End of rope reached.
Discussion
Any help/guidance/suggestions/encouragement appreciated..
a bit of background;
I entered the company (engineering firm) just over 3 years ago as a project administrator/controller and orders expeditor a year after graduating with lots of customer service and organisational skills and some project control experience, got on well in the role picking up and fixing what mess had been left so that it was not such an arduous job, expanding the role to pick other parts of adminstration/archiving type duties that had been neglected by other departments who didn't have the time to do them and helping other departments when I had spare time which also helped me learn other parts of the business and begin to build on my technical knowledge.
after just under a year I moved across into the proposals (technical sales) department, after a reasonable amount of convincing that it would give me the technical knowledge to move into project engineering (much prefer the idea and working methods of projects to sales) & have been here ever since.
I've had little if any formal training, most things have been picked up from common sense, question asking when people aren't too busy to respond or trying to take the time to understand it myself although there isn't much spare time available. the workload has just got worse and worse in quantity of separate jobs to be done and time scales given to do them in, my colleague freely admits it was never ever this bad in the 3 years he did the job before I arrived in the position, management are fully aware we are run off our feet and the problems that need fixing but are not willing to turn anything down even if they no chance we will be successful and bury their heads on everything.
my team has been a man down for the entire time i've been in the job even though the budget has always been there for another body, having finally found someone in May they wanted it took till almost July to issue a job offer and now today when i was expected him to start next week which is what my sanity has been hingeing on for the last few months it turns out hes gone elsewhere (not that I blame him at all) so the whole process starts again although by the time they get someone start i can see it being too late.
i'm currently stuck holding the department together on my own for roughly 2 weeks so at least i have some peace and quiet to attempt to get my head together and figure out what i want to do, especially now the cavalary I was holding it together for isn't coming.
As much as I don't want to jump ship because the place could be great and I could progress into what I want to do as the next logical step if they paid attention to what had been discussed when I moved into the proposals role, and we have a great team but they don't care due to those further up the tree and their attitudes, the place is just going down the toilet
i know this may all seem over the top but the long & short of it is the company looks to be falling apart at the seams and problems (associated with my department alone) have been going on for over 2 years without being addressed, i've tried to hold it together and just deal with it for too long now & its got to the point where its really affecting my self esteem, ability to work and i would quite happily walk out this very second if i didn't have a mortgage to pay.
to note: I have been applying elsewhere but my lack of engineering degree is what seems to be stumping me, I do have an undergraduate degree and am just over half way through an Open University BEng (about 3 years left) but no one as yet seems willing to take the chance on me even though it is clear from my OU studies I am trying to get there.
so anyone got any suggestions, know of any jobs going, want to offer me a job? happy to consider most things and willing to consider relocation.
i've been trying to keep my chin up for too long now so that isn't really an option anymore hence me needing to vent all this and just get some different perspective
a bit of background;
I entered the company (engineering firm) just over 3 years ago as a project administrator/controller and orders expeditor a year after graduating with lots of customer service and organisational skills and some project control experience, got on well in the role picking up and fixing what mess had been left so that it was not such an arduous job, expanding the role to pick other parts of adminstration/archiving type duties that had been neglected by other departments who didn't have the time to do them and helping other departments when I had spare time which also helped me learn other parts of the business and begin to build on my technical knowledge.
after just under a year I moved across into the proposals (technical sales) department, after a reasonable amount of convincing that it would give me the technical knowledge to move into project engineering (much prefer the idea and working methods of projects to sales) & have been here ever since.
I've had little if any formal training, most things have been picked up from common sense, question asking when people aren't too busy to respond or trying to take the time to understand it myself although there isn't much spare time available. the workload has just got worse and worse in quantity of separate jobs to be done and time scales given to do them in, my colleague freely admits it was never ever this bad in the 3 years he did the job before I arrived in the position, management are fully aware we are run off our feet and the problems that need fixing but are not willing to turn anything down even if they no chance we will be successful and bury their heads on everything.
my team has been a man down for the entire time i've been in the job even though the budget has always been there for another body, having finally found someone in May they wanted it took till almost July to issue a job offer and now today when i was expected him to start next week which is what my sanity has been hingeing on for the last few months it turns out hes gone elsewhere (not that I blame him at all) so the whole process starts again although by the time they get someone start i can see it being too late.
i'm currently stuck holding the department together on my own for roughly 2 weeks so at least i have some peace and quiet to attempt to get my head together and figure out what i want to do, especially now the cavalary I was holding it together for isn't coming.
