Hard to believe I’d get another shot at the management brass ring after 10 years but I have more realistic expectations this time and when the backfill is over, I will be returning to my current position which I enjoy working; Sr. Specialist has been my favorite at Apple because it is similar to the gig I had during PowerComputing’s brief golden era.
Much has changed in the decade since I filled such a role. Way back in 2000, AppleCare’s staffing had more than doubled due to Y2K paranoia, the success of the early iMacs and what was the beginning of Apple’s comeback. The day I started managing a team of tier one agents was borderline chaos. There wasn’t any clear guidelines on what my daily routine would be and I didn’t have any real authority to make tough decisions (the easiest yet worst example would be, firing someone); those were left to my manager who was also in a backfill role being the manager of managers. So I went with my strengths by trying to nurture the group and acting as an advocate to the higher-ups: getting to know them, find out what each person wanted from Apple and monitoring their calls. The latter task was really utilized to find out which things the agent excelled at doing and to see what could be done to minimize weaker areas. Hence, I felt confident about my endorsements for hiring and/or promotions to tier two positions. Whenever any of them received a permanent offer letter, I swelled with pride.
As you know, it didn’t pan out for me in the long run. Despite doing a good job (according to the boss) for over four months, I had to return to my tier two spot and hand the reins to another backfill person, who did get the permanent spot. The silver lining was it spurred me to join Servers & Apps since I felt desktop support had tapped out in potential for career growth.
Today, the call-center business at Apple has evolved to be more structured which will make this somewhat easier. It’s still going to involve sweat, quick thinking and beaucoup diplomacy (my current boss said the most important thing to do is smile, I completely agree). Never have I ever envied what the managers deal with though. I think after 2000, I was relieved to return to my “lowly” phone agent duties. I was only responsible for me plus my productivity was easily measured: “how many calls are answered” is the foundation.
Now, I’m in a hybrid spot. I share some of the praise and blame with the Austin team because a big element of my job is acting as a detective, investigating the root causes to our successes and struggles; these are followed with suggestions to address them. Making the temporary leap as team manager will be a great experience to broaden my perspective on how the bigger picture works. Regardless of what happens, I plan on using this as a major opportunity to learn new things, namely if I ever want to pursue a permanent management position in the near future.