i've been at this new job for about a month and already i'm trying to take it over
currently the sales and support model are jumbled it's been this way since my company was bought prior to me joining roughly a year ago and the transitioning is still happening only recently has the flagship company started taking apart pieces of control
1 - they took a few employees requiring hiring to replace those taken 2 - they took admin rights requiring approvals for all new hire things which resulted in my lost of 3 days trying to get access to all the stuff i need to work with 3 - they haven't taken everything fully yet! so there's parts of things here and there left untouched and no ones really paying attention so it goes by unnoticed until someone starts the migration progress in which the hiccups result in 30+ emails about the same issue on 20 different threads
so what i'm doing is i'm trying to set some standards as far as support is concerned - we've escalated to being the best support in the industry and thats not entirely due to me, but i'll take credit since i'm here haha
first i've already suggested to my boss a set of candidate types to look for he was previously only looking for users w/ experience but after interviewing a few, they seem unqualified to breathe the same air as me some people beef up their resume so much with "experience" that when they come in to interview, they can't prove their experience that's quite annoying
so i suggested interviewing candidates who'd just be good at customer service and communication and i suggested that we might need our own internal hr to help us hunt for such employees and i also suggested setting up a tiered support system all of which are to be considered but probably wont be implemented til after the next full version release
so thats where i stand now my proposed 3 level system: level 3 - all general questions level 2 - advanced questions level 1 - priority customers and specialty customizations/patches i told my boss indirectly that i wouldn't mind being the supervisor/manager of level 3 tech support that way he'd be tech support department manager and manager of level 1-2 tech support because as far as responsibilities go, i'm expected to perform at level 1 status right now and i've only had a month to work with the product i'm proud to say that i've completed about a half dozen level 1 cases but mainly focusing on level 2, but also responsible for 100% of the level 3 cases right now
hopefully my boss will be able to get back to me on that i'd like to see where i stand as far as a quick advancement even though i'm a thorough advocate of chaos i find that there needs to be at least a minor system for the chaos to be funneled
anyways, thats my life right now... work to the nth degree trying to set it up to the point where if i were to leave, they'd regret letting me go
the start of a new job is always a hassle... but for some reason i get the lighter load of that hassle most people spend their first few weeks doing training or what not with someone who's been around not me... here's been my life since leaving my old job:
4 day weekend in Irvine/SD
day 1 (wednesday) - meet assignment boss, meet some people in office, get brief overview of role day 2 - find out assignment boss is out on paternity! halfway through the day, i'm told that i need to go play bocce ball and drink beer *OH MY* day 3 - twiddle thumbs as my user account which was supposedly made the day i interviewed was not working... kept calling helpdesk asking for admin rights - but under new ownership, flagship company retains rights *rejected*
week 1 complete
day 4 - learn that the support dept my boss manages is losing a member, strategically move into his role to help the support team since i still don't know the full details of my role - work my magic on a few customers, get noticed as a great addition to the team... blah blah blah **basically work my way around with support since the other dev guys thing i'm just a sudo user**
week 2 complete
week 3 = nightmare week spent all week working on supporting 1 customer - now at this point, the support team was 3 members (including me in the count) so with my time tied up on 1 customer, the other 2 guys had to take all the call flow but i get noticed for my patience in dealing with the customer week 3 = nightmare week + free lunch week for all hardwork done, QA manager treats to free lunch all week!!
week 3 complete
mon - strange guy comes to talk to me, unfamiliar face but he knows name... omg! it's my boss LoL shaved scruff, couldn't recognize... feel like putz, but whatever, he heard bout the good stuff i done... ray of sunshine split by bad luck cloud - spilt coffee on my work laptop - ran the regular fire drill for drying out laptop = disassemble, hang dry, reassemble
tue (today) - day started good... but apparently still cursed - coffee spilt on laptop again...
right now i'm wishing i hadn't spent my time trying to find another job i've been thinking about leaving my job for so long... like really really been unhappy with it because of all the grunt work i end up doing like moving stuff in storage from past techs who don't know how to throw stuff out building storage shelves - if i had a say, i'd point to my contract and show how it says i'm a tech! but i never had a real contract w/ this company - not one that set what my job entails such a disorganized environment where there's no real policys for anything no set patterns to follow - just get the job done, keep the customers happy, blah blah blah and then random calls - when i'm not supposed to even be on the call list especially when its like 2am and on a monday morning - thats the worst way to start a week wake up to a ringing phone and hear that its work
before i put in my 2 week notice, i did the cautious thing sent my resume everywhere, did interviews... basically lived a double life put enough time in at work, but leave enough time to look for other work that in itself was a lotta work
and while this was going on, i realized that i hate planning ahead sure i'll plan ahead if it's for something possibly fun but i really really hate having things planned out plannings my worst enemy - having plans keep me from the chaos i love i miss the uncertainty in my life, it fueled me and made things exciting it must have started about 3-4 years ago when i left irvine i lost the knack for spontaneity - i lost my fun carefree attitude like it sucks living on a budget, but it sucks more that it came at the cost of who i was at least with nordstroms i had a changing schedule, so things aren't the same everyday but here in the office world, it's the same thing, like ground hog's day but w/o bill murray
and in the end, i'm my own worst enemy with a few opportunities open... i coulda had that time to be spontaneous again i coulda set the starting date later i coulda held out on signing til the last day the offer letter was good for but so many people gripe about having a backup plan and what not that i ended up thinking - and i hate thinking! cuz when i think-- i start to doubt myself the conclusion's always the same - gotta work to have the money to play cept because i work, i end up losing the time to play, so what good is the money?
it's like i'm stuck in a safety zone... i look at my friends and family - and i don't really see anyone who's really happy my mom's been trying to get a retirement my dad just can't stay around the house or he'll go nutty my brothers don't act like they are happy its like i don't see smiles - and when i do, it's a forced smile even my lame jokes seem to have no effect on peoples
but i been re-reading the parts i skimmed over in randy pausch's "last lecture" and it's given me some incite on my life... and i put it into perspective i'm not terminally ill... but i'm not doing a lot of things that would make me happy there's so much out there i could be doing i think there's a buncha dreams i haven't lived yet and i don't even know if i'm living any of my dreams right now sometimes i feel like just throwing away a lot of what i've built up and just living the dream... whatever it is
things aren't always on the sweet side of the bell curve and when i feel i need to be on that sweet side... i don't really get motivated to working for it it's my brick wall - i don't think i have the desire to do anything anymore most likely, when i'm done complaining, i'll just go back to being a drone sucks being the worker bee
