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Help me find a new job (1 Viewer)

TheIronSheik

SUPER ELITE UPPER TIER
I can't stand my boss anymore.  There's been rumors that no one likes him and his whole act is wearing thin, but I don't know if I can wait that long to see if he gets that axe.  So I've started looking for other jobs.  But here's my problem:  I don't know what I am.  I'm really good at what I do, but there doesn't really seem to be a title for what it is I do.  I tend to be the guy that comes in, looks at processes and applications, makes changes, writes procedures and training packets.  I've done bits of Technical Writing and bits of Training, but that's never been my only thing and I'm not specialized in it.

I usually work with both the users and the programmers and act as a liaison between the two.  I design the apps but don't actually program.  I'm more the "architect" of them.  I support the users on these applications and help them better use it.  I take data from these apps and pull it into Excel to create in depth reports that track progress of team members usage.

I'm usually lumped in with Business Analyst, but it seems like lately when I search this category, it's filled with SQL and programming.  And that ain't me, sadly.  But I can't figure out a better title to search and my job searches are coming back with nothing that even closely matches.  

At this point, I'd be cool with taking a big pay cut to end up in a job I actually don't hate.  

So, please, help me find a job that doesn't make me want to slit my wrists multiple times a day.

TIA

TIS 

 
Bob Slydell: What you do at Initech is you take the specifications from the customer and bring them down to the software engineers?

Iron Sheik: Yes, yes that's right.

Bob Porter: Well then I just have to ask why can't the customers take them directly to the software people?

Iron Sheik: Well, I'll tell you why, because, engineers are not good at dealing with customers.

Bob Slydell: So you physically take the specs from the customer?

Iron Sheik: Well... No. My secretary does that, or they're faxed.

Bob Porter: So then you must physically bring them to the software people?

Iron Sheik: Well. No. Ah sometimes.

Bob Slydell: What would you say you do here?

Iron Sheik: Well-well look. I already told you: I deal with the ### #### customers so the engineers don't have to. I have people skills; I am good at dealing with people. Can't you understand that? What the hell is wrong with you people?

 
I think you could pass off what you described as a Product Manager.

What industry is this in?  Do you have any unique industry or customer knowledge/skills?

 
I think you could pass off what you described as a Product Manager.

What industry is this in?  Do you have any unique industry or customer knowledge/skills?
I spent most of my time (about 15 years in Oil & Gas), but the last 9 has been in Retail or Other.  Honestly, my IT skills have been pretty adaptable to any business.  I remember when I interviewed with David's Bridal a decade ago after working my whole life in the Oil field.  The hiring manager said he didn't think my skills would relate in their business.  They hired me on contract and I ended up redesigning half of their equipment and showed them how much money they were wasting by not keeping track of certain data points.  I was actually doing pretty well there until they almost went bankrupt and laid off more than half their employees.  I'm no money guy, but they must have had some shady crap going on.  They owned something like 85% of the market share for wedding attire and they had trouble turning a profit.   :confused:

 
My company calls the people that do what you do Business Analysts. They make good coin. They write all the SOPs and BRDs for a project and act as the liason for the developers, operation associates and clients. Basically an Engagement Manager's (Project manager) right hand man. 

Look up Business Analyst and see what looks good to you.

 
 We’d also call you a Business Analyst or Service Director except you sound like a very good one as opposed to the ones in my organization that lack both tech skills and business understanding. But they are great at putting stuff on the backlog. 

Good luck and keep us posted. 

 
Bob Slydell: What you do at Initech is you take the specifications from the customer and bring them down to the software engineers?
Reading the OP, this was the first thing I thought of, but in all seriousness, there are people at corporations with valuable skills yet nebulous job descriptions whose selling point to others may be hurt by this.

I've been in situations like this -- only as a temp -- in some instances, where I've come in and cleaned up a procedural or software problem people were having through intuition and time. I've almost been hired several times for a generalized job description and so no thank you. (I was offered these right before I knew I was going back to school.) The OP asks a legit question. His job seeking status per his technical job description may not be commensurate with his ability.

 
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I tend to be the guy that comes in, looks at processes and applications, makes changes, writes procedures and training packets.  I've done bits of Technical Writing and bits of Training, but that's never been my only thing and I'm not specialized in it.

I usually work with both the users and the programmers and act as a liaison between the two.  I design the apps but don't actually program.  I'm more the "architect" of them.  I support the users on these applications and help them better use it.  I take data from these apps and pull it into Excel to create in depth reports that track progress of team members usage.

