it’s your Friday good news

by Alison Green on October 1, 2021

It’s your Friday good news!

1. I’ve been with the same company (albeit doing a couple of different jobs) for 20 years. I’ve been unhappy with my job for a while: it doesn’t interest me after doing the same thing for 10 years, it doesn’t require a brain and the company culture is such that I’ve been complained at for leaving on time one day a week (apparently having a social life is a problem). I’ve been so stressed for so long I can’t even tell if I’m stressed any more.

After some thought about what I wanted to I decided I wanted to change careers to one in web development. Fortunately it’s one where it’s very easy to learn for free in your own time using the multitude of resources on the internet. After a couple of years of learning in my free time, this summer I decided I was ready to start looking for junior web development jobs and oh, it was hard. I was finding, on average, a job a week to apply to. One job I interviewed with said they’d had 60-odd applicants.

I was getting dispirited and had nothing on the horizon apart from this one job I’d got to the second interview of. It was the only one I interviewed for that I actually wanted, by the time I finished interviewing. I was just glad I was their last interview and only had to wait 24 hours to find out if I’d got it or not. It happened to be at the end of a week off and I was more productive in that 24 hours than I had been in the whole week, while trying to take your advice to put it out of my mind (so much easier said than done).

And I got the job! When it comes to work-life balance they are the total opposite of my current job: they complain at people if they’re still working 10 minutes after finishing time. What with long notice periods here, I don’t start until November, but I am really looking forward to it (it’s just so far away…).

The coding community is amazing and have so much advice – so much that it conflicts. Wherever there was a conflict I went with your advice, and it seems to have worked. Having bought your book, I found the advice about interviews really useful (the coding community is
entirely focused on technical interviews). And particularly your advice about how to think about your achievements when they’re not easily quantified with numbers – I’d never have managed a create good resume without that.

2. This is not my news, but my daughter’s. She was invited to apply for a job that had a firm requirement for a college degree and 3-5 years’ experience. She has the experience but not the degree. I told her to go for it, she had nothing to lose. She did, and when they called the first time they asked her salary requirement. She asked for 50% more than she is making at her current position. Well, not only did she get hired, she got the salary she asked for!

The takeaway for me is, even if you don’t have all the requirements, don’t be afraid to throw your hat into the ring!

P.S. I know some of you are thinking “50%!!! What planet is she from?” But she would be giving up a company car, company paid cell phone and corporate credit card, so this is what she figured she needed to make up for this.

3. I work in an extremely niche field, and while I could move beyond that niche, I wanted to stay within it.

I’d been unhappy at my job for some time. Our workplace was a bit dysfunctional. I was supposed to work closely with someone in another group; that individual refused to acknowledge my existence if we were in-person together (in the same small conference room!) for YEARS. People were passed over for well-deserved promotions in favor of the girlfriend of a senior staff member. A favored few were sent to conferences for software we didn’t own…when there was no money in the budget for anyone to attend conferences for software we DID own. Every woman who was promoted to a management position still had to do her old job…the price of a promotion was to work crazy hours.

Then my boss left, my boss’s boss left, and my boss’s boss’s boss left in the space of two months. My new temporary grandboss was someone who’d berated me in a meeting because he didn’t believe employees should be paid for on-the-job professional development. I knew it was time for me to go.

I’d read AAM for a long time, mostly as a lurker. I saw my ideal job on LinkedIn: mostly remote, in my niche, for an extremely well-respected organization. I used your tips for my cover letter and resume. I got a call within less than 12 hours for an initial interview, and now I’m working at the only job I’ve applied for in years. EVERYONE commented on how much they loved my cover letter. I tried to use that to highlight the things they wouldn’t know from my resume, and let my personality come through. Thank you so much for that.

I did not use your skills for salary negotiation. This workplace had such good benefits that I asked for my current salary (as the benefits package meant the equivalent of a 10% increase in pay. Well, they bumped my actual pay up 20% more than I was asking for!

Now, my “ideal job” isn’t a perfect job. There are no perfect jobs. Every workplace has its quirks; no one gets along perfectly with every single person they work with; there are frustrations no matter where you work. But there is a world of difference between a workplace that values you and one that doesn’t. I hope that everyone reading this gets the opportunity to work where they are respected and can grow.

