Heart Space #52: Work Experience Chapter 2.

Chapter II

I finally found a job after months of job hunting; refusing to become insurance agents, unwilling to take up any other jobs. It was at a sizable local IT company’s commercial department taking care of its financial customers. The new boss, who hired me, hired a couple of folks after me to help out the department. Practically my entire team left or was leaving by the time I joined the company. Nonetheless, I eventually have my own team and that was when I aspire to lead and develop an ‘A’ team that was talked about a lot in the previous company. Shortly after 1 month, the ex Project Manager that I took over from wanted me to join her. She has gotten good reviews about me from her existing team mates (who were still around).  Since I did not get any increment while joining this company, this offer seemed better.

I then went to speak to my boss to submit my resignation who was no doubt taken aback. He requested that I stay back to help him tide over this initial period of transition. It was also the end of my probation and he said he could do something to my salary package. He reviewed it in front of me and realised that he has given me the same as my last drawn pay. It must be way too little compared to what I deserved or maybe he really needed me for he then gave me an astonishing >10% increment. I had to turn down the other offer and stayed back for what it turns out to be 4 years.

In these 4 years, I have seen countless people come and go amongst other teams within the department. At 1 point in time, I was managing 9 projects, some of which were in maintenance.  Working life was really fun as I learnt lot of things from my boss, not just by working with him, but also about life, investing amongst many many other things. On top of the PM responsibilities, I was constantly roped into pre-sales role, drafting up proposals, technical specifications and presenting to potential customers. The big break came when a bank awarded my team a custom development project that will eventually roll out all their branches in Singapore. Unable to leverage on existing resources, I had only 1 solution architect to work with; I had to hire a technical lead and a developer.  I held onto my nerves, unwilling to hire someone who didn’t fulfill or match my expectations. My boss then shared his analogy about having somebody to move the brick is better than not having anyone at all. Finally our prayers were answered and we found someone whom we believed that can do the job. We went through design, development and rollout all by ourselves. In the end, the project saved 13% of forecasted costs and the entire team received accolades from the CEO.

What made me really happy was that everyone remained committed and performed their very best despite the challenging timeline, scope and customers. There were so many parties to work with and coordinate in order to meet the project objectives. I guess it was the same with any IT implementation, but it was indeed my first true PM experience, and everyone agreed that it was a job well done.  The experience of this project accelerated my growth and knowledge on running projects. Not only was I exposed to the client side of things, but internally I was facing audits, financial officers and department heads.  I have learnt about handling customers, internal politics, financial numbers, progress tracking amongst many other things and most importantly I was really happy doing the job.

Before long, one of the existing customers wanted to build a similar project to what my predecessor has built before. The project did not start well, because of various reasons. Our management wanted our solution architect to be the project manager while I am the supervising project manager. Not long into the project, he really irks the roles and responsibilities of a project manager and rather prefers a technical role. As such, we had to hire a project manager who has some financial background. In the end, we hired someone who has these background but with little technical knowledge. Throughout the course of the project, the customers made so many complaints about the project manager that resulted in frequent closed door discussion between the IT manager and me. One of the key reasons why we did not or rather, cannot stand our ground is that they own a substantial portion of the company through its companies. The IT manager must be a builder or an architect for all he talked to me about is laying foundation, building plans, water pipes and so on, akin to the components of a software implementation project. He does not believe in the competencies of the team and requested that I sit in their office to supervise everything and bring the project back onto track. In the end, I successfully managed to do that, and with the help of the team of course. It was a project that took the toils out of every single member, and something that we all wanted to get it over with. 3 of the 5 (including me) team members left the company shortly after this project, probably because of the burned out caused by this project.

Of course, the good times (or the bad) did not last. The news of the acquisition struck us pretty badly. It seemed so unbelievable that the parent company of 1 of our competitor wrestle the company into their ranks in 1 clean swoop. I guessed that is how things are in the commercial world, for size and assets matters. Things became dead slow and everyone began to be worried about their job, position and so on. Although eventually I didn’t land on the bad side of things, we had already lost the sense of belonging. We suddenly became step-children to a much larger entity. I have requested to talk to my boss after a while, but didn’t get to talk to him in a long while as things were pretty uncertain. He later told me that he had expected that I will eventually quit. He said that there was nothing he deemed interesting enough for him to keep me. He also felt that I need to move out, for at this point in time, it would be “wrong“for him to retain me.  I thanked him for the rewarding experience (also in terms of monetary) and I told him that if he ever needed me, I will help him.

End of Chapter II…