New employer expects me to be fully up to speed after a month?! (job offer, 2015)
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^^^^
So much this x10
He has been handed a prime opportunity to do something big and all I've read is a bunch of whining. It's too hard. blah blah blah.
I'm a consultant. I don't have months to learn something about a company. Heck I might only be there 3 months total on a project! When I walk in the door, I am ready to go and I find out everything I need asap. It means I am proactive and a go-getter. I am productive on day one and I certainly know the job before 2 months. Heck at most places, I know a piece of software I have never seen before better than people who have been using it a decade after about 2 days. And that my friends, is why I am paid the big bucks.
Congrats on the self back-patting I guess. I'll just go ahead and say there's probably very litle common ground between your 'consulting' and the situation I'm describing. Unless its to simply say 'I can learn this in two hours so why can't you'. With your superior intellect, I'm sure you realize what you're talking about cannot be applied to all scenarios.
I still am not trusting of management and will continue to put money aside 'just in case'...
I wouldn't worry about getting fired while Carla is out of leave, they NEED you, like or not. What I would be is worried about is when Carla returns from leave, they might dump you like a hot potato. On the other hand, Carla might never return, she might take this time to find another job. What ever the outcome, I wouldn't let them treat you like a doormat for very long. If Carla doesn't return, demand more help, don't let them work you to death because they are too cheap to hire more help.
Quote:
Originally Posted by revelated
Frankly, I'd step up to the plate and prove I'm better than Carla's predecessor, better than Carla, better than anyone else in the office. In return, they need to pay me big. As in, low-to-mid six figures. They've got a choice - let logistics go down the drain when Carla's gone, or pay me to keep the boat upright.
I believe that there is a point in which more money yields diminishing returns. I feel it's far better to have help then bring home a bigger paycheck for a job that dominates your life. How much more do you really think the job would pay? An extra 10k? Money far better spent on a part timer to help and make your day less stressful. More money doesn't help if your die of a stress related heart attack.
Last edited by TechGromit; 06-09-2015 at 05:46 PM..
First, what purpose would it serve to 'lie' about a situation to strangers on the internet? I suppose you will respond with 'why discuss it at all', but I was sharing my experience to see if anyone else had ever been in a similar matter. It would be of no benefit to me to lie about it.
Also, if the owner asks me after 5 weeks if I'm ready to run the entire dept, and I'm not, what purpose does it serve to either party to lie? Its not the kind of position you can fake your way through, any deficiencies would pop up immediately. Its interesting that you bring up trust, one would think trust would be lost by lying, not by being honest about the matter. Being hired for one position and then thrown into another would be a good reason for employees to not trust companies either? Or I guess there's absolutely nothing wrong with that....
Perhaps I didnt make myself clear in the first post, but the position they have placed me is not the one advertised or discussed in the interview. I applied for a specific position,one which I have a background in, and hired based on that as discussed in the interview. When I started the job, they did not put me in the position I was hired to do, but a different one entirely to replace someone going on maternity, for which most of the duties fall outside my experience. This is what I mean by misrepresentation. And to that end, which you may have missed, I did say that despite that I actually did want to take on the challenge of rising to the occasion. But because a lot of it is new ground, there is going to be obviously a learning curve. Hell, even if they had actually put me in the position advertised, there is still organizational knowledge, processes and procedures to get a grip on, this is in any professional position.
The main problem is they are expecting me to have learned enough in 5 weeks to be able to replace Carla, who has been there 3 years. The owner seems to think I should be at the same level as Carla after mere weeks. Now, forget the part about misrepresentation and all that, and focus on this paragraph alone. Does that seem realistic to you, or am I just an idiot who should have the entire company down well enough to run it singlehandely after 2 days, like the poster above would have done?
So to use similes... It'd be like if they hired someone to be a legal assistant, but then wanted you to be lawyer in the courtroom? Hiring a nurse to be a doctor?
So to use similes... It'd be like if they hired someone to be a legal assistant, but then wanted you to be lawyer in the courtroom? Hiring a nurse to be a doctor?
Common practice these days. This way they eat the cake and...
in my experience employers are the biggest liars and deceivers when it comes to hiring. Since I am aware of that, I wouldn't be surprised at all. The OP is new and probably didn't discover all "surprises" yet. Stay tuned.
So to use similes... It'd be like if they hired someone to be a legal assistant, but then wanted you to be lawyer in the courtroom? Hiring a nurse to be a doctor?