One other piece of advice I can give: I am extremely involved in organizations for my industry, and have volunteered my time in organizing conferences, participating in online forums, holding webinars to bring people together, etc. As I mentioned, this is the sort of thing my then-new grandboss frowned upon, but when I applied for this job, my (good) reputation had preceded me — my coworkers already “knew” who I was — and that was truly a deciding factor in their decision to hire me. I would highly recommend volunteering your time if your industry has educational groups., You don’t necessarily need to be the most knowledgeable person in the group; you can start by taking notes at meetings, finding speakers for webinars or conferences, and making yourself useful. I don’t look at it as networking. I’m genuinely just building relationships, making friends, and introducing people to others. But it has made a big difference in my career.

You may also like:
{ 30 comments }

{ 30 comments… read them below }

  1. Kiko*

    Congrats to your daughter, OP2! I’m probably only a few years older than her, but I was able to double my salary earlier this year. So getting a 50% jump is completely believable to me. After reading AAM for so many years, I know many of us underestimate our value. And there’s plenty of awful employers out there willing to take advantage of this fact.

    Best of luck in her new position.

    1. wittyrepartee*

      I, for one, would never tell someone that they’re crazy for asking for a 50% raise that they ultimately were given. It sounds like she just knew what a reasonable salary for that position would be. Good for her!

      1. CarlDeanJolene*

        Exactly! She was obviously spot on, bc they accepted. Prior salary should not bc an indicator of market, bc you easily could be underpaid.

  2. SentientAmoeba*

    LW 2, don’t feel you need to justify. She asked for it and got the 50% increase, meaning she was worth it to them. I’ve gotten a 50% salary increase before, once for a promotion and once for a job change (That was more of a 110% increase once I got to full salary)

    1. PhyllisB*

      Thanks for the good wishes for daughter!! New update: Four months after she started this job, she got recruited from another company for another 25% increase in salary. She called me “MOOOOMMM!!! What should I do???!!!” I channeled my inner Alison and told her to think long and hard; don’t just get swayed by the money. I also told her if she did this, plan to stay for a while, that one jump wouldn’t really hurt her, but another one too soon might damage her reputation. She decided to make the change, and is very happy with her new position. Also, while she was in the process of getting ready to onboard with this company, she got offered ANOTHER position with another 30% increase in salary (when it rains, it pours!!) She decided to stay put.

      3. LemonLyman*

        My goodness! Can she send some of that good luck my way? ☺️ I’m job searching right now!

  3. MyLifeInSocks*

    I don’t know if this is good news exactly, but I thought I would share that I’m spreading the word of AAM. I teach a student success course to first-year college students. When we did our unit that included interview tips, our in-class activity was going to AAM and using the search tool/tags to find things to share with the class.

    One of the students asked if Alison is my friend (lol). I told them, “No… genuinely think it’s a good resource.”

    1. PhyllisB*

      Yes, on sharing AAM as a resource. I have a friend who taught in the BOT program and I shared this with her, too.
      Y’all have heard (read) me tell my adult children about this resource, and now when they want career advice they will ask me, ” what would your friend Alison say about this?” I always tell them, but then I remind them they CAN read this for themselves and not ask me!!

  4. Anonymars*

    My Friday good news is I just got a job offer! I definitely need to negotiate a few things, but after starting this hunt back in May (and giving my notice to my current employer before I had the offer in hand for the new job) I’m so relieved and excited for the new opportunity.

    Question for the community: This is a senior level position that has a lot of responsibility and seems to need a very DIY attitude (which doesn’t scare me, it’s one of the things that most appealed to me). I’m excited about it and I think I’ll accept, but I have questions about

    I looked up the person who previously held this job and I really want to reach out to her to ask what it was like day to day, and what advice she’d give her successor. She was at the company for 6 years and seems to have been responsible for a lot of their success in this department. She now holds a minor city council position so her email is easily findable. Is it weird for me to send her a cold email to ask for an informal phone call before I accept the offer?

    1. Boof*

      I’m not sure I have much authority to answer this but if it matters it sounds reasonable to send a polite email since it’s publicly posted; but first perhaps you could ask the folks who just gave you an offer if they might be able to put you in contact, which might grease the wheels a little better?

    2. All Het Up About It*

      You might get a few more responses if you post this question in the open Friday thread. But my answer is it might be a little odd, particularly at this point in the process. If you had reached out earlier, I think that sort of thing is a bit more common, though still less so since she doesn’t know you and and you don’t know her. But the other thing is how long would you wait for a response? What if she tells you horrible things? Will you take her at her word or think that there might be underlying issues? Plus, even if she tells you wonderful glowing things about the day to day, that doesn’t mean it’s how it will be. Lots of things can change after a person leaves, even in a short period of time. Or the other thing is, what if she did leave on great terms, but is bothered/offended by your ask and it gets back to the hiring manager?

