How is your career going?

[coopasonic]

Have I mentioned how much I love working for a company that gives a shit about it's employees AND customers? I do a lot of interviews and can't help but grin when they ask me why I like where I work or why I have stayed here for so long.

#9 on the Fortune's (edit: not Forbes, oops) Best places to work list this year and I actually believe it.

[LordMortis]

/Runs to google...

You work at Bass Pro Shops?

[coopasonic]

/Runs to google...

You work at Bass Pro Shops?

Or maybe it was Fortune... https://fortune.com/best-companies/2021/

[Zaxxon]

We know what's in his wallet.

[coopasonic]

We know what's in his wallet.

x3

I'm all in.

[Buatha]

I can't say work is going well, but at least I'm able to work from home. We all had to reapply for our positions, not just in our organization, but the ENTIRE company had to do it. Since my previous position was being outsourced, I had to pick 4 positions...and I actually got the position who description matched what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, that wasn't the position I was assigned in the end.

So, I'm now placed in a position where I'm essentially behind 80% of the group in skills and usefulness. I was in network security handling firewalls and VPN...now I'm handling Cisco routers/switches for PCN field operations. If I was paranoid, I would almost think it was a way to get rid of me, however I have not done anything that I think would have caused it. I am hearing it has happened throughout the company and I believe they either thought more people would leave or that not enough were let go...which obviously makes me concerned since I know multiple people are "on the bench" without too much to do.

I go back and forth between studying on Udemy using the company account and feeling apathetic since my work is much less rewarding than in the past.

[Paingod]

I had to pick 4 positions...and I actually got the position who description matched what I wanted to do. Unfortunately, that wasn't the position I was assigned in the end.

You're in the Army?

So, I'm now placed in a position where I'm essentially behind 80% of the group in skills and usefulness. I was in network security handling firewalls and VPN...now I'm handling Cisco routers/switches for PCN field operations.

Someone above you thought "A tech person is a tech person" when they did that to you. Try not to let the imposter syndrome get to you; tech people have a way of being harder on themselves than they should be, yet are still able to adapt and catch up faster than most employees ever would.

It sounds like your restructuring was really poorly planned and the only ones who will suffer for that are the ones on the front lines.

*Edit: Well, there it is. They're just replacing me with an IT vendor (Managed Service Partner, or MSP). We met with the company and they're nice enough guys with a good plan. I was a little ashamed to lay out all the documentation of all the subpar systems I've had to work with and couldn't upgrade because my requests kept getting denied. My eyes wanted to jump out of my head when they started talking about needing current tools in order to properly support the business and my boss was all "Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever you need." and I reminded him that he was looking at the same $23,000 for desktops and $10,000 to $20,000 for networking and servers. "That's fine, fine. I'll sign the checks"



Where was the checkbook for the last three years when I was begging for improvements to make everyone's lives a little better and I could stop feeling like I was holding things together with bubble gum and shoestrings??

[Zaxxon]

Where was the checkbook for the last three years when I was begging for improvements to make everyone's lives a little better and I could stop feeling like I was holding things together with bubble gum and shoestrings??

Run away and don't look back.

[Paingod]

Where was the checkbook for the last three years when I was begging for improvements to make everyone's lives a little better and I could stop feeling like I was holding things together with bubble gum and shoestrings??

Run away and don't look back.

I won't look back, but I'm pretty sure I'm running towards something just as bad or worse. It's just in a better area and pays 18% more.

[LawBeefaroni]

Moved to a new office in the same suite. No where near the 19th floor corner at my last job but I have a nice view of yards of old ladies who really love growing nice flowers.


Expecting to move on to the larger system pay scale which should mean a decent raise.

Missed 2 bonuses this year due to COVID austerity, first year I qualified for a rather significant IPA performance bonus. Kind of sucks but I'm counting my blessings.

[LordMortis]

Missed 2 bonuses this year due to COVID austerity, first year I qualified for a rather significant IPA performance bonus. Kind of sucks but I'm counting my blessings.

Last year, no raises, unemployment, 1/2 pay work weeks.

Was informed of a 3% raise for this year yesterday. It's nice. I don't think it will keep up with inflation. They can say temporary and volitile all they want but gas is back at $3 a gallon. Dairy, eggs, meat, bread are all up 20%+. Somehow processed meal foods are still the same price but that's not a good way live. The Internet that I have to support at home to do my work is up 30% and service is worse as ever. That auto insurance savings for not driving? 5% maybe?

