This morning I realized I had come so far for reasons that even I had forgotten by then. I stared at the ceiling fan waiting for the next chance to hit snooze. I knew I was only prolonging it, but the day seems much more daunting when you've just found out that you're 2000 miles away from everything that you've grown to love. 7:30? I can still sleep for another hour...
Finally, it was time for the real interviews. I had been prepping for this my entire life. This had been my passion, my life-force, and my one dream for as long as I can remember. I'd committed my life to this skill set and now it was time to see it all payoff.
They came and went but none of them truly caught my attention. Then I opened a new email to find that I would be interviewing with the Big Blue in a few short days. "This is it!", I thought to myself as I began thinking of all the additional things I could do to prepare for this. Three days later I was waiting in the lobby, resume and notebook in hand, awaiting my time to shine.
It was perfect. The tension was low from start to finish as we immediately found a mutual humor to alleviate it before it arose. In fact, the first five minutes we discussed snow-boarding and skiing in the lovely mountains of Utah. We ended on a positive note after I knocked the problem solving question out of the park. You can ask anyone that was around me that day, I was feeling on top of the world.
A couple of weeks later the calls had coming in and I had some decisions to make. Do I want to move to Boston? What about Atlanta? None of these sounded very exciting to me...and then Raleigh lit up my life (in more ways than one).
The description was perfect. The area wasn't exactly my preferred choice, but why not, right? Let's pack up and go! It may not have been the ideal position for me, but it sounded like I could move around pretty easily. I was assured by everyone I asked, people switch departments all the time. I could show up, rock the boat, get recognized, and be on my way up in no time. My belongings were in boxes and I was on a flight across the country before I even truly thought it through.
It seems a little...melodramatic doesn't it? What could have been so bad that I'm lying here complaining to you? I assure you, this is not an exaggeration. These are the effects that Corporate America has on guys like me.
Oh, they'll throw millions of dollars into the paintings that you so easily adopt into your minds of innovation, creativity, and efficiency. The end-all solution, if you will, where great minds go to think. They do an excellent job, don't you think?
You're free to innovate and you're free to streamline efficiency....but before you do, can you check with Bill? He has to give the OK on all new ideas. Oh, I'm sorry, Bill's out of the office today. Can you check with Karen instead? Oh, this a cross-department initiative, let's get Jim in on this discussion. Oh, Jim's unavailable right now.
Can we reschedule this for next month?
1 comment:
I'm really glad that you're doing this multi-part series of what went wrong at IBM. Hearing about the hypocrisy and politics at your work from you was frustrating in itself, but I'm sure that these entries will provide a much clearer picture into your nightmare of an employment. I look forward to the rest of the series.
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