I'm usually lumped in with Business Analyst, but it seems like lately when I search this category, it's filled with SQL and programming.  And that ain't me, sadly.  But I can't figure out a better title to search and my job searches are coming back with nothing that even closely matches.  
I'm in the same boat.  I'm labelled a BA, but it is becoming for technical now - especially in the consultant world.  I've been using my current assignment to learn SQL.  It's not too difficult, but definitely behind the curve.  There are BA spots out there without SQL and programming required.  It helps if you can pick up new systems quickly.  That's been my niche and I've always found a job/assignment quickly.  I've been consulting as a BA for about 12 years now.  My shortest job was 6 months, and my longest has been 3 years.  I find it funny that I can stay employed as someone who can understand things from a technical level and translate it into something the "business" partners can understand.  It seems so easy and common sense, but I'll take it.

 
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Aside from business analyst I think your skills might lean toward UX design.

Also do you have any Agile experience? It sounds like you might make a good scrum leader or product owner.

Agree with earlier comment about speaking with recruiter.

 
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Aside from business analyst I think your skills might lean toward UX design.

Also do you have any Agile experience? It sounds like you might make a good scrum leader or product owner.

Agree with earlier comment about speaking with recruiter.
I spoken with some in the past (like last summer) and they all seem like they have no clue what they're doing.  A decade ago, my recruiter was the greatest PR person I had.  But nowadays, recruiters seem like people who barely know what they're doing.  No offense to anyone if that's what they do, but I can't seem to find a recruiter worth a damn anymore.

 
I spoken with some in the past (like last summer) and they all seem like they have no clue what they're doing.  A decade ago, my recruiter was the greatest PR person I had.  But nowadays, recruiters seem like people who barely know what they're doing.  No offense to anyone if that's what they do, but I can't seem to find a recruiter worth a damn anymore.
Most of them do not know what they're doing. But, they can get you contacts and usually an interview with a company. They have the easier path than you would by yourself. You just have to use them for what they have and take the search into your own hands.

 
You sound like a Project Manager.

Definitely not an "architect", unless you are writing code.
I've done PM work, but never actually been a "Project Manager."  And have no certs so a lot of people don't even want to talk to me without them because even though I have 20 years experience, I don't have that paper.  But, whatever.  I'm not here to complain.  And when I say architect, I mean more like the architect of a building.  I'm not swinging the hammer and I'm not creating the building material.  I've said the term architect before and people say the same thing.  But I don't mean it in terms of an actual IT term.

 
If you want to send me your resume, Ill pass it on.  Honestly, we need people like you.
In the SE PA area?  I have a kid in high school and my wife works, too, so I don't have the luxury of picking a spot other than in my current location.

 
Get some black belt six sigma certification and call yourself process owner.

Of course that work is as boring as watching paint dry but then you'll have more time (or at least incentive) to post here

I call that a win-win

 
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Good luck!  FBGs could use a BBQ process and develpment guy.  They are giving it away for FREE!!!  Crazy.

 
look into:

UX Designer
Product Manager (traditional lifecycle)
Product Owner (agile or scrum lifecycle)
Business Innovation Manager

things along those lines. if any of those sound promising, maybe see if you can stick it out at your job for a few more months while you get some official training under your belt before you hit the market.

 
My greatest work accomplishment was when I worked for one oil company and they called us into an unexpected meeting to tell us that we needed to redesign the current application into a more streamlined version, but it also needed to be able to switch from English to Russian because the sheets it printed needed to be in Russian for government processing.  They told us to have it done in 3 months.

I had to go into those HTML sheets and search for English words and then replace them with the Russian words and make sure the sheets still lined up.  Also, I didn't know HTML or Russian.  On top of the redesign, we needed to create all new user manuals and training materials.  When 3 months had passed, I had created the new app, and the materials, AND it also switched between Russian, English, Arabic and Spanish.  But my favorite part was a simple trick I used for the training material.  I made sure that every sentence stayed on the same page regardless of language.  Russian can be much longer than English and by the 100th page of the manual, you might be 2 chapters off.  But with my outline, no matter what class you were in when you were training, if you said "Turn to page 53...", you knew everyone was going to the same learning point.  So simple but so brilliant.

Anyway, when I turned it in, the manager told me he didn't actually expect me to have it finished on time.  He said it was one of those things where he was trying to set unrealistic goals to prove that we were rushing the project too much.  So I came in under budget, more features than asked and 7 months ahead of schedule.

Great interview story, but hard to fit that on a resume bullet point.  :lol:

 

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