Tag: Boston

I got a response to my thank you note from that leader who said all those nice things about me at the conference (which I didn’t get to attend). He stated that he meant every word and thought our company had lost a great employee. Then he added a paragraph asking me why I had not talked to anyone about this. Knowing that one of our Diversity Group’s goals was retention, he was struggling with the question of why I wouldn’t bring it up earlier. Why didn’t I come to him?

I must give him credit for the extremely politically correct way he phrased his question. He did not seem confrontational, and it appeared as though he was simply gathering feedback.

My REAL response to that would have been: what was the point? If I had brought it up BEFORE getting an actual offer, and the offer had fallen through, I would have been identified as someone who wants to jump ship, and that may have affected my future in the company (why invest on an employee who has one foot out the door?). If I had said something AFTER getting an offer, then I would have looked as if I was seeking a counter offer, which, again, rarely ever works to the employee’s advantage and almost never results in the employee staying for longer than a year after that.

Speaking up before making a decision was a lose for me, anyway you look at it. Why put myself through that?

But that’s not what I answered. I stuck to my script: I was not looking to leave, I was not unhappy, a friend forwarded me the description and I just couldn’t deny myself my dream of working in a hospital environment. There was nothing my company could do.

However, I did have some feedback for them.

The Diversity Group organization, of which I was a Chapter President for the Boston area, is a great networking vehicle for minorities in the company. We have a strong support group and we do good things for the community. The problem is that the Diversity Group’s leadership is composed of executives that may or many not work in your division. What it ends up being is sort of like working for two completely separate and disjointed organizations: your real work organization, and the Diversity Group organization.

In my case, I was a SUPER STAR in the Diversity Group org. When I said I was leaving I got calls from everybody in that hierarchy: why was I leaving? Why didn’t I talk to them? What could they have done to prevent this from happening? However, I got absolutely no calls from my real work organization. My bosses were very politically correct, said all the right things “we hate to lose you, what can we do to keep you” but there was no passion behind it. After all, I had been a member of the Diversity Group team for 7 years, but had only been at my latest role for 8 months. There was absolutely no attachment to my coworkers, so they didn’t “feel the hit” of losing me the way that the Diversity Group did.

So I told him so. Is there any way to make the Diversity Group feel more like it counts with the support of your real work organization? I could not think of very good suggestions on how to do that, but all I could say was that my manager had NO IDEA that I had a whole list of executives across the business who were shocked at my departure. No clue whatsoever.

Does this help the organization? I would like to think so… the leader replied almost right away thanking me for my thoughtful response, that he would take my points to the leadership for further discussion, and agreed we should have a beer next time he was in town.

So, did I just dig myself into a deeper hole? or did I help retention for that organization?

I just don’t know… I would never advise someone to share feelings about why they left a company with someone who is there. But I felt this was a good point, not personal, that they could really take back and perhaps work on.

I don’t know… I really don’t know…

abi

My exit interview was with my HR manager, over the phone, my second to last day at the company.

Before the interview, they had me fill out a whole survey with questions asking me why I’m leaving, whether I felt supported by my manager, whether I felt I knew the direction of the company, things like that. They were all radio buttons with the options Strongly Agree/Agree/Neither agree nor disagree/Disagree/Strongly Disagree. The best way to fly under the radar is to answer everything as “Agree”. HR tends to ignore those completely. The only ones they probe you on are the ones where you said “Neither agree nor disagree”, “Disagree” or “Strongly Disagree.”

With that in mind, I answered Agreed or Strongly Agreed to everything, except a couple of things, which I answered “Neither agree nor disagree.” One question was about me understanding the growth initiatives in the company. I told HR that I simply wasn’t in a strategic position in the company and their emails went over my head. I did go the extra mile to tell them that I don’t believe everything the leadership says because they have a stock price to worry about, and unless I had time to research our competitors, I really don’t get a good view of where the company is going. I totally could have just answered Agree on this one, who cares about my opinion on this anyway?

The second one was “Do you feel the opportunities in this company are better than opportunities in most other companies.” I explained that I see other companies as different, and I can’t say that my company is the end-all of perfect jobs.

