Quick recap- At this point, I've worked in the same organization for about 5 or 6 years and I'm cultivating my Who you Know skills along with Ass Kissing, The Game and The Part, and working on the elusive PROMOTION. (Insert ominous background music here)
I want to start this post by saying that I'm not saying that all of these necessary skills attributed to my organization only. And I'm not saying that any of them are done in some sort of nefarious way. Far from it. What I have learned is that they are expected in EVERY organization, just maybe in not such an obvious way.
That being said, on to the promotion.
I bought 'resume paper', wrote my cover letters, updated my resume, updated my cover letters, sent follow up letters, smiled more, worked harder, volunteered, all of the things that you are supposed to do to move up the ladder. And I did. I was promoted into a coveted management position at around year 9 and was able to take on more responsibility and I was thriving. I was asked to join a large project team and jumped at the chance to learn more, do more, BE more.
Along the way, I was meeting people, networking, learning how to be a better employee, how to be a leader, how to create teams, how to do technical things that went well above what was asked of me. Not because I felt I needed to, but because I WANTED to, because I really loved my job and I wanted to give back to the organization that gave me so much. I took every class and seminar that I could, I got in front of my organization's leaders as often as I could so that I could learn from them. I wanted to soak up as much as I could.
I gave my time, my energy, my heart, my mind, sometimes I felt like I gave my very soul. I ignored those who said that it's just a job. Do your job, get your money, go home.
Nope. Not my style.
Then came break number 2. The big one. THE promotion.
There was a man in my organization who I wanted to work for for years. He was like a unicorn. He was brilliant, funny, fair, honest, trustworthy, kind, and anybody who worked for him thrived. And when my project was winding down, there was talk of a big new project. BIG. Like B.I.G. And guess who was running it? Unicorn. Guess who came to my tiny little cubicle and asked me to be on his team? UNICORN! At that moment, the sky was bluer, the grass was greener, the air smelled like success. (And let's face it, still a little like old carpet and paint, but it was MIXED with success at least!) I was on top of the world!
The people I worked with were brilliant, the learning opportunities were endless, my new boss was incredible, my cubicle was even bigger than the last one. We had support, we had a budget, we had respect, we were representing the Next Big Thing. We were IT. And IT was GLORIOUS,
Next up, Part 3, the Glory Years :)