I have a meeting tomorrow with a competitor.....I was recommended to them by an acquaintance at a record label.
I wonder how many people leave jobs to go work for the competition? I must look that up later. In any case, I'm pretty excited (and nervous) about getting back in the game. Here is what has been occupying my mind since confirming the time for the meeting:
Appropriate costume - what's normal these days? I hear people no longer wear pantyhose, thank god, but can I go bare legged to a job interview? I have suits that were bought and never worn, but they'd be a bit dated now.....should I wear matchy matchy suit or sling a blazer over a pair of pants? I'm pretty sure that the office is as casual as our own, which means that most people are probably in sweatpants and torn concert tshirts. I know all the rules like "dress for the job you want", "better to be over than under dressed", etc....but still I'd like a more defined idea. Maybe I'll lurk outside their office for a while and watch people come and go. Most of them I should recognize from my online stalking I've done.
Online stalking - so it was the Pres's assistant that called me up and made arrangements with me. Since my search for Pres's name didn't yield very much, I thought I'd try her name. Never know what might come up. I felt a bit gross though, as I've now looked through her entire Flickr slideshow, read every post on her blog, and pretty well know her taste in food, music, pets, etc. The one fun thing that I found was a work-blog she created to chronicle a month of no shaving at the company. That's the blog that gave me a sense of the established dress code at the company (and the youth of the employees). The blog also showed me that the company likes to have a bit of fun and they look like they do things together, and probably are pretty supportive of this kind of online activity. That was pretty cool.
What questions to ask - thanks to Penelope Trunk, I have memorized the one question NOT to ask, as well as decent answers to all related questions.
How to appear enthusiastic without coming off as goofy - I find it hard to strike that balance. When I am enthusiastic, my voice speeds up, I tend to upspeak, and sometimes lose my train of thought. I'm going to have to do some deep breathing before I go in. There's a few schools of thought here on how to set your mind before going into an interview. Some say to think that you absolutely want the job, and do everything you can to ensure you get the job. Whether you accept the offer is a different story, but approach it as if you absolutely want to be hired. The other school of thought is to be slightly removed, and to be at the top of your game, but to appear slightly aloof, as if you have lots of other offers, and you better impress me before I'd consider working here. I most likely can't pull off aloof, so I'll stick with enthusiasm.
Anywhooo, it's almost 8am, and I'd better get a move on. I have to stop and pick up a copy of Best Answers To Interview Questions to stick under my pillow tonight.
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Taking Charge
I'm finally getting around to taking charge of my career. It feels good (and scary) to make some moves that will switch things around.
For five years I've been so happy with my job. I work with wonderful clients, I've had almost complete autonomy in decision making and I've had a chance for great opportunities and for the most part, I've been completely satisfied.
The economy is a bastard though, isn't it? In the last two years we've had so many changes and throughout it all, I've tried to keep a very positive outlook and do everything I can to ignore the signals around me. That all changed in the last week of January when I was asked by the VP of Finance to "come downstairs with me, there is someone that I want you to meet". I was so surprised, I just assumed it was some new client (the VP had some connections to a new artist). The first thing I said was "let me put on some lipstick" - naturally, I thought I was meeting a potential client. What a sucker. I was taken down to HR and laid off. Thanks to my head in the sand refusal to accept all indicators, I was blindsided and walked out of there completely devasted. The rest of the story is typical and somewhat boring but there was an upside. The layoffs (I wasn't the only one) caused such a furor among the clients, as well as some of the higher ups in different divisions who also worked with same clients, that the company scrambled and a week later I was brought back. The jokingly referred to it as "your little vacation". Vacation in hell is what the reality was. At the time, I was on a work visa tied to my job, and my layoff meant that unless I could find another company to sponsor me, I'd have to leave New York. During my "vacation", I was somewhat mollified to hear from two separate clients that the only reason they stayed with our company was because of me - and if I was gone, they'd take their business elsewhere. One very important (but small in revenue) client actually went so far as to call my boss and terminate their agreement.
So a week later I'm back at work. A few other people were hired back as well, but not everyone. I counted my lucky stars and thought that if I could hold out until my application for permanent residence was accepted, I'd be golden.
For the next few months, it was business as normal as cooler heads prevailed and executives tried to put together a workable plan to *not* shut down our division, but to merge it with another division and trim the roster.