      Personally, I think you are better off asking your questions during the negotiation process if you feel like they are going to have that big of an impact on if you would accept the role or not. But YMMV

    3. Medusa*

      For me personal, someone reaching out to me about something like this has never been weird, but I agree with the other commentor who said the timing might be a little odd. But then again, that might not actually matter all that much. She may also not get back to you in time before you have to give your answer.

  5. FORMERHigherEdPerson*

    I wanted to share my good news of a NEW JOB! I had previously worked in Higher Ed for 16 years, but the pandemic pushed me to my breaking point. After doing my research (which included getting some advice from commentators here!), I made the shift to Learning & Development and I’m SO MUCH HAPPIER. I work remotely 4 days/week, get paid more, no longer work nights and weekends, and I’m doing work that I truly enjoy. I used AAM advice throughout my whole search process, and I’m so grateful!

  6. Jack Straw*

    LW3’s advice to volunteer is spot on. I’d been volunteering in my passion field for 7-8 years and when a full-time position opened up (the only one that had been posted in 7 years for the org because everyone stays) I applied on a whim and was the person hired out of 100+ applicants. It was largely because of my volunteer work and the reputation had in the field. Congrats to you, LW3!

  7. Susan Calvin*

    Bonus good news: Today, I have welcomed my very first own hire! The search was a bit of a pain, but everyone’s super happy about the guy we found, and hopefully we didn’t scare him off with the information overload of onboarding day 1. At least the office is still sparsely populated, so he didn’t get mobbed by excited colleagues :)

    One down, 3 more openings to go…

  8. FionasHuman*

    LW#1: Congratulations! I hope you’re leaving old job on time every single day, and early on Fridays. They owe you that.

  9. ExtrovertedIntrovert*

    “I don’t look at it as networking. I’m genuinely just building relationships, making friends, and introducing people to others.”

    I just have to say… that is networking! Except maybe the friends part, that’s just a bonus depending on how you’re defining it. Too many people think of networking as slimy and transactional, but it’s really just building and maintaining relationships. Forget what anyone has told you about networking, you’re doing it the right way!

    2. Bluesboy*

      I came here to write this too. I seem to see fairly often posts from people talking about how they hate networking, but seeming to think that the only way to do it is by walking up to random strangers at an industry conference and trying to talk to them.

      This is networking too! Making yourself involved, and useful to people in your professional community gives you contacts and can lead to better things, without the awkwardness of having to start conversations from cold. Well done OP3!

  10. Bookworm*

    Another nice way to end the week. Thanks for expanding on your experiences, OP. Food for thought.

  11. Hacker For Hire*

    The last paragraph of LW#3 contains very important advice, and is worth repeating:

    One other piece of advice I can give: I am extremely involved in organizations for my industry, and have volunteered my time in organizing conferences, participating in online forums, holding webinars to bring people together, etc. As I mentioned, this is the sort of thing my then-new grandboss frowned upon, but when I applied for this job, my (good) reputation had preceded me — my coworkers already “knew” who I was — and that was truly a deciding factor in their decision to hire me. I would highly recommend volunteering your time if your industry has educational groups., You don’t necessarily need to be the most knowledgeable person in the group; you can start by taking notes at meetings, finding speakers for webinars or conferences, and making yourself useful. I don’t look at it as networking. I’m genuinely just building relationships, making friends, and introducing people to others. But it has made a big difference in my career.

  12. AnnieWonders*

    I would like to tap into the collective wisdom here. I am so very happy for #2 and their success. My question is about a technical detail in the story and the encouragement to apply even if you don’t meet the requirements. From a hiring manager’s POV, we have stopped this practice of allowing folks into the pool who do not meet the minimum requirements. The reason is that many people will not apply if they do not meet the requirements and it is not fair to let those who do it anyhow into the candidate pool. This comes from a goal of transparency and equity. Instead, we are scrutinizing our requirements to NOT include anything that we don’t think is essential and instead of putting those things into “preferred” instead of required. In our shop, if we did not find folks who met the minimum requirements, we would have scrapped the search and started over with new, less stringent, requirements. Is this the right way to go? If feels important to me to be honest in this way. Thanks for your wisdom.

    1. Hacker For Hire*

      IMHO as a job seeker, having two lists of requirements — one “essential” and the other one “preferred” — is an excellent thing, as long as it’s clear and appropriate.

Comments are closed.