it’s your Friday good news

It’s your Friday good news!

1.  “I’ve read your site for a few years now, and found it when I started searching up whether weird stuff my boss did in my student job was normal. Obviously it wasn’t, and from being paid below the legal minimum, to weird sexist stuff, it hasn’t been the best. Due to it being a highly specialised position and specific to the industry I’m entering now as a graduate, I stuck it out for a bit longer than I needed (employee discounts!). My first bit of good news is that after 6 years there I’ve given notice, and I’m so excited to be leaving! Your site helped me feel justified in my frustrations, but also to approach situations calmly and professionally, without teenage angst and anger showing through. Your advice has also helped temper my ongoing anxiety and spiralling thought patterns, and kept me grounded at work. I’ve managed to keep a good reference in an extremely insular industry thanks to that.

The second part and best news came 18 months ago, however, when I was headhunted for a related job at a wonderful institution that I’d always thought would come later in my career. I was specifically praised for my ‘formality-only-but-still-offical’ interview and resume (thank you!).

The pay is triple what I made at my other job, their Covid response has been phenomenal across the board, and they make real and long-term moves to be allies to marginalised groups (I had never imagined being out at work but here we are!). The best part though, is that even 18 months later when the job isn’t shiny and new anymore, I still get excited about going to work because everyone is so genuinely kind and supportive! Sometimes I just grin thinking about it. Like I didn’t think that was actually a thing?”

2.  “I’ve been working in academia in a rural town of 7000 for the last 8 years after following my spouse for their (academic) job. I’ve been a temporary or contingent employee the whole time, and have been increasingly frustrated while looking for a different job. This past spring, I took to heart your advice about targeted job searching and writing a strong, specific cover letter, and applied to several technical and/or training job. One of the ads I clicked on a whim- for a trainer in all my professional specialties- just offered me a wonderful remote position with a 75% salary increase and people who seem like really the best co-workers. I’m still pinching myself! Thank you for providing such a great resource.”

3.  “I wrote in for myself in early 2021 and now, I’m thrilled to report good job news for my husband!

For the last 11 years, he’d been working at a small urban university in mental health counseling, a job he was grateful to get at the time. But over time it became clear that the university administration didn’t support them and that there were no regular raises or appreciation to be found — and he wasn’t paid well in the first place. A decade later, he had the same low pay and a new director who turned out to be a bad manager who lived and died on petty grudges and didn’t have her staff’s back. He wanted to move on, but felt stuck and unsure how to proceed.

So, with help drawn from years of reading AAM, I helped him with his resume and cover letters and he found two similar positions to apply for. He applied in March and then it was radio silence for awhile. He’d just about given up when the semester ended and then boom! He got interviews for both and an offer from one, the pay is over 50% more than he was making, and he was able to time it so he could make his last day before the end of the fiscal year — giving him 5 weeks of vacation time paid out.

He just started his new job and while he hopes to be there for awhile, he also knows now that he CAN find a new job and that his skills are marketable. Thanks for being a great resource and giving me good information I could share with him.”

4.  “I wrote in nearly 2 years ago for a Friday good news about my boss recognizing my work during the pandemic and that they had reduced the team size and giving me a $10k raise. Unfortunately, he left not long after that (redundant role after a merger) and things went to hell in a hand basket. In the last two years, I had 2 different VPs, 3 directors, and a manager come and go – some lasted 6 months and others only 2 weeks (sadly never got the tea on what happened there). All the while, as a senior analyst I had to keep the department running and train these people over me while being told they would hire more help and, when I applied for the manager role, that I would be a great candidate if only there was a strong leadership team in place (aka they wanted me to keep doing what I was doing and not replace me). It finally got to be too much so I started casually looking for a new job and was contacted by a number of recruiters.

It took 6 months of frustration (the number of recruiters who contacted me first then ghosted!) but about 6 weeks ago I started my new job. It’s a lateral move in terms of duties/title, but permanently remote, 40% more money, and a company less than a tenth the size of my last one! I realize I’m still in the honeymoon phase, but it’s been a great stress relief to have other people on my team and, shock of shocks, having a boss that thanks me for my help and hard work instead of just piling more on my plate! Plus the cherry on top is that scuttlebutt I’m hearing from my previous job is that they’re having to hire 2 people to keep up with my workload.

My company does quarterly bonuses so based on my start date I’m eligible for a prorated amount at the end of the month. However, as thanks for how quickly I’ve picked things up and everything I’m taking off my boss’s plate (mine is a new role), she got approval from her boss to get me a much larger bonus!”

{ 12 comments… read them below }

  1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

    That OP 3 writes that her husband had five weeks’ vacation to cash out in a job in the mental health field is pretty telling about how his intuition views mental health at all. Well done, getting out of there.

    1. ThatGirl*

      To be fair it partly his fault – he could have taken more time off, but felt really behind when he did, and was on a ten-month academic schedule so he had two months off anyway.

  2. Isabel Archer*

    LW1, I don’t know what’s better: the sheer magnitude of your good news, or how gleefully grateful you are to find yourself in your new situation. You’re lucky to have found AAM so young, but it sounds like you earned every ounce of this good news. Congratulations!

    1. Not Tom, Just Petty*

      OP 1, the grasshopper and the ant. I would not have had the patience, discipline or faith to crush it like that. Nice.

  3. TG*

    Wow great news this week all around and I’m starting to get jealous…might be time to take the leap as I’ve seen others do!

  4. Observer*

    Such great news!

    #1 This line really spoke to me: Your site helped me feel justified in my frustrations, but also to approach situations calmly and professionally, without teenage angst and anger showing through.

    That’s just wonderful.

  5. Bookworm*

    Another really long week, so it’s always nice to close it out with some good news. Thanks again to all the LWs!!

  6. Anonymouse*

    I’m #2, I’ve been at my new job for 7 weeks now, and it’s still pretty great! I’m working on a fun project and enjoying the WFH life. So glad to have gotten out.

  7. Sally*

    Congratulations to all updaters!

    I wanted to mention that this (from #3) is true for me also: “… he also knows now that he CAN find a new job and that his skills are marketable.”

    I was so scared to look for work for the first time in 17 years, mainly because I didn’t know if I could get another job with my skills AND in my mid-50s. But I was very likely to get laid off within 6 months, so I had to start looking. I was even more scared to be unemployed.

    The only thing that made me feel better was knowing that I had Alison’s expert advice available to me, and I trust her. I updated my resume using her advice (I took advantage of one of her resume review opportunities), and then I prepped for interviews using Alison’s advice. I still have trouble with cover letters, but I did my best with those. (However though, I’m fairly certain that one employer called because I mentioned something in my cover letter that, in the past, I would have thought to be too “unprofessional” to mention.)

    The interviews went very well: I felt confident because of the preparation, and I knew what questions I wanted to ask. And I got a job offer with the salary I asked for!

    And then 1.5 years later (June 2020) I was laid off. I was scared but not petrified because I KNEW I could get a job. It’s a huge mental health boost! So thank you, Alison!

  8. Chaordic One*

    I’m so glad for all of the people who wrote in. OP4, I don’t know what it is about recruiters, but I’ve never had any luck in dealing with them. At this point in my life I just won’t deal with them at all. I feel like I should write to Alison and ask if there are any good ones who might actually be able to help you find a good job.

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