Apparently I have a new job, starting Monday. Same place, same pay, different title, expanded responsibilities, reporting one level up. And no one really knows what the job description is.
The title is Quality Manager, which would be more exciting if that weren’t the very same title I had when I hired into this company three years ago. OK, not identically the same; that time it was Quality Systems Manager, this time it’s CS Quality Manager. Different department. The other difference is that if I really do things right, this time what I do might make a real difference to how people work. (Well. Exaggerating again. Last time I helped change the way we develop new products and it did make a difference, though high-level managers would see that more than actual working people. This one, if I do it right, could affect the average engineer.)
So now I need to draft a job description and run it by my current boss who is helping redesign the department and my new boss (also his boss) to see what they think. Also, I get the impression they’d be happy to have me move to the Netherlands tomorrow, but not quite happy enough to give me an expat contract there. And I have no desire to pay to maintain a second home there, even if Ted does travel enough that I’d get to see him nearly as much. Still, at least it means they’re thinking about what to do with us after our stint here; it’s possible he’ll get offered an expat contract back there, in which case we’d likely move back and postpone returning to the US. That would have advantages, including time and ability to see more of Europe than we could manage in one year (we missed Spain and Portugal entirely, for instance.) So, still no real idea of what happens next.
But the job should be interesting.
Congrats on the new position. Sounds like a nice challenge professionally.
If it were guaranteed that Ted would have a Netherlands contract when this current one is up and they DID offer you a slot now, would you then reconsider going to the Netherlands now ahead of him? As you say, you’d probably see Ted almost as often and you’d be back on ‘home turf’ so to speak. Just curious. I imagine picking up the threads of Dutch life would be fairly straightforward, if not exactly a total breeze.
In the meantime I hope your new gig is fun. ~LA