I dont know if its so much a hierarchal thing. Its more like, using the medical analogy, applying for the position of anaesthetist, interviewed and hired for it....then on the first day you're replacing the sole neurologist going on maternity in a few months. I dont know if thats more appropriate, maybe someone in the medical field can chime in....
The experience has literally sucked my soul away in 2 months and I'm so resentful towards management that I could barely function my last work day.
OP, this is really all that matters. Your situation is taking an unreasonable toll on you and your health. I have left jobs twice without having another job lined up, and I didn't have savings to live on for 2 years like you do. And it all worked out fine. It isn't worth it to stay in this job just to avoid a resume gap. And you'll never be able to devote the proper time and attention to a job search as long as you are working at this place. Good luck!
Or... use this as an opportunity to make yourself look really good and possibly advance further than you intended to.
I started out at my last company with the intention to be an inventory clerk over a large project the company had (making little aluminum windshield spacers for aircraft). Literally my first day, my boss got pulled to put out fires so I had to jump in on my own.
The project was a wreck, deliveries were all late, and we weren't doing very well in the customer's eyes. I took that as a challenge and began at the bottom trying to figure out how to make it better. Keep in mind I had zero experience managing a project. I developed a gameplan on paper figuring out how much inventory we had and compared that to what we needed to make the customer orders whole asap. Then I looked at how much inventory we were using over a given period of time to set a min/max for inventory. After that, I looked at material lead times to figure out when to re-order.
Once I had that info, I made friends with an Engineer who showed me how to use their MRP system and took the time to help me get it all input. Once those orders were out to the subcontractor, I started setting lead times in the system (nothing had been done) and just worked my way through everything until they got back on track. I started communicating with the customer and working with the subcontractor to provide better quality products to us.
In 3 months we were on schedule and I had reduced excess inventory and brought the other parts back up to our desired levels. After a year of doing that, I was offered a management position to try and get our fabrication department back in the same boat.
You never know what you can accomplish if you're willing to put the effort in... but it's really up to you if you want to risk it.
Or... use this as an opportunity to make yourself look really good and possibly advance further than you intended to.
I started out at my last company with the intention to be an inventory clerk over a large project the company had (making little aluminum windshield spacers for aircraft). Literally my first day, my boss got pulled to put out fires so I had to jump in on my own.
The project was a wreck, deliveries were all late, and we weren't doing very well in the customer's eyes. I took that as a challenge and began at the bottom trying to figure out how to make it better. Keep in mind I had zero experience managing a project. I developed a gameplan on paper figuring out how much inventory we had and compared that to what we needed to make the customer orders whole asap. Then I looked at how much inventory we were using over a given period of time to set a min/max for inventory. After that, I looked at material lead times to figure out when to re-order.
Once I had that info, I made friends with an Engineer who showed me how to use their MRP system and took the time to help me get it all input. Once those orders were out to the subcontractor, I started setting lead times in the system (nothing had been done) and just worked my way through everything until they got back on track. I started communicating with the customer and working with the subcontractor to provide better quality products to us.
In 3 months we were on schedule and I had reduced excess inventory and brought the other parts back up to our desired levels. After a year of doing that, I was offered a management position to try and get our fabrication department back in the same boat.
You never know what you can accomplish if you're willing to put the effort in... but it's really up to you if you want to risk it.
Fair piece of advice. Problem at my job, management has absolutely zero interest in changing anything. None. Whatsoever. And being new, I wouldnt upset the status quo right away but some of their processes are incredibly dated, owning to a 65 year old owner who devised the systems 30 years ago when he had 1/5 the volume he now has. Its really not the kind of place where suggestions are welcome from non-management employees, so no real opportunity to make the position your own, just conform to a bunch of dated processes.
Really the situation is pretty much a dead end, especially seeing the fraternity-like nature of management( thats a whole nother issue, wont bore with the details) so even if I mastered the position the very nature of it and company has a pretty limited shelf life for me.
I have had friends bait and switched before. One moved to another continent thinking she was going to have this amazing job and it just turned out to be a sales position (which had nothing to do with what she was there for). Because she was already there, she couldn't really move. So she stuck it out for almost a year poor thing.
I completely sympathize with you. I remember being an intern and being lied to about what I would be doing. One employer even lied about paying me (and didn't). But I had no money to hire a lawyer as a student and I didn't have the time or energy for it. I didn't even say goodbye on my last day. I just sent a thank you e-mail and left I was so angry.
I would wait a few more weeks and see how things go. If the situation hasn't changed, leave. This isn't what you signed up for and you're clearly not happy there. Life is too short.
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