Also counting my blessings. A lot of people had/have it a lot worse. I'm legit surprised to hear all of these surveys about job hopping and won't go back in the office fully time and demands of this and that.

[Paingod]

Also counting my blessings. A lot of people had/have it a lot worse. I'm legit surprised to hear all of these surveys about job hopping and won't go back in the office fully time and demands of this and that.

When companies stopped being loyal to employees, lots of employees caught on and stopped being loyal to companies. Now younger generations have been raised by people who felt no sense of permanence at one employer and want future employers to try and engage their needs before they'll work there. COVID taught a shitload of people that they never need to see a desk or cubicle again - and still get their jobs done, maybe better than before. The pendulum has swung back about as far as it can, I think. Short of federally mandated 4-day work weeks. It's due to start cutting back the other way again and dish out some harsh reality to some folks.

I have no qualms with job-hopping, within reason. Every single substantial raise I've ever gotten has been because I left one employer and went to another. If I never did this, I'd still be at my first IT job and probably making $30,000 a year less than I am now.

[dbt1949]

I never had a job where the company had any loyalty to me. Except maybe when I was self employed and I'm not sure about that bastard either.

[gbasden]

I have no qualms with job-hopping, within reason. Every single substantial raise I've ever gotten has been because I left one employer and went to another. If I never did this, I'd still be at my first IT job and probably making $30,000 a year less than I am now.

Honestly, I think it's somewhat mandatory to move up in IT. Every major jump in responsibility was because I changed jobs. There was a period in the late 90s/early 2000s where I didn't stay anywhere longer than a couple of years. And now I've been at the same place for 13 years. I'd be making about half of what I do now most likely if I'd just stayed put.

[Kasey Chang]

Still no progress on the employment front. I've signed up with TransDev to be an autonomous vehicle operator (it's a front for WayMo/Google) and I need to get a drug test done on Monday. I can probably go back to reviewing novels if I get this.

What really sucks is I'd much rather be customer support for, say, Fastrak, but somehow, they don't want me.

[Kraken]

autonomous vehicle operator

[malchior]

I have no qualms with job-hopping, within reason. Every single substantial raise I've ever gotten has been because I left one employer and went to another. If I never did this, I'd still be at my first IT job and probably making $30,000 a year less than I am now.

Honestly, I think it's somewhat mandatory to move up in IT. Every major jump in responsibility was because I changed jobs. There was a period in the late 90s/early 2000s where I didn't stay anywhere longer than a couple of years. And now I've been at the same place for 13 years. I'd be making about half of what I do now most likely if I'd just stayed put.

Unless you work for very well run companies this is the case. I've changed jobs several times over the years. I find that 3-5 years gets you to maximum returns. Even adjusted for inflation I make 3 times what I did in 1999. And I just made a big jump in title. I expect in 2-3 years to be able to bandy that into another 20% jump at least.

[ImLawBoy]

I have no qualms with job-hopping, within reason. Every single substantial raise I've ever gotten has been because I left one employer and went to another. If I never did this, I'd still be at my first IT job and probably making $30,000 a year less than I am now.

Honestly, I think it's somewhat mandatory to move up in IT. Every major jump in responsibility was because I changed jobs. There was a period in the late 90s/early 2000s where I didn't stay anywhere longer than a couple of years. And now I've been at the same place for 13 years. I'd be making about half of what I do now most likely if I'd just stayed put.

Unless you work for very well run companies this is the case. I've changed jobs several times over the years. I find that 3-5 years gets you to maximum returns. Even adjusted for inflation I make 3 times what I did in 1999. And I just made a big jump in title. I expect in 2-3 years to be able to bandy that into another 20% jump at least.

Counterpoint - in roughly the same time span my compensation has gone up significantly more than 3x, all with the same employer (more or less - mergers and name changes and such). I've got one more significant bump coming (hopefully within the next year), but then I'm in all likelihood stalled out if I stay. It helps that I work for a massive company that has advancement opportunities, but I often see the narrative that you have to move around to significantly grow your compensation, and that's really not always the case.

In conclusion, America is a land of contrasts.

[malchior]

I have no qualms with job-hopping, within reason. Every single substantial raise I've ever gotten has been because I left one employer and went to another. If I never did this, I'd still be at my first IT job and probably making $30,000 a year less than I am now.

