Job Woes

[Nick H. Supervisor]

Ok, time for a little backstory. If you don't want to read it, skip down to the bolded bit.

I started my current job back in October. I'm a helpdesk guy for a rather large company, catering to users around the world. It was a huge step up from my previous job, which only catered to three school campuses. Part of the reason for the position being available with this company is that it has been bought by a larger company, and so they needed the extra personnel to help with the migration process. While it wasn't explicitly pointed out, I took this to mean that once the system was together it would be the larger company's IT team that would take over complete control, basically ending my job. I was ok with that, since at the time I was unemployed so any job was fine. I imagined that this migration period would only be about one year, meaning that my contract would only be one year. Again, I was fine with that.

Skip forwards to today. I'm 10 months in to the contract, and the honeymoon period is well and truly over. Almost every aspect of this job is bad. I don't feel like I work in IT anymore, I feel more like a secretary. While I understand that paperwork is pretty much part of any job, the paperwork outweighs the computer work by something like 5:1. For every computer I touch, there is paperwork to be filled out. For every access request, there is more paperwork to be filled out. It's come to the point where my boss - in no uncertain terms - has sidelined me so that now all I deal with is access requests. This means that I'm in front of my computer almost all the time, and for every access request I handle...you guessed it, more paperwork.

The migration is a mess. I know that it isn't easy to plan such a thing, but there is almost zero communication between us and the other teams. I'm currently handling two ticketing systems, ours and theirs, in an attempt to smooth out the transition. Yeah, that's working well. Even my partner in the US is saying the same thing, the system is fundamentally flawed.

This is not what I got in to IT for. I enjoy working with computers, but I also enjoy interacting with clients. At my last job I genuinely enjoyed answering the phone and saying, "you know what, I'll just head over and meet you to explain what the issue is." While it's more difficult to have that interaction here (I can't exactly just hop over to Morocco to fix a PC) I'm no longer supposed to get involved with problems in the same building that I'm in. That becomes a job for any of the rest of the team.

I woke up this morning and trudged to work as usual. All the way along I was thinking, "why am I doing this?" And this hasn't been the first time that it's entered my mind. Today has been slightly different though, in that my mind came up with the idea of "I want a new job" and now I can't shake it. Obviously I'm going to talk to my boss when he comes back (2 weeks vacation when we were told that - due to the migration - we couldn't really do such a thing at this time) and tell him that either he puts me in to a more hands-on position or I'm out of here. But if that doesn't happen, I'm going to hand in my letter of resignation.

Purpose of this thread

As I mentioned before, I realise that very few jobs come without paperwork. And it's not that I'm unhappy with doing paperwork, so long as there is enough practical work involved to justify it. How does the paperwork : work ratio work out for everyone else?

Has anyone been in a similar situation in IT, being part of a migration process? How did it work for you?

Ignoring the "if you don't like it, change it" advice, do you think it's right that I'm considering packing it in? If you were in the above situation, what would you do?

Should I look for another job in IT, or should I try my hand at something else? If all else fails, I don't think I'd mind working in a bar for a short time, just while I figure my situation out.

If you've considered packing in your job before, how did you go about job hunting, and dealing with interviews? I'm still going to be with this company during that time, so my availability will obviously be limited.

Ok, I think that's it. Aside from anything else I needed to get it off my chest, and writing it down has cleared my head slightly which is a start. Any responses are welcome.

[+Nik Louch Subscriber²]

Look - there is no shame in leaving this. If the migration is going to fail, you may do well by distancing yourself from the project...

Start looking but on the sly, and once you get interviews and job offers, simply tell your employer you have no faith in the project and the role isn't suitable for you - you're a developer not a paper pusher.

Get your CV bang up to date (PM me and I will send you mine, not to be a dick but it was VERY well received by agents and employers - 3 job offers in under a week).

Get yourself on Linked-In and promote yourself - agents scour this site looking for people.

[madmrcopper]

Ive been in a similar situation for the last 12 months in my place of work. I have been with the company for 6 years then with many highs and lows.

About 2 years ago we where taken over by a huge Canada company. At start it was OK, they flexed there muscles to start with but soon left me and the IT manager alone. There was only 2 of us so was always busy but had interesting working and I really cared for the business.

However things changed 12 months ago when out of the blue the decided to migrate our systems and I was moved over to there IT team. The IT manager was forced out of his role leaving me the only person left. The CAD manager who i worked closely with was separated from working with the team which made things harder.

To start with it was OK but things start to go down hill from there. I have been involved in several migrations before hand due to the company changing hands but things had never been as bad as this. Several events happen which made me very unhappy. I was looking for a new job, some interviews went well but others I had bad feedback from (still don't know why as things where not what I said at all, does sound like they had already found the person they wanted). By Christmas I had got my self in a really bad way with stress and depression.

My Christmas was the worse I had ever had. I hardly went out and no sleep. Come Christmas Day evening I was worrying about returning to work and didn't sleep or eat. I did however return to work for 1 week after Christmas break but that weekend I broke down. I ended up being signed off work by my doctor.

