One of the things that changed in 2009 was my employment.
When 2009 dawned, my full time job was to look for a job. I spent hours each day reading online want ads and company website job descriptions. I signed up with placement agencies. I updated my profiles on the online job search sites and weeded through the valid job descriptions from real recruiters vs. the "start your own business" and "work in insurance" junk mail from the would-be scammers.
By the end of January I was in the delightful position of having to weigh two offers that came in at the same time. Making the decision was agony. I played hardball when I negotiated my rate and compensation package, and that was a new tactic for me because the past had always seen me accept whatever I was handed. I was also amazed that I was unemployed for only a month and a half before I was back to work again.
I started my new job at Company A (a pseudonym, of course) and spent the first few days in culture shock. From late January to mid-May I worked at Company A, and hated most of the time I spent there.
It was weird to work with people that I liked, doing work that I was good at, and feeling miserable about what I was doing 40 hours or more a week. I got praised for what I produced, but the learning curve was steeper than I had anticipated and the more I learned the less I wanted to know about that company's business. I was a Systems Analyst for a company that wrote specialized software, and my job was to take the requirements given to me by the Business Analysts and write up detailed software specs that the developers could convert into code. It should have been fun, but it wasn't.
I wilted in the formalized atmosphere of extreme specialization. Nothing much in my job supported creativity. I had little room to innovate. Professionally I was delighted to learn new skills, yet at the same time I was starving for more fulfilling work.
In mid-May my dream job as a Data Analyst for Company B started and I stepped into work heaven.
I happened to begin my work at Company B just as they launched a class for the inside sales reps. I sat in as time allowed and learned about how different software applications worked within and interconnected for this company. I watched a series of videos from professional development coach Marcus Buckingham.
The schtick of Marcus Buckingham is to encourage people to identify their strengths, and then seek work that utilizes those strengths. I learned that when you do work that uses your strengths, then you feel invigorated from the work even if you are mentally or physically exhausted by the most recent task. When you perform work among your strengths, Mr. Buckingham says, then you look forward to your tasks and you take pleasure in your accomplishments. By contrast, when you perform work with your weaknesses, you may be really good at what you're doing but doing it drains you. You begin to dread doing more of it.
I sat in the class of new hirees and listened to these theories, and thought about how I had dreaded going to work each day at Company A. I received constant feedback that I was doing a good job and was learning the ropes much faster than the typical new Systems Analyst, and yet I disliked every new project added to my plate and my only real pleasure came in sharing tips and tricks with my co-workers about improving their productivity in the Microsoft Office applications.
Marcus Buckingham theorizes that your strengths show up in childhood, and as you age you only get stronger in those areas. The class trainer challenged us to think of an event from our childhoods that pinpointed a current strength. I thought back to the time when I drew up elaborate, written designs to eliminate a gopher that had been terrorizing our yard. I don't even remember doing this. I must have been about 5. My mom takes delight in telling me and anyone else who will listen about the event.
In modern work terms, I was designing a solution to a problem. I was taking information about a problem, and using my creativity to solve the problem. That is exactly what I love to do today. That is what I get to do at Company B.
So my first few weeks at Company B exposed me to a professional development coach whose recorded lectures affirmed that I was completely right to change jobs and embrace what I thought would be a dream come true.
I have especially enjoyed coming to work for the last month or so. I've now been here long enough to understand the basics of how the systems work, and I've been spending my time creating new reports and improving old ones. I like it that the managers have a clear idea of what information they need to see and how it should look, and I just need to make it happen. It seems like the more I learn about individual reporting preferences, the more good ideas I collect that can be applied to other situations.
I've also learned not to hold back with tooting my own horn. I understand that a common mistake that women make in the workplace is that they think the people around them will notice and remember their accomplishments without them having to bring those accomplishments to anyone's attention. Apparently women are wrong about this perspective, especially when they work mostly with men.
My husband assures me that men have no hesistation with telling everyone about what a great job they did on something. It sounds like part of the reason that women don't rise as high in the positions of authority within a company is because women are more relucatant to act like their male counterparts with telling everyone what a good job they've done.
While I don't hang signs on my door telling everyone that I'm awesome, I do make a habit of forwarding to my boss e-mails of praise that my co-workers send after I've helped them. Anytime I've improved upon an existing process or created something new, I make sure that my boss gets a copy so that he can see the progression of my work.
So in 2009 I began working in a job that utilizes my strengths, provides outlets for creativity, and provides a supportive environment for these changes and personal growth. Sweet!
In order to keep the blog entry sizes down to something less than "novelette" I plan to write a series of posts rather than one gargantuan post. Next up...getting locked out.
Next - 77 Reflections Upon 2009 - Locked Out
Previous - 75 The Speech
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