At the end she asked me if there was anything else I wanted to add. I did say that maybe if they wanted to take a proactive approach at retention, they would have noticed that I applied for a job based in Boston (in my same company, different division) early in the year. If they had talked to me about what I was trying to accomplish, maybe it would have come out that I wanted something more local, and the story would have been different. Having said that, I worked remotely from this office happily for 4 years, and it would be hard for you to probe every single employee if they don’t speak up themselves. But that’s just a tip, in case they wanted to get proactive about it. Her answer “did your manager support you in your application for that job?” I said yes, she said “ok, then the process is working right.” And THAT, ladies and gentleman, is why it is NOT worth saying negative things in exit interviews. This was a VERY MILD case of defensiveness, after all, I wasn’t badgering anybody or my job or HR or anything like that, it was a very innocent tip based on a true fact. The response was less than introspective.

Anyways, really not much to tell there, but I thought I’d chronicle it anyway. Best advice is to Agree on everything, and leave with a smile on your face and a Thank You in your lips.

abi

Image Source: http://www.careerfaqs.com.au/resignation-tips/547/Whats-in-an-exit-interview

I thought I’d be happy today, but I am F R E A K I N G O U T instead. Is that weird?

Last night, as I watched TV and made the final touches to the accomplishments video for an upcoming conference, which I will not be attending, I started to “feel it.” The lethargy. The despair. The freak out. These are feelings I had long been avoiding by focusing on other petty things over the past couple of weeks. But there was no dodging it, and there it is, the feeling that comes with radical change.

It is my last day and I don’t really have that much to do. I’ll be returning my computer at the end of the day, I’ll be shipping my phone out to whomever, and I’ll be backing up some files up somewhere where my team can retrieve if they need to. That’s all I have to do… and I’m STILL procrastinating.

Most of the people invited to my goodbye lunch decided that it wasn’t worth it to come into the office, an they opted for working from home today (conveniently). What kind of people are these? Oh well, I don’t like them anyway, the ones who matter did show up (and even organized the lunch for me). Those are the friends I’ll continue to have even after I’m long gone.

With that, I guess I’ll be leaving. No gifts. No hugs. No song. No parade. No matter.

… but I am rocking it tonight at the bar across the street! OH YEAH. Nothing can stop me from getting pissed drunk tonight.

abi

When you decide to leave the only place you have ever worked, the question will always be in the back of your mind: is this the right move? Or are you making the biggest mistake of your life?

This post is meant as a letter to my future self. That person I will become after a year of working in a completely new environment with new people and unexplored challenges. That person who will be so frustrated by the slow pace of decision making (which characterizes a hospital) that she will long for those easy days at her old job when she didn’t have to deal with people at all and nobody could monitor when she came into the office. That is what I foresee my future self to be dealing with in her new job.

Well, future self, this is me (you) still working at your old job, and I’m here to tell you how lucky you are to be working directly in the medical field! You are surrounded by a lot of interesting knowledge and brilliant people who save lives for a living. I (you), on the other hand, am here typing away on my phone just waiting for emails to come in asking me to do things. I don’t really feel like my job matters to anybody, and if I had left 3 months ago nobody would have given a crap.

Sure, I can sleep in for an extra hour when I’ve had a long night, and I could work from home on rainy Fridays, but I HATE working from home! And I hate getting up late because it makes me feel like I already started the day on a stupid and lazy note. I also have friends here in the office who care about me and will continue to be my friends even after I have left. I’m sure you’ll make your own friends. Remember to be kind to people, and to smile.

The main reason I decided to leave was because I really don’t care about this job at all. I do it day in and day out with the sole purpose of getting out of the house. I think I deserve more than that. I deserve to use my skills for something interesting that I just might want to keep learning about even after 5 o’clock rolls around, and I think that’s what you got going for you. Always remember that it might be a “job,” but that doesn’t mean you have to dislike it.

I really hope you are happy out there, and remember the role can be anything you want it to be. Don’t lock it in a box. Make sure you think outside of it. Grow on your own, find out what other hospitals are doing. Are there online communities for health care professionals you could join? Boston is your oyster.

