Time For A Change

If you are a reader or stalker, you've seen me allude to some change coming for me and Sharkey. If you are family and live in the Midwest, heck I just discussed it with you this past weekend. Or if you read comments, you know I've already started the ball a rolling. So here's the scoop for the rest of you.

I have worked for the same IT company, which will go unnamed (don't want to get Dooced!), for 10 years. I started out doing technical support and climbed the ladder. I have always been a pretty good problem solver (the Applied Mathematics degree wasn't just all fluff ya know....hahaha). I became very proficient in solving issues, I was resourceful and found a way to do just about whatever I needed to do. See, if I am presented with a seemingly impossible problem, I can pretty much figure out a workable solution in my head. See you learn the rules to a point where you know them so well, you can break all of them. Also, since I did technical support for 4 years that gave me a lot of experience in dealing with people. Those two good skills led me to the next thing, critical accounts.

What's that you ask? Well, when things break down for clients, as things do, and when they get to the point where they have had all they can take and are ready to two step it out the door and take their business with them, someone has to swoop in and save the day. That person was me. It was high stress, but when you pull the first one out of the fire and get them to the point where the business is saved and the relationship is restored, there is no better feeling of accomplishment. You made a difference. You did the impossible and knocked it out of the ballpark. I pulled off some pretty cool things and learned a lot of skills doing that job and it gave me a decent reputation company wide. It put me on the map, because I never lost an account I was assigned. But like with all things, you find that the first 10 times you do that job of flying in and saving the day everything is great, but there's always another one lining up to take its place. It's really not easy to be Superman, just like the song by Maroon 5 says.

So 3 years ago I made a change. I went from doing a supporting role to an implementation type of role. Instead of dealing with clients on the problematic side, I got to have them when they were new. It was a sweet change too. Again, I learned a lot, and I was able to see the other side of the business. And I was able to do things no one ever did before. See the team I joined was a brand new team. There were no existing processes, no set precedents, no methods that were given to us. We came up with them all from scratch. I was able to be a founding member of that team and it was very cool. Again, the problem solving came in handy. I worked out 4 new processes to perform technical implementations which are still in use today. I had without a doubt the best manager I ever had and we became one of the best teams in the company. Great stuff right? Well, like all things change is inevitable.

My manager left a few months back. I had interviewed for the position and I'm about 99.9% sure it was mine, but I withdrew from the selection process, because of the fit and the lack of support given to the position. I do want to manage someday, but not under the the circumstances that existed. I was good with the decision I made. But I've gotten to the point where I'm bored day to day with what I do. STRIKE ONE.

Also, it's sad, but since the departure of "the best manager I ever had" my team is starting to succumb to mediocrity. I cannot stand that. I am about doing the right thing and being accountable. I do think that's unreasonable and I do not hold anyone to a standard I myself would not uphold. This slip makes my head explode. You do the job completely, do it right, and you do it consistently, every time. My father instilled this in me as well. Before he passed away, he told me "never settle for just doing something to just get it done, do it above and beyond; you do it better and cleaner and make a difference." That's stuck with me. STRIKE TWO.

I went to work today and had a review with my current manager. It seems that my company decided to eliminate a grade level, which happened to be the grade I was to be promoted into for 2007. So what exactly does that mean? Well, this year I was rated with the highest marks for my position, but I cannot advance because there's no place for me to advance to. STRIKE THREE.

So with the course of these events taking place I realized today I cannot sit idly by and wait for things to get better or more interesting. It's time for me to leave and go a different way. I'M OUT. Fortunately and quite recently, I have found there are a few good companies who seem to think my skills are of interest to them. So by next week, I am hoping to write you all a new post entitled: "JP's New Career." Keep your fingers crossed people. More to come on this folks....