And now as promised, the good news
If you don't feel like reading this whole story, just skip to the bottom.
I've been with my company for just over a year now (Last Wednesday was one year exactly). For those of you who don't know, my degree is in Computer Engineering, which means I basically want to go into hardware design or coding. The job I have, however, is little more than phone tech-support. Back in the beginning of December, there was a big meeting and it was announced that There would be several positions opening up, including 3 on a brand new group, the Maintenance Group. The purpose of the Maintenance Group would be to track down the bugs that cause our contact center (where I am right now) to receive lots of calls, and patch them up. This isn't really what I want to do, but it's a big step forward from where I am right now. What I really wanted of the new positions that were being created was one of the account team positions. The account teams are the groups that work with the existing customers to create modifications to our software to better suit their needs. This means designing, writing, and testing new code. This would be a huge step up for me.
So, I went and talked to my boss (who would be in charge of the maintenance group), and also his boss (who was the one who held the meeting and announced the new positions). I basically asked them how many of these new positions they would be looking to hire internally. The answer I got back was "one of the positions on the Maintenance Group." I didn't find this incredibly heartening, since there would be at least 4 of us who would all want that position, and since it's still technically within the Contact Center, that person would still be relegated to phone support if it gets busy (which it almost always is). However, after talking it through with them, I began to be convinced that this position would probably not end up doing that much phone support. They also told me that the real plan was to most likely go with seniority, and move me into the maintenance group in January, and then move our 2nd shift guy (who started 2-3 months before me) in as soon as they'd hired and trained his replacement, although nothing was official yet.
So, I began to look forward to moving to that group. Mike (2nd shift) and I get along really well, and the two guys who would be decided amongst for the group lead position are both pretty cool and could be great to work with. Last week, my boss told me that they were just waiting to get a group lead, and then they'd start looking at who to move into the group, and hoped to be done by the end of the week. However, Friday rolled around, and there was still no announcement about who the lead would be. I talked to my boss about it on Friday morning, and he said to just hang tight, so I figured, great, it's going to probably be at least February before they even decide anything (last summer there was a position that we all applied for, interviewed for, and then proceeded to hear nothing for a month until we were told they'd decided not to go that route... this looked to be more of the same). So I hunkered down, and prepared myself to just wait it out and hope they decided to follow through with the original plan.
Friday afternoon, my boss called me into his office. He explained that he knew I was anxious to move to the maintenance group, but said that it had been decided that I was NOT going to be a part of it. My heart pretty much sank. If I didn't get this, I was never going to get anything with this company... However, he then told me that the reason that I wasn't moving to the maintenance group, was because it had been decided that I would be moving to one of the account teams. This pretty much floored me. Other than development (which is completely unrealistic), this was my first choice! I was pretty much shocked, because it had been decided that this position would be filled externally, because they were looking for someone with more experience. My boss then proceeded to tell me that if he had his way, I would be staying on the Maintenance Group, but that the account group manager had pretty much heard from all of his guys that I would be a good fit with their group and that they wanted me, and that moving there would benefit the company more than keeping me within the contact center. I was completely thrilled. This was huge.
So, he basically told me that they need to get the maintenance group going, but they still don't have a lead for it, and Mike can't come off of 2nd shift until they train his replacement. So for the next three months (starting yesterday, but starting officially tommorow), I will be running the Maintenance Group on my own, and then in April I will be moving to the account team, and Mike will move into the maintenance group. Yay!
I've been with my company for just over a year now (Last Wednesday was one year exactly). For those of you who don't know, my degree is in Computer Engineering, which means I basically want to go into hardware design or coding. The job I have, however, is little more than phone tech-support. Back in the beginning of December, there was a big meeting and it was announced that There would be several positions opening up, including 3 on a brand new group, the Maintenance Group. The purpose of the Maintenance Group would be to track down the bugs that cause our contact center (where I am right now) to receive lots of calls, and patch them up. This isn't really what I want to do, but it's a big step forward from where I am right now. What I really wanted of the new positions that were being created was one of the account team positions. The account teams are the groups that work with the existing customers to create modifications to our software to better suit their needs. This means designing, writing, and testing new code. This would be a huge step up for me.
So, I went and talked to my boss (who would be in charge of the maintenance group), and also his boss (who was the one who held the meeting and announced the new positions). I basically asked them how many of these new positions they would be looking to hire internally. The answer I got back was "one of the positions on the Maintenance Group." I didn't find this incredibly heartening, since there would be at least 4 of us who would all want that position, and since it's still technically within the Contact Center, that person would still be relegated to phone support if it gets busy (which it almost always is). However, after talking it through with them, I began to be convinced that this position would probably not end up doing that much phone support. They also told me that the real plan was to most likely go with seniority, and move me into the maintenance group in January, and then move our 2nd shift guy (who started 2-3 months before me) in as soon as they'd hired and trained his replacement, although nothing was official yet.
So, I began to look forward to moving to that group. Mike (2nd shift) and I get along really well, and the two guys who would be decided amongst for the group lead position are both pretty cool and could be great to work with. Last week, my boss told me that they were just waiting to get a group lead, and then they'd start looking at who to move into the group, and hoped to be done by the end of the week. However, Friday rolled around, and there was still no announcement about who the lead would be. I talked to my boss about it on Friday morning, and he said to just hang tight, so I figured, great, it's going to probably be at least February before they even decide anything (last summer there was a position that we all applied for, interviewed for, and then proceeded to hear nothing for a month until we were told they'd decided not to go that route... this looked to be more of the same). So I hunkered down, and prepared myself to just wait it out and hope they decided to follow through with the original plan.
Friday afternoon, my boss called me into his office. He explained that he knew I was anxious to move to the maintenance group, but said that it had been decided that I was NOT going to be a part of it. My heart pretty much sank. If I didn't get this, I was never going to get anything with this company... However, he then told me that the reason that I wasn't moving to the maintenance group, was because it had been decided that I would be moving to one of the account teams. This pretty much floored me. Other than development (which is completely unrealistic), this was my first choice! I was pretty much shocked, because it had been decided that this position would be filled externally, because they were looking for someone with more experience. My boss then proceeded to tell me that if he had his way, I would be staying on the Maintenance Group, but that the account group manager had pretty much heard from all of his guys that I would be a good fit with their group and that they wanted me, and that moving there would benefit the company more than keeping me within the contact center. I was completely thrilled. This was huge.
So, he basically told me that they need to get the maintenance group going, but they still don't have a lead for it, and Mike can't come off of 2nd shift until they train his replacement. So for the next three months (starting yesterday, but starting officially tommorow), I will be running the Maintenance Group on my own, and then in April I will be moving to the account team, and Mike will move into the maintenance group. Yay!