Back to the theme of this letter, I’ll leave you with a few reassuring blasts from the past that will remind you that the grass might be greener in other places, but not in this garden:

• Being thrown into Disaster Recovery exercises in which you have zero background or input and where you end up wicked confused as to what is expected of you.
• Being hounded for lease replacement information that you have no idea how to check if it’s complete, accurate or what it even means.
• Being asked by a certain secretary-less chief to chase after their own staff to get things done. All the accountability, zero power.
• Being disappointed at the turnout of community events you organized because the community members are stand-offish assholes.
• Bullshit talks with your manager about your future in the company when you know full well you have no interest in being here much longer.
• Looking around you and realizing you do not wish you had anybody else’s job. In other words, there is no position, high or low, that you wish you were doing instead.
• Being able to get by, and even be looked at as a star, when you are just half-assing your way through. Talk about unrealized potential.
• People telling you to “tone it down” every year, and you wanting to tell them to shut the fuck up.
• Bullshit talk about change in procedures, how to have productive meetings, how to praise each other, how to manage your career path, when the culture has already made it clear that nothing ever changes, and it’s more about who you know, where you are located, and whose ass you’re kissing.
• Four words: Bullshit Mandatory Technical Training.
• Emails that accumulate by the week loads, which you have no chance to get through if you want to get any work done.
• People printing behind you interminable documents that you know are of a personal nature.
• Getting impossible questions by a certain secretary-less chief. They are stupid, irrelevant, and do not pertain ME at all. But you can’t just say No.

I hope that answers your question. Satisfied?

abi

At around 9am I spoke with HR at The Hospital. I accepted their offer and set a start date of October 25th, which they accepted.

The next minute, I locked myself in a conference room with the phone numbers of: my manager, my second manager, HR, and my VIP leader.

I called my manager first and told him the news. He was bummed that this was happening, but after I explained to him the opportunity, he was more understanding. He wished he had heard about this before, though.

Next I talked to my second manager, who I bet almost had an aneurysm, because our team has been having some bandwidth issues, and she must have gone into emergency mode trying to figure out where the work was going to go. She was supportive, though, said she was going to miss me. Awww.

Next, I called HR. She is on vacation until Tuesday, so I left her a voicemail on her cellphone with the news, and moved on. I would have preferred to talk to her, but our interactions have never been very “personal” so I didn’t really care about tact at this point, it was all business, so I gave her the information she needed to get started on paperwork as soon as possible.

Next, I called my VIP’s desk. The admin told me he was in a meeting and not available for the next 2 hours. I followed up then, but the VIP was busy with an issue. It wasn’t until 3pm that I noticed that neither were online anymore (the VIP or the admin), so I proceeded to pick up the phone and call the VIP’s cellphone directly.

The VIP picked up, and had a few minutes to chat with me. I told him what was happening, and he was speechless. It’s worth mentioning that the VIP has been a fatherly figure throughout my career at this company, and I have always felt an emotional connection to him, somehow. I told him a little bit about the position, and he was shocked. Then I started to cry. He laughed a couple of times, which made things a little easier. It was not a good conversation to have, but he wasn’t judgmental and made it as easy for me as possible. I’m going to miss him the most. Again, he wished he had heard sooner.

The hardest part of the day, ready for the shocker? Was telling The Corporation that I was turning down the job. They were notably upset and did not let me off without a major guilt trip. They didn’t think it was cool that I didn’t tell them I was interviewing in other places, otherwise they would have sped up the process. Again again, they wish they had known sooner.

For all those who are curious, here is what my resignation letter looked like:

Friday, October 1st, 2010

Dear [Manager’s Name],

I am writing to submit my notice of resignation to My Company, effective two weeks from October 1st, 2010. My last day will be Friday, October 15th, 2010.

I am very grateful for all that My Company has done for me throughout my career. My Company gave me the opportunity to see new places, and supported me in my decision to move to Boston to be close to my family. Everything I know about corporate living, information technology, and customer service, I have learned from great managers and coworkers at My Company. Most importantly, I have learned the meaning of what an inclusive and diverse culture can mean for someone’s feeling of belonging in a company.