During my time off I managed to relax and get my self back in a better way and I returned to work. Things haven't got any better really in the work environment but I have got to a stage where I just don't care anymore. I spend much of my day playing around on the internet and chatting to friends, much different to 12 months ago when I was putting my heart and sole into the place. I'm also doing some online training just to spruce up my knowledge.

Speaking around the place it doesn't just seem to be IT they have upset. Lots of staff have left over the last 6 months (did a AD clean up this week and couldn't believe the office sizes now). We must have about 1 person leave a week, not just junior staff but also senior ones. The CAD manager left this week, which has effected me quite badly and put me on a down again. But I am pleased for him as he has moved onto better things.

I'm currently looking around also for a new position but also finding it very hard in the current environment. I really want to get my spark back in IT I have decided that I don't want to work for a large organization again but a much smaller one. Unfortunately these are the people who seem to be cutting back on IT. I have had some positive feedback CV and interview wise but unfortunately nothing has come up. I'm just keeping on in here. My doctor said just keep working at taking the money which I am doing but do also want to move on.

All I can suggest is do the same thing, I've distance my self internally from a lot of things as they have gone bad. This way management cant point the finger at me like they had been doing at Christmas.

Good luck, Chris

[Nick H. Supervisor]

I have got to a stage where I just don't care anymore.

This is my problem. These days I just don't care enough about this position, which I think is skewing my thinking. As you said, the job market is difficult at the moment so it may not be the best time to go job hunting, but also like you this current position has got me depressed and I just want out.

I really want to get my spark back in IT I have decided that I don't want to work for a large organization again but a much smaller one.

Again, same position. As I mentioned, my last job was working for a smaller "company," it was interesting and I enjoyed it. I'm not sure if it's the size of this current company, but something is telling me that I want to move back to a similar sized company like before in order to regain my interest in IT.

I put a status update on my Facebook and my friends have been involved with providing advice. Some of them are saying, "hang in for a couple more months so that you've got the year under your belt" which makes sense to me, but another friend commented that I should get out now if it's not what I want to do. As he said, "if I was hiring someone then I wouldn't pick someone that ended up screwing around for 2 months just to have the one year on them." This also makes sense to me. What are everyone's thoughts on this?

I appreciate the feedback, guys. Although I knew it to be the case, I'm glad to see that other people have had similar experiences.

[yeoo_andy_ni]

Totally understand where you are coming from.

I took a position 5 minutes down the road from me and was pitched the role as being very oriented towards SAN implementation, SharePoint implementation and AD migration.

It turned out to be a glorified secretarial role, with the IT Manager having the IT staff doing HR work (timesheets) as it was "an IT system." I RDP'd to a server one day and my colleague turned and said to me "Don't let the manager see you doing that!" Seriously, how am I supposed to troubleshoot if I can't RDP to a server?! No responsibility and no direction in the department and the organisation. Change was frowned upon. Terrible job, 2nd worst I've ever had.

If you can afford to leave, there is no shame in just handing in your notice and going. I would have if I didn't have house, wife and kids to support. I was a mess, lol!

Look for other things, and just be honest in why you are wanting to leave. An prospective employer would rather have someone who says they left because they were bored and they weren't getting what they wanted from the role, than have them say they simply want a new challenge.

[Detection]

I would talk to the boss, explain how you feel he has pushed you into paperwork when you signed up for IT, and explain that unless you are given a more hands on role in the job that you will be looking for work elsewhere

Either way the outcome will get you out of paperwork

[madmrcopper]

I'm finding I'm just getting lost in the new team and speaking to people this seems a symptom of working for a large organization. Unfortunately our new owners favor there own staff over people they have brought. Very odd as the reason they stated for purchasing the company was the experience. But as I said its not just IT who have had this. Our CAD manager left also because he was pushed to the side.

I would love a place where I can just give something back to the business. I just hope the market picks up again so I can move on. I'm also hoping the people who have left will keep in touch on any positions.

[Vykranth]

The amount of paperwork is exponential with the size of the company and it is even worse when the various department are billing each other for service: sign the work order with the approval of the manager, have IT grant the request, IT works on the request then you have to sign that the work was properly done so that every task and budget is justified.

After that, Migrations. I have very rarely seen any migrations going smoothly and never actually following whatever plans the senior management yanked out of some consultants' anuses.

My department is supposed to move to a new source control system: it has been now 7 months that this project is being 'prepared'.

The worse part of it is that we are moving from a good free open-source product to a rather-****ty commerical product and this is supposed to be good for the purpose of 'integration'.

After migration, there is inertia ....

We changed the bug tracker system a few months ago. It worked nicely because the new product is much better. Sadly, it does not work well with IE9. The vendor knew that and fixes the problem with IE9 in a later version.

However, the people managing that service do not want to upgrade because it would be too difficult. Moving from version 4.4.4 to 4.4.5 is too difficult, yeah right ...

My advice is to look for a job and try to find a smaller structure.

Normally, a smaller structure is more pleasant to work in. There is some paperwork involved but much less because the various departments are not really competing with each other for budget.