Honestly, I think it's somewhat mandatory to move up in IT. Every major jump in responsibility was because I changed jobs. There was a period in the late 90s/early 2000s where I didn't stay anywhere longer than a couple of years. And now I've been at the same place for 13 years. I'd be making about half of what I do now most likely if I'd just stayed put.

Unless you work for very well run companies this is the case. I've changed jobs several times over the years. I find that 3-5 years gets you to maximum returns. Even adjusted for inflation I make 3 times what I did in 1999. And I just made a big jump in title. I expect in 2-3 years to be able to bandy that into another 20% jump at least.

Counterpoint - in roughly the same time span my compensation has gone up significantly more than 3x, all with the same employer (more or less - mergers and name changes and such). I've got one more significant bump coming (hopefully within the next year), but then I'm in all likelihood stalled out if I stay. It helps that I work for a massive company that has advancement opportunities, but I often see the narrative that you have to move around to significantly grow your compensation, and that's really not always the case.

In conclusion, America is a land of contrasts.

Right but as I recall you moved into senior (maybe executive) leadership. That's a relatively small club. Not everyone gets that opportunity. I can't count on my toes and fingers people I lost because they got big salary jumps moving around. It is the way of things.

[ImLawBoy]

I moved into my current level about 6 years ago, but even at that time I had probably gone about 3x of my starting compensation. I know that people regularly move around for bigger salaries, but my point is that in some circumstances (and again, it's helpful that I work for a giant company) you can significantly increase your compensation in the same company. Moving around from position to position within the company helps - it's probably harder to do if you're narrowly focused on one type of job or a particular focus. It's also going to obviously be harder to do in a small company that doesn't have the variety of opportunities that a Fortune 10 company has. Plus, I have (nearly) 24 years of seniority with the company, which has its own benefits (both tangible and non-tangible).

Point being that there's more than one way to skin a cat, and while the popular narrative is that you need to job hop to significantly increase your comp, it's not the only way.

[malchior]

Point being that there's more than one way to skin a cat, and while the popular narrative is that you need to job hop to significantly increase your comp, it's not the only way.

Fair enough. Though I think the popular narrative is the popular narrative because for most people the stats show it is the case. Not everyone gets to senior management. Not everyone works for a big company, etc. Heck, changing careers entirely mid-stream is the right move for folks on occasion.

[RunningMn9]

I think my first job, I doubled my salary in four years there, but that was the late 90s, working as a software dev at an internet infrastructure shop.

Got a 28% jump to move to Job 2. Salary increased about 20% over the next 10 years, but that was through some dark times (10+ rounds of layoffs).

Got laid off at the end of that, but was able to get a minor bump (3%) when I took a job here. It’s been 10 years now at this place, and my salary has climbed 32% over that time period.

But I would say that when I moved to the 2nd job, I got bumped into the highest salary band for my years of experience, which also helped slow things down. The only way to really jump now would be to start looking at VP of Engineering type jobs, but I have no interest in that.

It turns out that 4.5 times my starting salary has been enough for me to feel complacent about it. If I could just get COL raises from here on out I’d be perfectly happy.

As an added inconvenience, for what I want out of life, I would love to transfer over to working directly for the government, but they can’t afford me anymore with their archaic hiring rules.

[Isgrimnur]

Hell, I'm just over double my starting professional salary at 13 years since I started, and I'm happy about it. Of course, I work for a small company.

[dbt1949]

I'm making now what I did about 30 years ago. But now I have to pay for insurance and I didn't back then. Yes, the VA is not free.

[Paingod]

This Sunday is the day. Going to Vermont for my new job. Leaving behind the wife and kids 5 days a week with a 4 hour drive back to see them.

It's still so surreal. Too many big changes at once to take in and process. Sunday night's going to be weird.

[pr0ner]

I've been at the same government agency for my whole career and I'm currently at 3x my starting salary. Took 18.5 years to get there (took 5.5 to hit 2x, but that was thanks to rapid promotions).

[gbasden]

I know that people regularly move around for bigger salaries, but my point is that in some circumstances (and again, it's helpful that I work for a giant company) you can significantly increase your compensation in the same company. Moving around from position to position within the company helps - it's probably harder to do if you're narrowly focused on one type of job or a particular focus. It's also going to obviously be harder to do in a small company that doesn't have the variety of opportunities that a Fortune 10 company has.

For sure. Had I started my career in my present Fortune 50 company I might have been able to advance internally almost as quickly. There's a reason I haven't felt the need to move in the last 13 years.