I would like to thank My Company through you for all the opportunities I have had here. I would also like to extend a personal and warm thanks to you and My Second Manager for giving me such challenging opportunities, and trusting me with complex projects. Your support has made this job a very rewarding ride, and I have learned a lot from watching you be the best managers you can be.

I will work hard over the next 2 weeks to transition my activities on. Please do not hesitate to ask me for anything you need me to pay particular focus to during this transition.

I hope to stay in touch with the amazing network at My Company, and I look forward to our next encounter.

Thank you again,

Abigail Boston
Personal Phone Number
Personal Email Address

The scary part: The Hospital doesn’t give a formal letter until 1 week before starting the job. So, technically, I just quit my job without having anything in writing. Once I realized this, at 5pm on Friday, I called The Hospital’s HRM and left a voicemail asking her to send me an email with the start date, just to have.

What’s done is done. Deep breaths.

abi

I met with 3 members of the IT team today at The Hospital, and I accomplished to get a much better grasp of what the position entails. Then I spoke with HR about the salary position, and they said they would get back to me. Now I just wait and see.

I feel a bit like a fool settling for less money than I earn right now. Is that a really stupid move? I really hope they can do something for me in that respect. I told them I really want the job, and I want to say yes, but I can’t sacrifice so much. I know they understand that, and they do a very good job at arguing their point of view. I hope I was just as effective arguing mine.

The meeting with the team was insightful. I learned that I would be working in the main campus (hospital) while the rest of the IT team was located in an adjacent town north of Boston. It’s actually better than I expected, since I will own user requirements, as opposed to owning the technical requirements, as I always have. Exciting, isn’t it???

I had the opportunity to fill in the (wonderful/amazing) hiring manager on my agenda: I can’t accept the offer the way it is, and they’ll have to do something about it. She seemed hopeful that we might be able to reach an agreement (or at the very least she didn’t sound reluctant). I got the same reaction from HR, plus a little more information: what they offered me is not at the limit of the position, so there is a little more room to offer, albeit not much. That gave me hope, although I don’t wish I were in their shoes: that conversation with the business team to get more money out of them is going to suck.

Now I just wait.

I did hear back from HR at The Corporation, though. They said the offer hadn’t been approved yet, and the VP was scheduled to speak with the CEO next Tuesday. Wow. I am starting to feel less and less bad about saying No to the offer the more they make me wait (3.5 months now). They couldn’t really have expected me to hang around this long, could they have?

At the end of the day I’m pretty happy about the way things are going. I even got a new belt out of it! Betsey Johnson, $14.99 at Filene’s Basement 🙂 I looked so fancy 🙂 I definitely clean up good.

abi

Warning: this is a long and rambling post about a day in my life at work. I just figured I should get the benchmark out there, so you get future references to my job. My promise to you: it will be long, it will be boring, and you won’t learn a single new thing…. hey, that’s funny, that pretty much sums it up for my work days!

My morning routine is where I spend my ME time. For my husband that’s late at night, for me that’s wicked early in the morning. Today, I woke up at 6am after having a very restful weekend. I watched a portion of the movie Gosford Park while I got ready and had breakfast, my husband getting ready in the background (quite unusual for him to be up this early… he kept interrupting my movie-watching!). I was out the door by 7:13am to waltz into my cubicle at 8:07 am.

I skimmed my email for anything important and any meetings set up at the last minute. After replying to a lucky few until 9am, I proceeded to zone out and read a few chapters of my latest Blog obsession: Ah Yes, Medical School.

Somewhere in there a friend at work stopped by my cubicle to tell me about his interviews (external and internal) for new jobs. I reciprocated by telling him about my plan for my own offers: I’ll be meeting The Hospital team tomorrow, and I’ll just tell them that I cannot accept the offer as is. If they would like to work with me on the offer, I’m all ears. If not, I wish them luck and I’ll walk away.

As I wrote this entry, I was also listening into my 9:30 meeting. Have I made it clear yet that 100% of my meetings are over the phone? You should have seen me hunched over my keyboard with my elbows resting on the desk, typing away on my smartphone, while a screen-share was being displayed on one of my two side-by-side flat-screen monitors. Every so often I looked up to catch up. I’d only really be in trouble if they had a question for me, which would be unlikely since it was one of those many meetings where experts talked back and forth and I had absolutely no input whatsoever.

