December 16, 2003

  • I applied for a
    position in my company—but in a different department—with a title of
    “Senior Information Security Analyst” about a month ago.  I was
    one of two finalists.Neither of us got the position.“None of the
    Above.”  I was told that I didn’t have the “project management
    skills” necessary to justify hiring, but that I was otherwise fully
    qualified.  The job offer was unfilled (left vacant) and now
    the offering department wants instead to post a position a step down that requires less “project management skills.”  I might apply and take this lesser position if offered, but only if
    they’ll start me at the same base pay I was going to negotiate for in
    the former position (‘starting base’ is always a negotiable item before hire).

    Not enough
    “project management skills” ?  Let’s see…I was a platoon sergeant
    in the Army, head of a jungle meteorological observatory, one of the
    lead managers in the repeated deployment of a station technical control
    facility (communications hub) in the desert….  Nope, that doesn’t
    count—it’s secludingly military.

    Okay…I’m a
    graduate college professor (albeit part-time and not currently)
    meaning: I take on the project of not only teaching students, but
    teaching myself, organizing a syllabus, preparing homework, preparing
    tests, grading both, facilitating tutoring, securing necessary academic
    supplies and resources (ordering books for the bookstore, arranging for
    equipment in the classroom, securing copies of everything for all,
    setting up my class’ own website, etc.)  Nope, that shouldn’t
    count—it’s mere academia.

    Okay…I just spent
    the entire summer managing a team of five in the conversion of about
    460 people-and-PCs (like owners and pets) in the workplace and field
    from an archaic dialup remote access service to a state-of-the-art VPN
    (virtual private network) remote dialup and broadband service.  We
    not only completed the project on time, but were only 1 of 3 districts
    out of 13 in the country to do so.  I believe I was expected
    (though not encouraged) to fail.  We didn’t.  I did just get a bonus check equal to about 5% of my salary in recognition for our success.  Um…nope, that doesn’t count???

    I wonder, for
    myself, if it would be a worse curse to have the time to write, and be
    writing, and yet struggling to make it as a writer, than simply to
    languish, as I do, in jobs that disallow me the time to make writing a
    serious effort.

    Need I wait for
    'retirement' to give it a go?  Ha...I think I'm just going to have
    to hone my survival skills for social living, compress time, get rid of
    excess baggage, follow the belly-fired path of a
    mad-authoring medieval monk, and play manic with my laptop.

Comments (222)

Comments are closed.

Post a Comment

notforprophet

Recent Posts

Categories

The End of Days

December 2003
M T W T F S S
« Nov   Jan »
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
293031