The Daily Writing prompt asks me to – Describe a decision you made in the past that helped you learn or grow.
I recall a decision to stay in something comfortable and known or move on. I was in a lead position under a manager I loved working for in the Publishing System group. The move to take a step down in position to transfer to the UNIX Systems group as a Senior System Admin to work under a hard-ass former Marine.
I went through the interview/testing and got the position. I was so excited. Well, the VP returned from a long vacation as the managers worked out the transition, got wind of the change, and immediately killed it. I was informed by what was then the manager of the UNIX and Windows Admins. This was the day before I was supposed to start in the new role.
I walked out of that office more depressed than I’ve ever been in my professional life. But that only lasted a few short minutes, I became enraged and highly pissed off. I paced for maybe 5-10 minutes and headed for the Gold Coast. That term Gold Coast was one for the upper management row of Directors and VPs.
The VP was in a meeting but his door was open so I just stood at the opening. A couple of them looked over and a minute or two passed and then he looked up and said I’m in a meeting, I just replied with “I’ll wait” and didn’t move an inch. There was a minute of uncomfortable silence and one of the Directors started to talk but the other were looking at me.
Mike said let me call you when I’m finished. I stood there, said “I’ll wait” and crossed my arms and locked eyes. Another minute of uncomfortable silence till I said “We talk when you’re finished here or I’m out of here.” He excused the others and we went at it.
He didn’t want to change his decision and gave all kinds of good reasons but I had mentally moved on. If I could land that position here, I could certainly get one on the outside. That was the most intense back-and-forth I’ve ever had with a senior executive and I’d had several before that one. I stuck to my position and told him he’d have me in that old position till I found a job elsewhere.
He finally agreed, reluctantly to let me move to the new role. It was the most technically intense learning period of my life in that UNIX group. It was an incredible opportunity. Lots of big IBM and SUN UNIX racks and storage systems from EMC and NetApp. We did, OS, security, backup, performance, and network while dabbling in all the apps and databases that ran on them with the respective teams.
It was all I knew it would be when I fought for it.
