said. We just paid off both our cars and all our credit card debt, he said. Who knows when I'll get another job offer, I said. You are an intelligent and talented person and you'll find another job, he said.
I consulted with friends, and finally decided that it would be better to take it. I can keep looking for a more creative job, and a job closer to home, and I'll be looking from the position of an employed person who makes more money.
Here's the thing. Back in 2008 Greg had a job he really liked, where he serviced medical hoods and clean rooms. That sounds kind of boring, but it wasn't; he got to work at places like NASA, and he really enjoyed the analytical side of it, figuring out what was going wrong and fixing it. He took a lot of classes and had expert, technical knowledge about the field, he was good at it. But then he lost his job right at the point where the economy was taking its downturn, and he couldn't find anything else. After looking for several months our savings had run out, so he took the only job he could find, and since then he's been driving a local delivery truck, delivering sign-making equipment.
He doesn't hate it, but it's boring. He doesn't get to use his brain anymore. It's not the kind of job where he really feels like he made a difference when he comes home at night. But I love him so much for it. I know people who made the decision to stay unemployed when they couldn't find anything good, but Greg knew we couldn't live on my paycheck alone, so he did what he had to do to take care of us.
Now it's my turn. I'm taking this job, and it's Greg's turn to start hunting for something better.
I emailed back, they didn't answer. A couple of days after I returned to Orlando I figured why not search for the job and apply? I was clearly qualified. Even though it was not at all the kind of job I was hoping to find. I applied online and sent my resume early afternoon on Wednesday, and they called me and did a phone interview about an hour later.
Good grief, someone really does look at those applications/resumes, apparently.
They asked me to come in for an interview the next day. Well, okay, I said, thinking it would be good practice. I'd been applying for writing/editing jobs, but hadn't had any interviews.
It was a nice building, and I know it's a good, profitable company. But it took me around 40 minutes to get there, and that was with paying $6 in tolls. No thanks. At that point I was positive that I really, really didn't want the job.
The recruiter called me 10 minutes after I left the interview to ask me to come in on Friday for a second interview. Well, okay, I said again. Who knows what'll happen, might as well go ahead.
Friday I interviewed separately with five different people, I was there for more than two and a half hours. At one point, I started to feel guilty for wasting their time. I really, really didn't want this job. When I left my old job, everyone kept telling me that this was my big chance to change directions, to stop putting numbers in spreadsheets and be creative, to find my joy, etc. I want to be creative!
They didn't ask me typical interview questions, they all focused entirely on what I knew and what I could do. Asking me about two programs I had literally used daily for nearly a decade was no biggie. I wasn't remotely nervous, since I really, really didn't want the job. I demonstrated my knowledge of the scheduling program easily, at one point leaning over the interviewer's desk and pulling up a screen on her computer to illustrate exactly what I (and the program they don't know how to use) could do. I think they were impressed.
A couple of hours later they called and offered me the job, at a more than 30% salary increase over what I had been making. My first thought was: Oh crap, now I have to take it.
I spent the weekend agonizing. Greg kept telling me that it was completely my decision, we'd be fine either way, and he'd happily support whatever I decided. It's a lot of money and we need money, I said. We just paid off both our cars and all our credit card debt, he said. Who knows when I'll get another job offer, I said. You are an intelligent and talented person and you'll find another job, he said.
I consulted with friends, and finally decided that it would be better to take it. I can keep looking for a more creative job, and a job closer to home, and I'll be looking from the position of an employed person who makes more money.
Here's the thing. Back in 2008 Greg had a job he really liked, where he serviced medical hoods and clean rooms. That sounds kind of boring, but it wasn't; he got to work at places like NASA, and he really enjoyed the analytical side of it, figuring out what was going wrong and fixing it. He took a lot of classes and had expert, technical knowledge about the field, he was good at it. But then he lost his job right at the point where the economy was taking its downturn, and he couldn't find anything else. After looking for several months our savings had run out, so he took the only job he could find, and since then he's been driving a local delivery truck, delivering sign-making equipment.
He doesn't hate it, but it's boring. He doesn't get to use his brain anymore. It's not the kind of job where he really feels like he made a difference when he comes home at night. But I love him so much for it. I know people who made the decision to stay unemployed when they couldn't find anything good, but Greg knew we couldn't live on my paycheck alone, so he did what he had to do to take care of us.
Now it's my turn. I'm taking this job, and it's Greg's turn to start hunting for something better.
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