[NickAragua]

After 14 years, a promotion and an acquisition, I'm making > 2x my original starting salary. Usually, the increase is ~3%, but every few years I get a "relative compensation bump", a "promotion bump" or a "please don't leave and move to Sweden" bump.

Should have moved to Sweden. Would have helped if I'd gotten that job though.

[Kraken]

I'm still busier than I want to be. When I finally finished my two crunch projects, the clients that I had put on hold started giving me their backed-up work. Apparently they couldn't find anyone capable of replacing me for a month and their publishing schedules slipped.

I'm really looking forward to the summer doldrums, because my accounts receivable will all be received in May and June. Light workload + phat bank account + fully vaccinated could make for a very enjoyable summer if I can convince myself to ever leave the house again.

[dfs]

Considering I spent the majority of my career as a state employee w/out real pay raises and that I'm now working a part time "retirement" job I'm a bit shocked to see I'm making just about 5X my starting professional salary which means. I'm an old bastard. I was dramatically underpaid at the beginning of my career. When I did change jobs at key points in my career, I made it worth my while.

[YellowKing]

We got our unofficial final answer on full-time work from home vs some sort of hybrid model vs everyone back to the office. The answer was a bit up in the air because we were acquired by another health system in March. We were told then that a final decision would be reached by July 1.

Short answer - employee's choice. The official stance will be that they will NOT be requiring any returns to the office for currently remote employees, provided their job does not demand being on-site. There will be some manager discretion to require on-site presence for certain things like team meetings, etc. but for the most part it's going to be status quo from here on out.

While I was initially a bit fearful with the acquisition that full-time remote employees may be at a disadvantage (less visibility, etc.), it turns out that the new parent is actually *more* remote-friendly than we ever were. As a much larger multi-state healthcare system, they had 100% remote employees long before Covid and are now implementing plans to be able to fill positions from states not even under their umbrella. Our new head of the IT side is a firm believer in remote work and believes it encourages collaboration with those outside your immediate office "bubble."

It's quite bizarre to be living through such a seismic shift in corporate philosophy.

[hentzau]

I was kind of excited this weekend because I found out that they were starting a voluntary termination offer for bonus level employees at work. With a good offer I could get myself completely debt free (my mortgage, really my only debt right now) and possibly maybe retire about 10 years early. Or, bank that big bonus and look for another job at a lower pay/less responsibility.

But alas, was not meant to be. Apparently I didn’t meet some criteria. So I continue to slave away in the corporate salt mines.

[hitbyambulance]

It's quite bizarre to be living through such a seismic shift in corporate philosophy.

it's one of those things that was glaringly obvious to (nearly) everyone, but it took a massive shove from external beyond-anyone's-control forces to push it out of the ironshod groove of corporate inertia into action.

my workplace is laboring under the illusion we'll be 'returning to the office' early July, but i honestly don't think this will actually happen until fall - and even so, it's going to be a hybrid wfh model and no one is going to be forced to return.

[Carpet_pissr]

Fate must have something shittier in store for me.

Ex-pat chicken farmer?

[Zenn7]

It's quite bizarre to be living through such a seismic shift in corporate philosophy.

it's one of those things that was glaringly obvious to (nearly) everyone, but it took a massive shove from external beyond-anyone's-control forces to push it out of the ironshod groove of corporate inertia into action.

my workplace is laboring under the illusion we'll be 'returning to the office' early July, but i honestly don't think this will actually happen until fall - and even so, it's going to be a hybrid wfh model and no one is going to be forced to return.

We are still watching developments before going back. They reopened some offices so you can go back if you really want, but limiting it to about 10% at each office with restrictions. I had to go in to get some stuff when they opened my office that way. No one had gone in that day. They won't let us go back to our cubes. Seems like they restricted people to large conference rooms where they can be spaced out. I'm not sure I see that as work as well as our cubes considering we tend to be somewhat spaced out that way, but I don't care if I don't have to go in.

Previously, I worked 1 day a week from home (Fridays). They want us back in the office (my VP does at least), but my immediate manager is going to see if we can get more days from home, maybe Mondays and Fridays. I hate the drive (30 miles each way, traffic is a little bad, close to the office, but usually not too terrible if there's no accidents/events), don't mind being in the office (I don't particularly enjoy being in the office, just don't mind it).