Side note: I got a meeting Decline from someone who decided to not even write a reason for the decline on the reply, and who wouldn’t even bother to propose a new time. I guess it could have been worse… I’ve had people who have responded Tentative to meetings where there are only 2 invitees: them and me. Seriously?!

10am hunger is striking… I’m gonna go grab one of my yogurt cups from the fridge.

– Back to the call –

The 9:30 meeting has ran over by 35min so far. People are very passionate on the call: they are all talking over each other and getting very emotional. At the same time I got an email from someone about a system I haven’t supported in 2 years. Man, what will they do when I leave?

– Call over –

This call went on for 1.5 hours (over by 1 hour). Now I go to my next meeting. When will I get to do some work?

Side note: Mmm I think I’ve gained some weight… My pants are wrapping around my thigh like a strapped pot roast. Maybe I should bring a yoga mat to keep at work so I can do curl ups in my down time. That reminds me, they have a new room in the office where they put weight lifting equipment (there isn’t enough money or justification to have a fully equipped gym on site). Maybe I should check it out at some point today.

– Stretched for 4 min before my 11am meeting –

Wow, 11 am. The morning is almost gone, and I haven’t really done anything of substance today.

It actually makes me quite sad that this job has sucked my ambition totally dry. I guess when you have no real incentive to do an awesome job, and it’s even hard to define what “pushing the envelope” and “going the extra mile” really looks like, you just have nowhere else to go but striving for not getting a bad review. Adequacy is the goal. Sad, isn’t it?

– Noon –

I did it! After my 11am meeting I set out to reply/delete/archive every email since last week. Task has been accomplished! Now it’s noon and I’m gonna go get some goodness for my tummy. I was really bad this weekend (ice cream, peanut butter shake, pop corn for dinner), I mean, my diet is out of control! Time to capitalize on my Sunday workout and get something healthy.

Oh, I also wrote an email to HR at The Corporation for a status update (haven’t heard back in 2 weeks).

– Lunch has been had –

I called up a friend for lunch, but she was unavailable. She left my current employer last year and now has a well paid job at a consulting firm just a few blocks away from my office. I can’t tell whether she’s happy there or not, but I think we both agreed she would still be miserable in her old job. Anyways, lunch was a solo affair.

I went over to California Pizza Kitchen and had a cup of the Asparagus soup and something from their Small Cravings menu, while entertaining myself by reading the Med School Blog. I’ve had lunch by myself so many times that I don’t even think about it anymore… Should I be embarrassed? I am not, so I hope that’s alright with the universe.

As I was walking back in trendy Back Bay, I felt like the saddest young professional woman in the world: I look terrible! I don’t work with anyone in the office, which means I don’t really think twice about my wardrobe, make-up or hair. I was walking down the street with my hair all in a messy and low-hanging pony tail, my slight make up has faded 100%, and my jacket doesn’t match my outfit. All of that combined with my youthful looks, I look like a high school sophomore skipping school in the middle of the day.

I can’t wait to have a job in which I will care about what I wear every day. Looking good just makes you feel good, doesn’t it? Deep sigh.

Ok, back to work. I got meetings from 1:30 to 5PM today. I hope someone cancels one of them.

– Back at the desk –

I got to my desk at 1:10. Reviewed the 10 emails I got since I left for lunch, and just sat here quietly until my 1:30 call. I can’t get much work done in 20 min anyway.

Every so often the printer, which I sit immediately behind, starts humming. It’s always followed immediately by rushing footsteps from across the room. This guy uses the printer CONSTANTLY for personal stuff. I noticed it one time when our print outs got mixed with each other, but it would have been a really easy conclusion to reach even if I hadn’t seen that: after all, he works remotely too! There is no need whatsoever for people like us to be printing work-related materials on a daily basis! Frankly, I care more about the disruption caused by his walking by my desk every hour, than the actual waste of paper resources. Sometimes I’m in a meeting where I do get to speak, and all I hear is the unending rumble of 27-page documents printing behind me.

