My fortune cookie for dinner this evening. How fitting for this weekend.
A few already know since Friday night when I made the phone calls and/or spotted my Facebook wall (or is it a banner?) but I still want to write about it here.
This week, my co-worker Eli accepted a position with another team in Apple. Thankfully he remains a part of the overall organization I’m in called Enterprise so he’s not off the hook on co-coordinating the annual Ethan Tran Memorial Thanksgiving Potluck (Ethan didn’t die, he moved to an Arabic nation for a job).
Anyway, since Eli was one of the two Senior Specialists on the team, it opened up the gig for me. I applied back in January but didn’t get it. My boss (Gary) and Eli said I made the decision hard with what I had to offer versus Chris. I’d be a liar to say I wasn’t disappointed. It felt like losing the Super Bowl because close only counts with horseshoes, hand grenades and nuclear war. Once I pulled myself together and got over my pride, I continued to keep up the good work Gary gave me a great review for last year. Despite Eli and Chris handling the duties, Gary did have me pick up the slack when they were indisposed (training, vacation, etc.). I think my co-workers appreciated having one additional person to get advice from and I know the less-experienced guys helped me immensely; they made me feel useful again, not some burned-out fossil, punching in and out every day. Computer-related work does have an agism problem.
It remains a surprise to be in such a job too. Some of you may ask why though. I have been doing this line of work for 10-15 years (depending upon the employer), most of it with Apple, shouldn’t I be farther up the food chain? Not really. Heck, if we had this conversation last year or someone told me I’d be looking forward to the position, I would’ve laughed my head off. My prediction for 2009 would be more of the same or I’d be cut out through downsizing. Gary fixed this misperception in my review, hence the Evil Twin theory. Seems he was paying attention to my work and he has been pushing me to rise to the challenge, especially when I refused to consider the role last Fall. Gary’s a very patient, brave and foolish man to manage a bunch a cynical technicians with a wide array of skills.
So what is a Senior Specialist? It’s the tech who helps train the other agents in a group or on an individual basis; listens to random calls for trends (mainly to see what my comrades get right or wrong); and carries out various projects to make Enterprise better. It’s a combination of lead, coach, trainer and mother hen (rooster since I’m a guy?). The goal is to assist the agents toward a solution without doing it for them; nobody gains from the latter.
What’s next? I don’t know and I really don’t care. I think this is going to be similar to when I was happiest at PowerComputing as a Help Desk tech: every morning, I took calls until lunch and afternoons were spent handling consultations from other agents. Senior Specialist appears similar in how the days are broken down. Unlike some people I’ve known over the years in my field, I’ve never wanted to be completely removed from the phone element (it’s an obsession for some). To me, taking calls keeps me calibrated to what’s happening. I know I want to be doing this for well over a year and then some because I feel I can make a difference.
Thank you for all your support over these years! It was a rough time, trust me, I know and so does my doctor. Now I realize what could’ve been going through President Obama’s mind on election night: I won! Hooray! Oh wait, look at all work to be done. Crap! Nah. I feel we agreed on accepting this challenge willingly. I have the advantage too. Eli didn’t leave Enterprise lying wounded in a ditch.