After a month of informationals and interviews, I have accepted a new position with the company I've been with for 3 years. I was beginning to doubt that there were going to be any opportunities for me with the company. I honestly thought that I would have to leave to further my career but it all worked out in the end.
Unfortunately I got to experience the politics that take place at my company. Before this round of interviews, I had heard conversations regarding the office politics, but never experienced it first hand. This changed when I went to my direct supervisor with a position that I wanted to apply for. How it works with the company, I needed to have the approval of my direct supervisor to apply for a new position. This position would have been a 4 level jump. (Most promotions are just 2 level bump). Initially he did not have a response for me. All I got was "I'll need to think about it" from him, this basically translated to "I need to check with my boss".
Later in the day he pulled me aside to discuss the job that I wanted to apply for. He told me that "management" thought that I needed more experience before applying for the position. I inquired what he meant by experience. The response was vague and did not make sense to me. "Management thinks that someone at the level of this job requires more experience." I pushed further to see how much experience would qualify as enough in the eyes of management. The response was another vague and worthless reply. I questioned again if I could apply for the job and the response was, "I won't say you can't, but if the hiring manager calls me I'll have to tell them the concerns the management has." Again, a vague and non-explicit answer. I decided asking questions because none of them were getting concrete answers.
During the rest of the day and evening I thought over the discussion I had with my supervisor. I re-read the job description, requirements, and desired qualities. After careful thought, I decided to apply for the position even though management did not support me 100%. I pulled my supervisor aside the next day to tell him what I planned on doing and the reasoning behind it. My rational for applying was that I met all of the requirements and desire qualities. The only mention of experience in the requirements was to have 2-3 years with the company, I had 3. I also explained that I would feel more comfortable if the hiring manager was the one who made the decision regarding my experience. I was lying or misrepresenting myself on the application. The hiring manager could see and evaluate if my experience level was a deal break. When I told my supervisor about my decision, I met a steady flow of innuendos.
Things my supervisor said:
- It's an ambitious thing to do and ambitious is good.
- It's important to be able to read between the lines and you do that well.
- I've stated my opinion before and stuck my neck out and I got knocked upside the head.
Putting together all of these statements I was able to see a lot about my supervisor. He is afraid of directly telling me to apply because he will get in trouble with his boss (a.k.a. management). After the discussion, I got my resume together and sent it off to the appropriate people. I later talked with a co-worker and she confirmed he made comment to her that I was doing the right thing by applying.
With a large company HR plays a big part in the hiring process. The HR for the department called my supervisor and asked if he supported the change. His response was that he was in a tough spot because management reservations regarding my experience. A day or two later I got an email from HR saying that I was not going to be considered for the position because the length of my experience. I'm not sure if this decision was made by the HR person or the hiring manager. If I had to make a guess, I would say that HR stopped the process before the hiring manager made the decision.
It was at this point that I thought that I may need to look elsewhere to move further in my career. I never wanted to get caught up in these politics. I realized with this experience that from now on it is going to be something I don't have to participate in, but it will have some effect on me. I'll just have to keep an eye on that.
All during these on goings and discussions about experience, I saw that there was a posting for a similar job in the same department. I setup some time to talk with the hiring manager and get more information about the job and area. After talking with the hiring manager, I told my boss that I wanted to apply for this position. He was more receptive to this position because it was a "more natural fit". I interpreted this as "It isn't too big of a jump, so management will support it".
I had an afternoon of interviews and an assessment test for the job. After a couple days, I received a call from the hiring manager. She told me about different position that was going to be available in the department and asked if I would be interested in pursuing that also. I'm never one to turn down an opportunity, so I had her send me the job description. In the back of my mind I had mixed feelings about this. On one hand, I took this as a bad sign for the first job. The hiring manager was trying to pawn me off on someone else. On the flip side, this was a good thing. I must have impressed her as some level to pass my name off to someone else. I was hired three years ago in a similar situation.
Once I got the other job description, I recognized that it was very familiar. Turns out that the department recently changed the level within the area. This job was the exact same as the one I had applied to early but was told that I needed more experience. The only difference is that this job would deal with the routine processes rather than the longer and more complex processes. I find it odd how one week I'm unqualified and a little I am a great candidate for it. I'm sure it boils down to responsibilities of the job and some other things behind the scenes, but I still find it amusing and frustrating on some level.
Turns out that I didn't get the job I originally applied for. I was told that there was no doubt that I could have done a great job, but she thought that it wouldn't challenge me enough. On the upside, I got the job she referred me to. I start on May 1.
I'd be surprised if anyone is still reading this, but I hope you found it somewhat interesting and/or amusing.