I’m starting to realize that every single one of my meetings today is one of those “just listen and hear for your name” calls, and I really have to get a newsletter drafted for the Gay Lesbian Transgender Bisexual group (aka LGBT, of which I am an ally and strong supporter). I really gotta find the time for that.

Mmmm… Note to self: when someone in a meeting asks you “How are you coming along?” and you haven’t started work on your action item yet, you should NOT respond with “I am not coming yet.” Laughs ensued, but I didn’t acknowledge the snickers and continued with my status update in a professional manner. Why do I have the feeling this has happened to me before today?… Gah!

– During 2pm call –

I spoke my bit, which was very insightful if I may add, and proceeded to remote-connect to my computer at home to clean up my home email (unsubscribe from offer emails, etc) pretty much out of boredom. Nothing was really pressing for me to clear out.

– 3pm –

I had the pleasure of calling a brave soul who has decided to join as a leadership member in the Latino affinity group, and welcome them to our chapter. Why are they brave? Because, as it turns out, my company doesn’t have enough Latino talent to fill a pea pod, let alone a structured extracurricular organization. Our members are true Bostonians: “Leave me alone and nobody gets hurt” types. I think that will be one of my great joys when I leave: not having to worry about burning myself out coming up with networking events and professional roundtables for that group of ingrates.

– Between meetings –

While trying to figure out what to do between meetings I did a few things: called my husband, rescheduled a meeting, tried to find that story that points out that the silhouette of the Mystery Man in Outlook 2010 is actually Bill Gates’s mug shot (and found it here), determined what’s for dinner tonight, figured out what to talk about in my 4pm meeting, got nervous about what to wear at my interview tomorrow, and just stared at my screen. I’m just not feeling it today. So why do today what can be put off till tomorrow?

I really wish that guy would stop printing shit out.

Is it 5pm yet?!

Alright, let’s check out the weights room.

– Back from weight-lifting –

The room is actually well equipped. I jumped rope for 1 min, did 50 curl-ups, did 10 of those where you hold yourself up and pull your legs up so you make a 90 degree angle between your legs and torso, then 20 weight lifts (5lb) toward the chest, and 20 away towards the back. Mmmm I don’t explain these very well… This is coming from someone who said “work those quads” pointing at someone’s arms 😛 Let’s just say we are all good at something, and this is not my “thing.”

I rocked my 4pm meeting. Say what you will about how boring my job is, but I’m good at what I do.

Now, onto another meeting (joining late because it conflicted with my other 4pm). This is another one of those where I don’t have to speak.

Side note: I remember wanting to be the first to participate in ANYTHING and EVERYTHING that came my way. What happened? Where did the eagerness go?

I didn’t get a chance to work on the LGBT newsletter. I’ll probably just connect from home and whip it together tonight after dinner.

– 4:22pm –

So close to quitting time!

– 4:35pm –

Sorry to be a downer, but these attempts at making these diversity groups important are totally useless. Unless the members are getting something personal out of these, and some may, this whole leadership and networking stuff is just not fulfilling as a leader. All you get is discouragement from members who just want to be left alone. It makes you just want to quit and get all those hours you spent on this stuff back.

Speaking of leadership, I just got an email from my boss to the team asking us to fill out a survey to provide him with actionable feedback. All I do is stupid tasks that contribute NOTHING to my productivity! As you can see from this whole day, I probably did an ounce of useful work. The rest of the time I was stuck in mindless and unimportant meetings where no action was required of me. There has GOT to be a better way to manage an employee’s time!!!

Sigh, look at these questions:

1. My manager genuinely cares about me as a person (strongly agree, agree, disagree, strongly disagree)
2. I can make a positive impact here
3. I feel appreciated and valued
4. I am happy to work here

I should just put “Agree” all the way down the line so as to not skew responses and not draw any attention to my submission (it’s anonymous, but still).

– 4:50 –

Sooooooo close!!!!

