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Jul. 12th, 2013 04:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolari(I'm trying again to keep my social and professional lives seperate (as we see how well I did at Nintendo and Speakeasy), so I'm going to try and anonymize where I'm working, although it's not hard to tell what I'm doing.)
So I broke down today, and came very very very close to quitting the job.
I'm having a lot of second thoughts about the move from Seattle and leaving Nintendo as you've heard But these are about 2% of the problem I'm having. In fact, other than an lot of buyer's remorse, it's almost nothing. The technical side of what I'm doing is rough, though. It's in a field I've never been in before, have only a passing knowledge of, and have never really sat down at worked on. It's a very technical and confusing tech, but given time and training, I could manage pretty well.
Nintendo had three weeks of pretty intense training. Speakeasy had a month. Dell had two months. Even smaller companies like DNP and Winco had two weeks. This one? Three days. To learn a whole new techology. That's rough. But usually, I can get it.
The problem?
We aren't supporting one company. We're supporting FIVE. Five seperate comapnies, each with their own procedures, rules, TOSes. Worse, for every one procedure, there are FIVE methods to implement it. I was already having problems just groking the technology, but now I had to get used to five ways to FIX that technology. I knew I was in trouble on Day Two.
At Nintendo, we had a database that had everything we'd ever know about our jobs. It was capable if sitting someone down the first day, and have them answering calls like a pro as long as they could figure the search function out. This company has a very hard to use wiki, that isn't working for me. So I attempted to create my own ELMO, going through almost five days of tickets, determining the problem, and writing down the answer. But even then, things got hairy quickly. There wasn't one answer to every question. THERE WERE FIVE.
After a while of struggling to just get some basics, and near the verge of tears, I nearly quit. I didn't have the knowledge of the tech to do the job, the knowledge of all the different procedures, or even what each company did differetly from each other. This is the first time I've ever started a job completely insecure that I could do the job. Nintendo? Piece of cake. Speakeasy, a challenge, but not insurmountable with enough training. DNP? Same stuff I did at Dell.
This time, I feel completely unprepared for the job. I'm going to be taking calls off the seat of my pants, working with minimal documentation and sketchy handle on the tech. This is the first time I've felt I could fail at my job.
Shortly before my break I came to the conclusion that I couldn't do this job. Maybe if I had more training on one company's policies and a better handle on the tech - sure. But not like this. Id I'd quit, though, it'd be a huge blow to the folks who have been bankrolling my stay in Texas, and the apartment plan would have gone to hell. I called my dad for advice on what to do. My voice broke several times, so he knew I was in dire staits.
His advice? "Tell the company that you're struggling with this...but you'll do your best. And if you need to let me go, I'll understand - no hard feelings. But you're going to get the best I can do."
I'm going to give it my best shot. And if I fail, I failed doing my best. It's not that the Best Wasn't Good Enough, but that You Gave it Your All.
My life might be very different if I'd just asked his advice 30 years ago. :)
So I broke down today, and came very very very close to quitting the job.
I'm having a lot of second thoughts about the move from Seattle and leaving Nintendo as you've heard But these are about 2% of the problem I'm having. In fact, other than an lot of buyer's remorse, it's almost nothing. The technical side of what I'm doing is rough, though. It's in a field I've never been in before, have only a passing knowledge of, and have never really sat down at worked on. It's a very technical and confusing tech, but given time and training, I could manage pretty well.
Nintendo had three weeks of pretty intense training. Speakeasy had a month. Dell had two months. Even smaller companies like DNP and Winco had two weeks. This one? Three days. To learn a whole new techology. That's rough. But usually, I can get it.
The problem?
We aren't supporting one company. We're supporting FIVE. Five seperate comapnies, each with their own procedures, rules, TOSes. Worse, for every one procedure, there are FIVE methods to implement it. I was already having problems just groking the technology, but now I had to get used to five ways to FIX that technology. I knew I was in trouble on Day Two.
At Nintendo, we had a database that had everything we'd ever know about our jobs. It was capable if sitting someone down the first day, and have them answering calls like a pro as long as they could figure the search function out. This company has a very hard to use wiki, that isn't working for me. So I attempted to create my own ELMO, going through almost five days of tickets, determining the problem, and writing down the answer. But even then, things got hairy quickly. There wasn't one answer to every question. THERE WERE FIVE.
After a while of struggling to just get some basics, and near the verge of tears, I nearly quit. I didn't have the knowledge of the tech to do the job, the knowledge of all the different procedures, or even what each company did differetly from each other. This is the first time I've ever started a job completely insecure that I could do the job. Nintendo? Piece of cake. Speakeasy, a challenge, but not insurmountable with enough training. DNP? Same stuff I did at Dell.
This time, I feel completely unprepared for the job. I'm going to be taking calls off the seat of my pants, working with minimal documentation and sketchy handle on the tech. This is the first time I've felt I could fail at my job.
Shortly before my break I came to the conclusion that I couldn't do this job. Maybe if I had more training on one company's policies and a better handle on the tech - sure. But not like this. Id I'd quit, though, it'd be a huge blow to the folks who have been bankrolling my stay in Texas, and the apartment plan would have gone to hell. I called my dad for advice on what to do. My voice broke several times, so he knew I was in dire staits.
His advice? "Tell the company that you're struggling with this...but you'll do your best. And if you need to let me go, I'll understand - no hard feelings. But you're going to get the best I can do."
I'm going to give it my best shot. And if I fail, I failed doing my best. It's not that the Best Wasn't Good Enough, but that You Gave it Your All.
My life might be very different if I'd just asked his advice 30 years ago. :)
