Frustrating Work/ Promotional SituationHi all... I'd like to get out a vent on the situation that I'm in right now. I'm a high performing employee in a dept. that gets dumped on alot in my company (basically we're involved with all the analysis of pricing, etc.) so every time something goes wrong, we get blamed. Of course, the environment is kinda toxic there, so I've been wanting to move out of my job for awhile. I was expecting to get into a MBA program, but I got either rejected or waitlisted on everything I applied to (apparently having five years experience is more important than being smart). So I started looking around for jobs internally... I was doing it mostly on my own, because my boss is horrible when it comes to helping people with career development. (It took him two months to write me a recommendation letter for my MBA applications). I finally went to him and asked him for advice after my career advisor (my father) told me that I should. He was unhelpful, but gave me the name of Manager X in Finance. I set up an informational with Manager X, because my manager said that there was a position open. Unbeknownst to me, another one of my manager's employees had already interviewed for the position and was in the process of accepting an offer. So when I went for my informational interview yesterday, I was completely blindsided. I found out today the whole story and spent my lunch in my car sobbing. I understand why the other employee got the job; she works closely with the area that Manager X supports, but I think that it was really unfair for my manager to not provide me with a clearer picture of the situation. Moreover, I'm really upset about the fact that while this employee gets to jump 6 grade levels if I move to the area I work closely with, then I'd have to take a lateral position. Therefore, while they value her enough to make her a senior financial analyst, they only value me enough to offer me a position equivalent to that filled by a recent college grad. This despite the fact that I understand their processes inside out and that the manager up there even jokes about how much he wants to bring me on board. Apparently, the problem is that I have never done a journal entry in SAP. (I graduated Summa Cum Laude from UIUC's accounting program, so I doubt that teaching me this would take that long). I'm stressed, frustrated, and upset with the entire situation. Please help!! Well I suspect that there is more to it than you have never done transactions in SAP. But why not take that as your first task and ask to attend internal training or even external SAP training. You are right it isn't that difficult. I am sure that there are more SAP transactions that they are running in SAP, journal enties being usually only a small part of the FI/CO function of the SAP Financial module that most companies implement. So maybe instead of taking this as a set-back take it is a challenge. What else do you need to learn? Take a close and critical look at what other skills or capabilities the other person might have that you might need. Longer tenure? Broader background? Yep, the department I work with is frankly cheap; they don't want to pay for tenured employees. They'd prefer kids right out of school that illinidiva ends up showing the ropes. Frankly, I'm so ready to quit and just want to have confirmation that it is right to do so (and a bit of empathy)... I hope that they enjoy it when everything blows up around them. Frankly, I don't think that you're getting the situation I've been in. As I said in my original post, I get why the employee got the job... She works closely with that area and knows the boss. However, she doesn't have any SAP experience either... Heck, I don't think she even has an accounting degree and has held mainly hourly positions. I just think that I should be able to get a similar job with the area I support... I actually have an accounting degree and three years working with their department to show for it. Moreover, how is it fair that the manager directed me to a job that he knew didn't have any positions open? When I went to interview for Job X they were already in the process of making the other employee an offer?? It was basically a collassal waste of time and I was completely humiliated by the experience. I think though that the key word was "informational" interview. It is not that I am not trying to be un-empathatic. I am just trying to see if there are other things at play and see if maybe you can look for other underlying issues as well. If you can take a look at the whole situation and see some other things that might help you to land a position that you are interested in. If they are telling you that you need to learn their software then ask how. Take it as a challenge. Don't look at what someone else is getting or doing. Just build the relationships that you need to get what you want. I was also told that there was a job open up there.... I went into the informational interview thinking that it was the first step to getting a real interview. I'm interested in getting an actual position now, not two years down the road or learning all about the Finance org (I have a degree in accounting, I know what Finance and Accounting is all about). I felt very misled by the entire situation. If I had known that the other employee was applying for/ in the process of accepting the job, I would have not set up any sort of interview. Frankly, it was a waste of everyone's time, and my boss either knew it and didn't care or is that flighty that it slipped his mind. As for learning the software, this is an excuse because the manager of the area I support is really cheap and generally hires only recent college grads at the lowest salaried level. He then proceeds to work them into the ground, so that they'll all apply to knew positions before he has to promote them to the next grade level. He just said that I needed to be part of the Finance organization/ have "experience" up there, because he doesn't want to come out and say that I'm cheap... I don't actually want to pay you the extra $$. Frankly, I'm not really looking for advice; I'm looking to rant (which is something I obviously cannot do at work). It's really essential that I get a decent job/ show progress in my career so that when I apply to top tier MBA programs in a few years, they don't laugh me out of the building. (And more $$ would be a nice bonus). Doing the exact same thing that I'm doing know, but for a different deparment wouldn't look that great on my resume nor would working in another entry level position along with some incredibly daft recent grads (and I thought I was clueless three years ago). I've made a decision to leave (and hopefully screw my department on the way out). I just want to moan about my current situation until I find the ideal job.