– OK! 4:56. Close enough! –

Now I’ll go home (train at 5:15, home by 6), change, watch TV until hubby gets home, make dinner, eat, clean up and get crackin’ on the newsletter while hubby watches Holmes on Homes. Bed by 9:30, and start all over again.**

How was that for a sad sad benchmark of the status quo?

abi

** PS: The train was late, made it home by 6:15pm. Made dinner, cleaned up, did newsletter, bed by 10:30pm.

On August 31st my friend from MBA school, who works at one of the major hospitals in the Boston area (hereinafter called “The Hospital”), sent me a Facebook message asking me if I was interested in getting a job description for an IT job at The Hospital. Since I hadn’t received an offer from The Corporation yet, I figured I was still fair game, and I agreed to look it over.

Certain things stood out from the posting: working directly with clinicians, process mapping of clinical IT use cases, training clinicians on use of software, software enhancements. Wait a minute… working with DOCTORS?? Mapping their use of software??? TRAINING them on using software??? This position couldn’t have been tailored for me any better if I had written it myself!

I mentioned it before, but I have been obsessed with the medical profession for many years. I own a copy of the Gray’s Anatomy book, the MOSBY’S medical dictionary and the big fat MCAT Kaplan book. I wish I had time to study these things on my own, but I never seem to get around to it. My point is that this is an area that just calls my name!

On September 1st I submitted my resume and cover letter to the hiring manager. She got back to me the same day, and we scheduled an interview for the following Tuesday.

We hit it off right away. She and I had so many things in common, and it seemed like a perfect place to work. I loved the fact that she casually mentioned having a wife and a child, only because I am very comfortable in diverse environments and it was comforting to know that I was not going to be the only minority in the office. I felt right at home.

I was called back for another interview to meet the chief of IT and the chief of medicine who sponsored the IT department. They loved me and went gaga for my passion for the medical field, and I could tell they felt at ease leaving this position in my hands.

On September 22nd I got a call from HR with a verbal offer. They were offering me a much lower amount than I make right now (a difference of about $10K a year), and they said they don’t give out signing bonuses, so I could say goodbye to that idea. That meant I would be putting up about $8K out of my own pocket to pay my current company for MBA courses. That was a loss of $18K in a single year.

Shortly after my conversation with HR, the hiring manager sent me an email (long letter) telling me what a great fit this was and that she knew the salary was not what I was expecting to make. She said she made the decision to take this job three years ago at a much lower salary than a different offer she had on the table, and never looked back. She loves her job, and she thinks this would be a perfect fit for me. If I didn’t take the job, she would understand, but be very disappointed. I replied thanking her profusely for the heart-felt email, and told her that the finances had to be thought of very carefully, and assured her I was giving this some very serious thought.

Was this “perfect job” worth it? Was I investing in my future happiness? or was I shooting myself in the foot and ruining my chances at a higher salary later in my career? Could I afford my dream job?

After talking to everyone I could get advice from, I decided that all of this thinking would be moot if I didn’t like the team. I decided to call them back the next day and, instead of talking about numbers, I asked to meet the team. I suggested next Tuesday, and I am waiting to hear back.

So, what’s it gonna be?

Pros

• Can you say “dream job”??? Working with doctors, mapping out their needs, learning how they work!
• Training doctors on use of software. I am AWESOME at presenting, and I get a lot of energy from being in front of a crowd.
• Not having to work with people outside of the area (equals no crazy calls in the middle of the night or wicked early in the morning)
• Working with great people
• Awesome medical benefits
• Reasonable working schedule. Family friendly.
• I would get to learn about the medical users of software in the field. That’d be a great learning experience for anyone in the health care industry.

Cons

• The pay is way less than what I am making right now. That would put me at a great disadvantage if I’m left without a job trying to get a salary upgrade on my next one.
• If the job falls short of expectations (which are pretty high at this point), I’d be in a job I hate with a crappy salary.
• I would have to pay $8K out of pocket (tuition pay-back) by giving up my current job and The Corporation job.
• I would be downgrading to an analyst position, when my MBA and my experience should have been preparing me for a team leader or project manager position
• The Hospital was very much affected by the recession and has been laying people off. Would I be next in line?