We're now through the better part of May, and no plan is in place yet. There has been a lot of talk, but so far, no decisions. What has been decided, but not said out loud, is that the New York office is still going to wind down. They are just not saying it - but all indicators is that we're completely expendable. Any new clients are being managed by the division that is in the head office. Any new work or development is being done by that same division. We're still managing the clients that we always have, but with few exceptions, they are in a static mode and are just finishing out their terms. On top of that, a number of my colleagues who are better at seeing the writing on the wall than I am have left for greener pastures, leaving more work for less people to handle. I am now the employee that has been there the longest, and I've only been there five years. As a senior employee, I've had some hand in dealing with our entire client roster, so as people are leaving, I'm assigned more clients. So now I'm thinking -hey, I'm still here, I've been totally loyal, I still have the most clients of everyone, I should ask for a promotion and a salary review. So after some research, I put my plan together and I approach my new boss. We have a number of conversations and in each, he expressed regret for what's happened (although he wasn't directly involved as as part of the shuffle was made my boss) and delight in the fact that I am coming to him with a solid plan and he seems impressed with my commitment. Promises are made to continue the conversation, and put a plan in place for me. That was back in April. Nothing has happened. Every time I try and nail down a meeting to keep the conversation going, I'm put off. This time, my radar is a bit more finely tuned so I'm not assuming anything. But still, he seems very sincere, and for the most part, I chalk it up to his work schedule.
What's today? May 20th? Yup. Enough time has passed. I proposed a change that I thought would satisfy me and the company, I quantified it, I presented it. I can't do any more. It's clear to me now that the company is not operating on my schedule, and while my boss may have every intent of following through with me on an expanded role, our priorities are different. My priority is to be in a job where I can work hard, do well, earn a decent wage and every once in while be recognized for my contribution. To that end, I've spent some time updating my resume and have started a job search.
I have a few leads that I'm following up on, so who knows what will happen. What has already happened though, is that I'm in charge now. It's about time.
For five years I've been so happy with my job. I work with wonderful clients, I've had almost complete autonomy in decision making and I've had a chance for great opportunities and for the most part, I've been completely satisfied.
The economy is a bastard though, isn't it? In the last two years we've had so many changes and throughout it all, I've tried to keep a very positive outlook and do everything I can to ignore the signals around me. That all changed in the last week of January when I was asked by the VP of Finance to "come downstairs with me, there is someone that I want you to meet". I was so surprised, I just assumed it was some new client (the VP had some connections to a new artist). The first thing I said was "let me put on some lipstick" - naturally, I thought I was meeting a potential client. What a sucker. I was taken down to HR and laid off. Thanks to my head in the sand refusal to accept all indicators, I was blindsided and walked out of there completely devasted. The rest of the story is typical and somewhat boring but there was an upside. The layoffs (I wasn't the only one) caused such a furor among the clients, as well as some of the higher ups in different divisions who also worked with same clients, that the company scrambled and a week later I was brought back. The jokingly referred to it as "your little vacation". Vacation in hell is what the reality was. At the time, I was on a work visa tied to my job, and my layoff meant that unless I could find another company to sponsor me, I'd have to leave New York. During my "vacation", I was somewhat mollified to hear from two separate clients that the only reason they stayed with our company was because of me - and if I was gone, they'd take their business elsewhere. One very important (but small in revenue) client actually went so far as to call my boss and terminate their agreement.
So a week later I'm back at work. A few other people were hired back as well, but not everyone. I counted my lucky stars and thought that if I could hold out until my application for permanent residence was accepted, I'd be golden.
For the next few months, it was business as normal as cooler heads prevailed and executives tried to put together a workable plan to *not* shut down our division, but to merge it with another division and trim the roster.
We're now through the better part of May, and no plan is in place yet. There has been a lot of talk, but so far, no decisions. What has been decided, but not said out loud, is that the New York office is still going to wind down. They are just not saying it - but all indicators is that we're completely expendable. Any new clients are being managed by the division that is in the head office. Any new work or development is being done by that same division. We're still managing the clients that we always have, but with few exceptions, they are in a static mode and are just finishing out their terms. On top of that, a number of my colleagues who are better at seeing the writing on the wall than I am have left for greener pastures, leaving more work for less people to handle. I am now the employee that has been there the longest, and I've only been there five years. As a senior employee, I've had some hand in dealing with our entire client roster, so as people are leaving, I'm assigned more clients. So now I'm thinking -hey, I'm still here, I've been totally loyal, I still have the most clients of everyone, I should ask for a promotion and a salary review. So after some research, I put my plan together and I approach my new boss. We have a number of conversations and in each, he expressed regret for what's happened (although he wasn't directly involved as as part of the shuffle was made my boss) and delight in the fact that I am coming to him with a solid plan and he seems impressed with my commitment. Promises are made to continue the conversation, and put a plan in place for me. That was back in April. Nothing has happened. Every time I try and nail down a meeting to keep the conversation going, I'm put off. This time, my radar is a bit more finely tuned so I'm not assuming anything. But still, he seems very sincere, and for the most part, I chalk it up to his work schedule.
What's today? May 20th? Yup. Enough time has passed. I proposed a change that I thought would satisfy me and the company, I quantified it, I presented it. I can't do any more. It's clear to me now that the company is not operating on my schedule, and while my boss may have every intent of following through with me on an expanded role, our priorities are different. My priority is to be in a job where I can work hard, do well, earn a decent wage and every once in while be recognized for my contribution. To that end, I've spent some time updating my resume and have started a job search.
I have a few leads that I'm following up on, so who knows what will happen. What has already happened though, is that I'm in charge now. It's about time.
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