News

So - I officially have come 'News' with a capital 'N'. Thursday I had a promotion interview. I don't know how it works at other companies but at mine you have to put a pack together all about you and why you deserve it. The first part covers your career to date, your training history, your CV - stuff like that. The next part is all about why you deserve it. You have to select up to three pieces of work that prove your ability and tick all the boxes on the company promotion criteria tree. You have to write a page about each summing up all the things that tick those all important boxes.

You then have a sort of interview. You have to present your worth to a 'board' of three people, one of which is your manager. You have about 45 minutes to do this. I was told that normally people spend about 5-10 minutes covering their career to date and then spend the next half hour or so talking about the work that they are submitting in the pack.

It's taken a long time for me to get this far, too long in my view and I didn't want my next promotion taking another long long time so talking with a couple of the other managers I know it was decided that I wouldn't include anything from my current work in my written submission so that I could legitimately use it next time. Carreer tactics in a way. Instead I would talk about it in the introductory speech. Putting my faith in the advice I had received this is exactly what I did. So I ended up with quite a weird, it seemed to me, boarding interview. I spoke for about 35 minutes on my 'introductory remarks' and then about 5 minutes each on 2 of my 3 work submissions. Really my written pack was completely superfluous. I think of how many hours I spent on it trying to get it 'right' and it feels all wasted.

Anyway - to kill the suspense - I got the promotion so now I am an 'Advanced Engineer'. Whatever that means. I get a pay rise as well which is nice. I deliberately tried not to think about the fact that my 45 mins could significantly affect my monthly cash flow as I thought I might make myself nervous. I've never been particulary fussed about money having always been in a position where I have enough money to survive and buy the things I want.

I learnt something about myself though. This promotion really wasn't about the money - for me it seems it truly was about gaining some recognition. When my manager came and told me how much extra I would get in my pay packet I really wasn't fussed. I tried to fake the whole overjoyed at getting a pay rise emotional response to fulfull the social expectations of someone in that position but I truly didn't care.

Obviously I won't turn the extra money down though! ;-)

People kept telling me not to be nervous - that I'd be fine. But I really wasn't nervous. No more than any other presentation I've given. A bit of a squirmy feeling as you are on display but nothing of the more gut-churning vibe everyone seemed to be expecting me to feel. It made me wonder if I wasn't taking it seriously enough.

Or am I just a freak?

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Pat from Canvey's picture

Promotion

Hey, Wonderwoman, very well done you. I'm so pleased that all your hard work has got the recognition it deserves. Perhaps you'll have more time for the photography now or are you still slogging on your dissertation? I'm doing a happy dance for you now. If you're a freak it's a good one that shines out from the rest of the "normals" whatever that means. Remember the Bell distribution curve!!!

kat's picture

No Photography

I'm still doing my dissertation and will be for a while. I'm kind of worried about it as I seem to have stalled. If I'm still stuck in a week's time I'll get some advice from my supervisor. Time is ticking away...