Beethoven In Trance - Episode 46

Finally, I am getting to an end of the job transition saga...

I accepted an job offer yesterday afternoon. It's a data analyst position in national acquisition team in the company. To some extent, I feel like going back to sales again, which I like. Comparing to the previous job that I got turned down, this position is actually better.

Applying for this position and interviewing process is interestingly not that difficult. The hiring manager seemed to like my background when I first talked to him about the position. I was encouraged to apply, and I did. It took a while for HR to coordinate the interview but finaly I was scheduled to talk to four people in one day. The first interview with hiring manager went well, and the second and third interviews were ok, but not stellar. The last interview was, for the lack of the word, interesting. The interviewer, another manager in eMarketing, is also posting a new position. Therefore, he is also interviewing candidates. So, I was somehow double interviewed, and I was told during the interview that I could also apply for the newly posted position in eMarketing. And I did the next day.

By the end of the week, I was already offered by the hiring manager in national acquisition, and I was also scheduled to have three interviews with eMarketing the next week. The two hiring managers had reached an agreement that I could go through the interviews in eMarketing and I could potentially pick one offer from the two (given that I get the second offer from eMarketing as well). Everything sounded good at that point, and I went through three more rounds of interviews with eMarketing the next week and waited for a final answer.

Then things started to turn. eMarketing was bringing more candidates for interviewing. The national acquisition team is eager to bring me onboard as soon as possible, while the eMarketing seems to be taking time. I was asked by HR for preference, and I picked eMarketing (I had been seeking advice from people around and I was told eMarketing is a better choice). However, it seems that the choice wasn't mine eventually. This message wasn't forwarded to either of the managers according to HR. I was told by HR that I need to make a final decision yesterday to accept or turn down the first offer from national acquisition team, and at the same time, eMarketing team won't give me an answer till two days later. I went to talk to eMarketing team and I was told I don't need to make a final decision right away, and I can wait till Thursday when eMarketing made up their mind, then I can make a final decision then. Well, the conflicting messages were running in circle between me, HR, and two managers. And eventually, it turned out that I need to make a final decision yesterday. And by the way, it was already 3 weeks after I interviewed with the job in national acqusition team.

So, I have one bird in hand, and one bird in the woods. I like the one in the woods, but the one in hand is nice too, and more importantly, it's in my hand now. And I don't have any garantee that I can get the bird in the woods either. So I made the final decision yesterday afternoon to accpet the first offer I got from national acquisition team. By the end of yesterday, the job hunting saga is finally coming to an end.

It was an interesting adventure, and certainlly much politics involved as well. The two hiring managers were good friends, according to them, but I don't know how good the friendship is now. HR plays the role as well in this saga, as the contact person was conveniently out of office yesterday.

All in all, I am happy with the decision. I got what I applied for initially. The hiring manager seems to be a nice person and I look forward to working with him. I will be the only analyst in his group, and there are two account managers under his management as well.

All sound good so far. This is a promotion and I get a higher salary and better gain share. I will be transfering to the new job by the end of this month. Will see what happens next.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 45

I got the phone call from the hiring manager last Friday.

And it was bad news, which I somehow expected.

The reason is simple: 'quality issue'.

After talking to my currently manager, the hiring manager decided that I am not ready for the new position because of this 'quality issue'.

I somehow didn't feel as bad as I expected... maybe deep down I knew I wasn't ready...

Come to think of it, I might be rushed into applying for this position. After hearing the current manager talking about 'there are other opportunities', 'pricing is hard', I got the feeling that he wanted me to move on. So I did, but I failed.

Well, I didn't do well during the interview, I knew that. The confidence just wasn't there. If I don't believe in the product, I can't sell it. That's why I didn't get the job.

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 44

Interviews are over.

Finally.

Just finished the last interview this afternoon with one of the hiring managers in the group, and how do I feel? Not good.

As a matter of fact. It was not good at all.

First two rounds of interviews were done on last Thursday. It was a brutal experience because all three of them asked me the same question: what will your manager say about me? Well, is that a good question...

I wasn't fully prepared for that question, and guess what I did when I was asked by this straight forward manner. I told the truth. It's not a bad thing to tell the truth, but sometimes, truth is hard to swallow. I could the sense the intensity in the air when I told them that I made mistakes before, and my manager is aware of that. I was so eager to turn around this 'Kodak moment' and I ended up saying more than I should. You can guess the rest...

So, I came back on Thursday and thought I could save the day today with the last hiring manager. Well, I was wrong. They changed the questions and I could tell, he already heard about my 'situation'. What I prepared for the interview was not used, and I ended up not saying what I should be saying...

All because of the voice in my head 'you have quality issue, you have quality issue'. ..

Beethoven In Trance - Episode 43

Time to panic.

Interview tomorrow afternoon, with sales and distribution group. I have had an informational interview with the hiring managers and still didn't have a clear picture of what they do.

The interview is in part, a result of my recent 'performance action plan' with my direct manager, who recently mentioned that there were other opportunities in the company in our recent meeting. The conversation changed my decision on whether to apply for this position.

So what are the other reasons I want to change my job? Hum... let me think... Well, I came from a sales and marketing background and I might fit in better in the new group. There are more data analysis projects in the new group than my current group where I spent most of the time on filing. The new job is a step closer to sales and marketing job.

But still, is any of the above reason strong enough for me to leave the current post? I don't have the answer. I have to evaluate the pros and cons here. The pros of staying in the current job are: learning special lines business, pricing? and working with good team. The cons include: one more mistake and I will be out, really feel like a hostile environment. I can't see my future in pricing. Can't see any project in the near future that will leverage my strength-technical skills.
The pro of the new position: new beginning, new learning, and a 'less hostile environment' to work in. It's a one step closer to sales and marketing which is a field I am interested in getting into in the future ideally for a cookware company. And I have more interest in sales than filing. The cons include: it might turn into a reporting type of position that I eventually grow bored with. The challenges involved in the position is unknown, and I don't know if I can handle them or not.

If I break the pros and cons down even further, I will have to ask 'what do I want to learn in pricing?' How to price insurance? Well, I got the basics covered, the question should be how to more accurately price insurance? Well, that will involved much more technical research on the statistics and actuarial science. Do I want to do that? Hum.. maybe not. So, there is not much learning in how to price then. How about learning special line business? Well, what aspect of special line business I want to learn? Sales, marketing, IT, or ... pricing? As a pricer, I have limited resource and time to learn and research these area. How about filing? Yes, there are still things to learn in filing, how we state our rule in the filing, and how we charge people with the coverage and rating factors. I have some general ideas of them and I think those are useful information for me to understand the insurance business fundamental. But after learning all these, there doesn't seem to be much left for me to stay. Therefore, it's just matter of time I leave pricing.

So if eventually will leave pricing, the question become 'is it the time for me to leave pricing?'. Considering the current hostile working environment and no project that requires my strength, it sounds like a good idea to leave now.

But wait, what about the learning from pricing? Do I just gave it up? Have I learned everything I need to learn in pricing? Well, I am sure there are plenty to learn in pricing, but does the learning contribute to my career goal? And compare to the learning in the new group, what will the answer be?

Now, what I need to find out is how to get into the new position and whether or not the new position is a good fit for me.

And the night before the interview is really not a good time to try to figure out the answers to those questions...