As much as I don't want to jump ship because the place could be great and I could progress into what I want to do as the next logical step if they paid attention to what had been discussed when I moved into the proposals role, and we have a great team but they don't care due to those further up the tree and their attitudes, the place is just going down the toilet
i know this may all seem over the top but the long & short of it is the company looks to be falling apart at the seams and problems (associated with my department alone) have been going on for over 2 years without being addressed, i've tried to hold it together and just deal with it for too long now & its got to the point where its really affecting my self esteem, ability to work and i would quite happily walk out this very second if i didn't have a mortgage to pay.
to note: I have been applying elsewhere but my lack of engineering degree is what seems to be stumping me, I do have an undergraduate degree and am just over half way through an Open University BEng (about 3 years left) but no one as yet seems willing to take the chance on me even though it is clear from my OU studies I am trying to get there.
so anyone got any suggestions, know of any jobs going, want to offer me a job? happy to consider most things and willing to consider relocation.
i've been trying to keep my chin up for too long now so that isn't really an option anymore hence me needing to vent all this and just get some different perspective
Trix, Bit tricky to read all of this and it isn't clear what you want.
What are your core skills, administration, sales, technical engineering or project management?
Have you seen your job description, perhaps re read it and see if you can develop relevant recent examples where you have actually performed these tasks.
What are your achievements in the role you have, be concise. It is always about money.
Do you want to fix where you are, or make a move ?
What are your core skills, administration, sales, technical engineering or project management?
Have you seen your job description, perhaps re read it and see if you can develop relevant recent examples where you have actually performed these tasks.
What are your achievements in the role you have, be concise. It is always about money.
Do you want to fix where you are, or make a move ?
I had resigned this one to the dustbin so thanks for the response Gargamel.
My core skills are administration and project management, my OU degree and experience from my job are taking care of the technical skills to a certain extent (albeit slowly) I realise though its always the case that they will never teach you everything before you take on a new job but I do tend to pick up on new things reasonably quick if they make reasonable sense.
job description? whats one of those?
if one does exist for my current position I can guarantee its not up to date and will gloss over the actual boundaries of the job.
I feel I have achieved a lot in terms of relationships with suppliers and customers; successful winning of projects and ensuring preferential prices from suppliers, and supporting our customers technically to assist them in winning projects.
Had I been asked that question 2 or 3 months ago I would have said I wanted to stay and fix where I am but now I want new challenges. As I said above I don't want to jump ship but developments since my post above definitely indicate its time to go.
S
My core skills are administration and project management, my OU degree and experience from my job are taking care of the technical skills to a certain extent (albeit slowly) I realise though its always the case that they will never teach you everything before you take on a new job but I do tend to pick up on new things reasonably quick if they make reasonable sense.
job description? whats one of those?
if one does exist for my current position I can guarantee its not up to date and will gloss over the actual boundaries of the job.I feel I have achieved a lot in terms of relationships with suppliers and customers; successful winning of projects and ensuring preferential prices from suppliers, and supporting our customers technically to assist them in winning projects.
Had I been asked that question 2 or 3 months ago I would have said I wanted to stay and fix where I am but now I want new challenges. As I said above I don't want to jump ship but developments since my post above definitely indicate its time to go.
S
Ok, so I'd suggest getting a basic CV together, who what where and when.
But in your current role, a lot of what you do isn't easily quantifiable, good with suppliers - doesn't read well on a CV.
Focus on specific examples of a skill.
Relationship Management - Recently rectified a supplier problem by developing concise communication between companies, return goods has fallen by 15% as a result
You get the idea, unless you can quantify your skills, your cv won't fit.
Start looking around, read job descriptions and think about what you really want as a role, and what type of environment you want to do it in. (multinational, UK PLC, Small Business, local firm etc)
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