(no subject)
Hello! I am here, yes! I am here today because an interesting thing happened to me that is a little too personal (and long, if I'm going to be the one telling this story) for Twitter.
First up for a bit of background, I started a new job back in March which is a very big deal for me because I have finally got my foot through the door starting a career I studied my Masters for, in bioinformatics!! I had already had a hard time searching for a job in this position right before covid hit and did not make any progress during covid so I am very excited to share that with you.
Now onto my story. I had just had my 1:1 with the Big Boss discussing some things and I was about to wrap up with, "ok thx bye" right when he says, "Wait, there is something I'd like to talk about. I saw your abstract". It wasn't embarrassment, but I felt something kinda funny. A few months or so back the Big Boss had emailed the team telling us about something like "Innovation Day" encouraging us all to submit our abstract for something innovative. It was a checklist item for me and I submitted one since I had an idea but I knew it was out of scope. I had only been working here for about 5 months or so, I didn't understand enough about everything our company did for me to suggest anything innovative. I wrote what I thought would be good based on my understanding of my role and left it at that. I don't think I was even formal in my abstract!
So I sit there, having to listen to the Big Boss go on about how he was on the commitee ("oh no," I thought) and how I was the only one of our small team who submitted an abstract. He then went on to say since I was in his team, he wasn't allowed to judge in order to keep it impartial. He said they didn't know what to do with my idea because the intent was to receive innovative ideas for R&D, such as "We should use x reagent instead of y". However, my abstract fulfilled the 2 conditions they were looking for: 1) Is it innovative? (Which it was, he comments) and 2) is it good for business? (which it also was). But since it wasn't not what they were expecting, they didn't know how to proceed. He then goes on to say that they ESCALATED it to someone higher up (I can't tell you where higher up because I'm new around here, I've yet to see how things work around here). I'm bewildered at this point of course, because I submitted this idea on a whim and didn't think anyone was ACTUALLY going to go in that much detail for something I sent in for the heck of it. So it was a funny situation when the Big Boss was kindly telling me how the acceptance rate was low, about 45% and that while I pitched a very interesting idea we didn't have the talent to push it to fruition.
I wasn't too surprised since the idea I wrote about IS a lot of work. It was kind of embarrassing that they went to great lengths to take something fantastical I made up very seriously. It was nice, though! I can never have anything bad to say about being treated with such high consideration. I was working from home today but this will be a story I will have to recount when I'm back on site. XD
First up for a bit of background, I started a new job back in March which is a very big deal for me because I have finally got my foot through the door starting a career I studied my Masters for, in bioinformatics!! I had already had a hard time searching for a job in this position right before covid hit and did not make any progress during covid so I am very excited to share that with you.
Now onto my story. I had just had my 1:1 with the Big Boss discussing some things and I was about to wrap up with, "ok thx bye" right when he says, "Wait, there is something I'd like to talk about. I saw your abstract". It wasn't embarrassment, but I felt something kinda funny. A few months or so back the Big Boss had emailed the team telling us about something like "Innovation Day" encouraging us all to submit our abstract for something innovative. It was a checklist item for me and I submitted one since I had an idea but I knew it was out of scope. I had only been working here for about 5 months or so, I didn't understand enough about everything our company did for me to suggest anything innovative. I wrote what I thought would be good based on my understanding of my role and left it at that. I don't think I was even formal in my abstract!
So I sit there, having to listen to the Big Boss go on about how he was on the commitee ("oh no," I thought) and how I was the only one of our small team who submitted an abstract. He then went on to say since I was in his team, he wasn't allowed to judge in order to keep it impartial. He said they didn't know what to do with my idea because the intent was to receive innovative ideas for R&D, such as "We should use x reagent instead of y". However, my abstract fulfilled the 2 conditions they were looking for: 1) Is it innovative? (Which it was, he comments) and 2) is it good for business? (which it also was). But since it wasn't not what they were expecting, they didn't know how to proceed. He then goes on to say that they ESCALATED it to someone higher up (I can't tell you where higher up because I'm new around here, I've yet to see how things work around here). I'm bewildered at this point of course, because I submitted this idea on a whim and didn't think anyone was ACTUALLY going to go in that much detail for something I sent in for the heck of it. So it was a funny situation when the Big Boss was kindly telling me how the acceptance rate was low, about 45% and that while I pitched a very interesting idea we didn't have the talent to push it to fruition.
I wasn't too surprised since the idea I wrote about IS a lot of work. It was kind of embarrassing that they went to great lengths to take something fantastical I made up very seriously. It was nice, though! I can never have anything bad to say about being treated with such high consideration. I was working from home today but this will be a story I will have to recount when I'm back on site. XD