Well good luck on that career move then. Three years and an finance degree isn't all that much experience by the way. SAP is the one of the primary softwares used by more than 50% of the Fortune 100 and 70% of the Fortune 500. If you have the opportunity to learn it you should take it.
I have an accounting degree from a top program, not a Finance degree (apparently you cannot read).... I'm not looking for something spectacular. Just a level above entry level. It's my understanding that having two/ three years experience means that you don't have to accept a crappy entry level job. I don't want to work with dumb kids just out of college (not even from ranked schools) nor do I think that going to another entry level position would look good on an application to any of Business Week's top thirty programs. I'm also familar with SAP and use it to do my own research in the job... The arguement that the a**y manager in Finance had against giving me the position that I deserve is that I don't have any experience using it in Finance... (BTW are you an SAP saleman??? Because while it might be widely used, SAP is one of the worst order entry/ accounting systems that I've ever encountered. We've had it for about two years and it happens to crash more often than our ten year old pricing/ contract system). So you have an accounting degree instead of a finance degree, sorry my bad. You certainly seem to be angry. Consider that your issue may be your attitude. Thus far I have been offering you nothing but some pragmatic observations. So why didn't you follow the normal career path and go into Accounting? Go with one of the top accounting firms and get your CPA? Then go get your MBA, which would set you up more effectively for a business career. The fact is that you are swimming upstream right now. Clearly you are having a difficult time in your current employer. Possibly you think that having a BA (or BS) in Accounting and a few years of experience entitles you to something more than your employer believes you are ready for. Possibly this is because they see something in your performance that you are unable to see. Possibly it is because they are a bad employer overall. Possibly it is because you are simply in a department with a manager who is a poor manager. Whichever it is, you are not handling it well. Informational interview is just that, it is information gathering. It is the opportunity for you to gather information and express an interest in moving in your career. It is not necessarily a opportunity to do so immediately. As for your other question. No I am not a SAP salesman. I am in consulting and primarily work in Organizational Change Mananagement and Program Management. My primarily area of expertise happens to be implementation of SAP projects. I do have a B.S. degree in Finance and Business. I also have a Masters in Program Management with a secondary in Technology. I worked in Finance for 10 years before changing careers to Consulting which I have been in for well over 15 years now. I have a bit of experience in the business world. As for system crashing - yep happens. Probably because it isn't being managed properly at the hardware and database levels which has nothing to do with the software itself. But that is a different issue. Yes... It's called the Vent board for a reason... I come here to vent so that I don't bring my frustrations to work. Not that I wouldn't like to chew out a few of the jerks that I work with. As for the informational interview... I was assured that there was a job open... This is why I went on the interview. The fact that I was misled makes me angry. All Manager X did was go over the organizational chart for Finance... I could have gotten the same information from the website. It was frankly a waste of time for all involved. I certainly had projects to finish, and I'm sure that Manager X did as well. As for SAP, it's because it is a poorly designed program to begin with, not because it is poorly administered. It requires numerous add-ons, etc. to be effective; a good system should be more easily adaptable to everyday business functions and less likely to crash.
Did you ask questions of Manager X? Isn't an informational interview something you initiate and are the one to ask a lot of questions of them? That would have made it more worth your while. | |
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