I guess what I’m seeing here is that I would be taking a huge career risk. And why? Because I am being lured into a very sexy job. This job is my sirens from the Odyssey. Should I give in? Are the risks worth the job? I guess that’s why I called them back asking to meet the team: I want to make damn well sure that the position I have idolized in my head is the exact same position they are pitching to me.

I don’t want to miss out on the best job of my life because of a few thousand dollars. But I don’t want to take a step back in my career for a job that might not be all it’s cracked up to be.

What to do?

abi

Urban Dictionary defines Working Girl as “Euphemistic term for a prostitute, often preferred by the sex workers themselves.” — yikes, maybe I should have listened to my instinct when I picked the name!

Or maybe I should just post a permanent post at the top of this page saying “This blog is not about hookers” or “Try a 900 line instead” or something like that.

I feel bad for those people coming to this site (no pun intended) to check out call girls. I thought about changing the name of the blog, for the sake of those poor souls, but then I remembered that Working Girl (1988) was also a funny romantic comedy from the 80’s about Melanie Griffith working in the corporate world! And so, the name stays! All for those people who are looking for a blog about a cool chick who works at a corporate office in Boston!

Are you buying it? 🙂 How’s that for a save?

abi

Welcome to my site. How you got here, I’ll never know………. unless I sent you the link, in which case I know EXACTLY how you got here 😉

I’m a 29-year old cool chick working in Boston in the corporate world. Over the past 7 years I have acquired many a story of working in this environment, but I never wrote a blog about them out of sheer fear of being found out and fired.

Well, thanks to the wonders of the first amendment, the fact that I’m using fake names, and my constant need to say what is on my mind, I have decided to just let it all out here.

Right now you are catching me in the process of getting a new job. I have been working for this company since my junior year internship, and I think it’s time to part ways. You see, I came to Boston only 4 years ago to live close to family, only to realize that working at a satellite office is not all it’s cracked up to be. I can work from home any day I want, but, after having tried it for over a month (seeing as there was NOBODY in my office who actually worked there more than 2 days a week), I have to say it’s not for me. I don’t know if it’s the darkness, the sitting on the couch all day, or the feeling that Frasier and Niles Crane are more my work peers than real people are, but it just did not work out. But I digress. The point is that I can’t stand working with just a computer and a phone all day long, and I need a new challenge!

The two companies I’m interviewing with are very different. One is a multinational software company that makes software for health care systems, and the other is a major hospital in the area. One is a for-profit corporation with plenty of money to go around, and the other is a non-profit with just a promise of working so close to the medical field you can taste the blood (ok, that was gross, but probably not far from accurate). My heart is with the hospital, given as I have been obsessed with the medical profession ever since I got hooked on ER ( ♥ Dr Greene ♥ , dreamy) back in 2004. However, they are offering me a considerable pay cut that I can’t ignore, while the multinational is offering me a little bit more than I make right now, plus a signing bonus.

After talking to everyone under the sun, I have come to the conclusion that I cannot afford to take such a great pay cut, especially if I end up not liking the job and I have to put myself out in the market again at a lower salary position. I have an MBA, for God’s sake, why would I take a pay cut the same year I graduated from business school??? I am the first to say that money isn’t everything, and if your happiness costs several thousand dollars less a year, then so be it! But I can’t even guarantee that this job will be the solution to all my problems. It’s a huge risk, and I have to be smart about it. The alternative is not that bad: the job at the multinational company will allow me to get back to my computer science roots by teaching me how to program a very sophisticated health care application, and will have opportunities for growth to travel to South America and Europe. They’ll even pay for language classes! (I know Spanish, but they think it would be nifty if I knew Portuguese also). So, really, I am not losing either way. It would just kill me to reject a potentially AMAZING opportunity at the hospital just because of a few cents (or thousands of dollars).

I called HR at the hospital this morning and asked them if I could meet the team. We have been doing interviews since September 1st, but I still have not met my peers. I’ll make a decision after that. Most likely, I’ll ask for only a small pay cut, and see how they react. If they can’t match me, I’ll just have to say goodbye and accept the multinational job, which is slated to start in January.

Choices Choices… it’s a good problem to have, though, isn’t it?

abi