I’m considering changing jobs. I like my current job but it just really seems like the writing is on the wall for this place. Management has been making some bad decisions and we are yet again struggling to make ends meet 11 years into the company’s existence.
The pros:
-I enjoy the design work.
-I have my own office/lab in a brand new facility.
-I get to make an impact because the company is so small.
-I get to travel all over the world.
-I can pay my bills.
-My hours are flexible.
-If the company takes off I will be in on the ground floor and become rich and successful.
The cons:
-I’ve had it with 3 monkey management.*
-I could make more, potentially a lot more, money elsewhere.
-I could have more opportunities at a larger company.
-Nobody here has a job description, so nobody gets held responsible for anything.
-Communication here is a joke.
-The company failed two years ago, changed ownership, but ultimately hasn’t changed how business is conducted. Hence, we have yet again been in and out of credit hold with all of our vendors for the last month or two.
-There is no visible long term planning.
-The only deadline for projects that I have ever been given is “As Soon As Possible.” My boss (the company president) doesn’t understand that ASAP is NOT a deadline.
-I have to practice handout engineering. (Designing around what samples I can get from vendors.) The company doesn’t understand the concept of budgeting money for R&D, even though everything I have designed and built has turned to gold for them thus far. (My designs currently account for roughly 30% of our annual sales.)
*Hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil. We have a product with a compressor that has a 100% failure rate within warranty, meaning we’ll have to replace the most costly component in every unit we ship, yet we still sell as many as we can around the world. Management just sugar coats how bad it is in their own mind so they can justify focusing on only getting product out the door.
^^^That’s probably what I’ll end up doing if I choose to leave.
Not leaving Buffalo. I kinda like it here, plus the whole fiance thing sort of anchors me here.
The company is Oxygen Generating Systems International. We make machines that essentially filter nitrogen out of air, leaving 96% pure oxygen. People who use a lot of oxygen for anything from running a ventilator in a hospital to running oxyacetaline torches buy our machines so that they don’t have to purchase oxygen. It’s a pretty cool company and a pretty cool job. It’s just that a lot of bad decisions get made or neglected altogether and I more and more cannot see the company going anywhere. I could be wrong, but I just keep getting back to the definition of insanity: “Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result.” Nothing seems to have changed since we changed ownership 2 years ago and we seem to be right back to where we were. We don’t address existing problems, we just focus on getting product out the door.
A few months ago I was given 3 days to take a new machine from concept to ship. It was a fairly simple integration of a couple of systems so I managed to do it even though it was something we had never done before. I even get a little documentation done so that we would have a starting point when we got an order for another one. A couple days ago my boss came in with the CAD guy upset because we didn’t have a complete documentation package for the machine. If he were a good manager he would have budgeted enough time for the project to build a complete documentation package. As it was, he should have been happy that we had anything at all. But he makes a habit of making promises to our salesmen and customers that we can get products out the door much faster than is realistically possible. So since 3 days didn’t work last time, this time he told me to help production build it and make a complete doc package… in 2 days… It’s just plain dumb shit like that that makes it clear to me that things aren’t going to change here.
What do you all think about jumping jobs after only 1 year here full time? Granted, I started here in April 2003 but was an intern in and out of school until December 2004. I just wonder how MBA schools and future employers would view it. They don’t like to see “job hopping.”
ogsi… ay
Bob Atwood still there?
he left my company to go there. (Viatran)
you cant change a company from the bottom.
you need the support of Sr. management to have a real impact.
ex. lean manf is wonderful when properly applied
viatran is also in a rough spot.
new owners $ motivated… off loading all our stuff to malaysia
i stay, because of the amount of newly added work/responsibilty i will get experience that i would not get anyplace else
not that i would turn down teh right offer;)
His last day is next thursday. Goddammit I swear at one point in time Viatran was the only company in Buffalo and everyone worked there. It seems like EVERYONE over 30 in Buffalo has worked at Viatran at some point in time! :lol:
A lot of the shit I run into here is the same BS that is at every company. I just had a long talk with Dean Millar (@ UB) because I trust and respect him and he made some good points. Offered some insight that kind of helps me keep things in perspective. I think I’m going to stay for a while and focus on the most major problem I see right now, and just raise my BS tolerance level. If I can make an impact then at the very least I’d have some pretty powerful resume material.
Good point about having to have Sr level management support to be able to make any real progress. The good news is that I report directly to the president, so winning upper management support is at least possible, if not likely.
I think I’m going to raise my tolerance for frustration, dig my heels in, and see what I can accomplish in a year. Come this time next year I’ll re-evaluate things. If I still feel like I’m working for a living definition of insanity (same actions expecting different result) then I’ll start sending off resume’s. This aligns with what I’ve been planning for a couple of years anyhow, what I decided on before I got kneck deep in BS…
His last day is next thursday. Goddammit I swear at one point in time Viatran was the only company in Buffalo and everyone worked there. It seems like EVERYONE over 30 in Buffalo has worked at Viatran at some point in time! :lol: