And Life Goes On...

Well, today I got semi-official confirmation that what I already suspected was true; there is no position for me at my current employer.

I had one of those roller-coaster ride conversations with my mentor, who is the Director of Professional Development for the company. On the upside, he told me a tremendous number of nice things about my work and about my employment prospects. That part of the conversation was very uplifting. On the downside, he also told me that he doesn't feel there is a chance of a permanent position for me with Head Office at this time outside of my current role. Essentially, due to external economic factors, Head Office is watching their costs very closely, and cannot afford to offer me a salaried position with them. They acknowledge that the work I do is tremendously valuable and that there is a need for it; my mentor mentioned (random alliteration alert) that many people at Head Office, including himself, the Executive VP, the Director of Corporate Relations,etc. often get dragged into HR issues simply because they are there, and there is a need for it. Nevertheless, they cannot up their costs at all, even if it would mean significant savings down the road. And it will probably be two or three years before they can consider it. So that was the down of the conversation.

The Director of Professional Development told me he would be more than happy to offer references on my behalf, something he almost never does. He told me that I would be wasted in my current role, and that choosing to wait another two or three years for a potential position would not make sense for me. He also said my capabilities had surpassed what the company has to offer. So it looks like I will be job searching in a couple of months.

It may sound odd that I've mentioned that I was hoping for a position with Head Office while at the same time I may be moving out of province to accompany my husband to law school. Basically, the position I was hoping would be created would be a telecommuting one, and I would have theoretically been able to work from anywhere. As with any such corporate position, some travel would have been required, but that's the case for many of our corporate employees, as the company locations are spread out across much of the country, and I don't personally mind traveling at all.

I'm really going to miss this company, though. The culture is amazing, and their values align really closely with my own. I could wish the CEO placed a higher value on HR, and was really hoping for the opportunity to show him just how much of an impact I could have on his bottom line, but I also can't wait for three years in my current role. I am already bored where I am; that's what initally prompted me to go ahead and create some of the projects I have done in the past year. Another three years like this, with projects dribbling in here and there is just not enough to keep me going. I think I can go without much of a sense of loss, though; I know I did my best.

Hopefully I find a wonderful position with an awesome company. I don't yet know where that will be or what it will look like, but time will tell.