[Kraken]

Wife's employer decided a few weeks ago that they will reopen their offices in September. She will probably be required to go in 1-2 days per week, although they signaled flexibility for us old people. September seems realistic to me.

[Kasey Chang]

Started training at TransDev. Apparently, if I want to go to AZ for training (all paid room and board and food) rather than stay in San Francisco I can be "certified" faster and earn more, but I honestly don't feel like traveling. This is PAID training along with free COVID test (twice a week) even though I already got my first shot. Now I can probably look into buying some medical insurance...

[The Meal]

Would you be interested joining us at [Job Title +1] instead? We'd love to have you

I've been at the new place for a month. And as cool as the place looked from the outside, the view's even nicer from the inside. The one hinky aspect of the company is they were bought by a large conglomerate, and I've been through that experience a few times in the past. Culture changes (despite folks' best intention to prevent it from happening). It's pushed out a few years here at this company, but... culture changes. Let's revisit then.

Because I don't want this culture to change at all. The best I can explain is that the founding principle for how employees are treated here is "respect." I'd have never believed such a thing were possible had someone tried to explain it to me from the outside, but here I am. The insurance package I alluded to in the quoted post? It's for real. Purely based on that alone, our family saves hundreds of dollars multiple times a month. On top of that, the salary I negotiated? Oh when I interviewed they failed to explain to me that if I worked more than forty hours in a week, I'd be getting straight time pay for those hours. You want a 10% bonus? Put in an extra 48 minutes every day. And there's no oversight tamping down those extra hours. I worked more than 50 on my first week (you know, turning wrenches and shadowing other folks' work processes). Right there, that's potentially everything you need to know about how the company respects employees. (But the overall attitude definitely follows that principle, down to every single other person I've worked alongside and for the internal customers that bring work to my team.) The engineering culture I cut my teeth on had an expectation that your salary generally funded 50 hours from your work week (and more when times were extra busy and folks needed to step up).

There's plenty to love, not the least of which is the manager I report to. He's got 25 years experience in the industry, and is just a couple of years older than me (we're both probably in the top 10-15%, age-wise, of the demographic, which also makes for a fun work environment). My background is more of an engineering Rockstar (though I hadn't been a true "Rockstar" for a while) though the work I'm currently doing is more of an engineering Oompah Loompa. Once I've got the operator side of the job role down, there's a carrot of more cerebral work in my future, but for now I'm enjoying reforming my neural passageways towards a workflow more in tune with working with seven-digit $$$ valuation for the units under test. (Oh yeah, the whole "we don't discourage extra hours" is directly in tune with the concept of doing everything safely and not rushing any particular aspect of the job to ensure you're not going to mess up these one-of-a-kind works of engineering art that need to get tested.) It's a physical job (I've lost 9 pounds since the last time I weighed in) but not in the make-you-hate-life (like doing package delivery may be for some of us) kind of way. I've stopped playing mid-week online poker with friends, mostly because I figure they're paying me to show up for work each morning bright-eyed and bushy-tailed (though it doesn't hurt that I've gone through a couple of video cards at the worst possible timing and my desktop is seriously gimped right now with me not even plugging in my second monitor).

I can't believe how different my outlook on the working world would be if this were my first job out of school (as it is for a not-insignificant number of my coworkers). Fortunately I've done things in the more-palatable order of working the first half of my career in the figurative salt mines before coming up for air. I'm thankful for what I've got (and a bit embarrassed about how much more I'm enjoying my career compared to MHS's experience right now). Let me not f- this up (i.e., no space mistakes on my watch).

[Jeff V]

Fate must have something shittier in store for me.

Ex-pat chicken farmer?

Well, there's that. Yesterday I found out I'm on the "short list" for a PM contract job at Abbott Labs. It's an ass-in-the-office job and the office is at best 75 minutes away. Now, I haven't been pimping myself as a PM, and the recruiter for this one came looking for me (I did not apply for it).

This could qualify as a shittier job because of the location, and the fact that while I probably could do a PM (project manager) gig, it's not something I have a lot of interest in doing. Several months ago, a company I did PM training with in the past invited me to a webinar that explained how to get federal $$$ to get a PMP certification, but I've been dragging my feet on this (for more than a decade actually) because it's not something I really want to do. However, coming up on a year unemployed, I feel obligated to accept anything that a company is willing to pay me to do.

Interview with Abbott is Monday afternoon.

[Zarathud]

Good luck. You’ve been handling minions, and I know you can do the PMP. Let us know how it turns out.