Job opportunity that I do not want

Mudkip16

Hello, 

I need advice.
So I've been doing application/tech support job, but then one day last yr, my boss came up to me and asked "hey, you wanna learn some SQL?" And I was like "Heck yeah, sure!" Turns out he was teaching me some really out of date CRM software.

Don't get me wrong, I did gain some good experience, but it could never prepare me for what happened next. My boss got cancer, and I ended up taking over this old software. In essence, I really hate it. No one really uses it anymore other than this company, but the CEO refused to upgrade to Salesforce due to cost. I was not getting any pay raise for doing this extra work, but it did save me from the mass layoff last month due to pandemic. Also, I'm learning data science on my own. But ever since I took over, I feel like my time is consumed by trying to learn this old software. I want to learn the future, and I don't plan to stay at this company forever. I had a really good opportunity to leave in March, but then that company went on a hiring freeze due to the pandemic.

Anyways, things just got more serious. The CEO wants to send me out of state to train for this old software and I reeeeeally don't want to go. I'm literally their only person that the boss taught. 

How do I say no, and SHOULD I say no?? I'm suddenly valuable to the company but I seriously feeling like I'm digging a trap for myself. I want to get out. 

What would you do?

Thanks in advance 👍

SteveLavoie

It all depend on your situation.. do you have a family/wife etc to take care. Do you have spare money ? It is obvious that it is a matter of time before you are leaving. So if you really dont want to.. get ready to leave... but be ready to stay at without job for a time(or not.. it depend on you and the market where you are)..  In my case,I would advise to choose the stability until COVID-19 craze is over, like this falls (I hope), but I have a house, a wife and a kids to take care.   

DatabaseHead

I used to think that way and it set me back years.  I had opportunities throughout my life where I ran from it and it cost me.  My advice to you is stay and learn, grow and gain equity with your boss.  The payday will come eventually, I've seen it happen way to often.  

Of course this is just my opinion but you are employed after layoffs and it sounds like the job ain't that bad.  Maybe not great or even good, but not horrid.  There is something to be said about that and during our times with the unemployment rate through the roof you have to be extra careful.  The employers hold a lot of the cards.  

Good luck

UnixGuy

I understand the dread of having to learn an outdated tech that you're not interested in, believe me I do.

But we live in unprecedented times, so it's not very smart to be cautious. Now, on the bright side, the software that you're learning might be outdated, but the skills may be a lot more transferable than you think. You can put on your CV that you know SQL & CRM, surely it'll make learning salesforce (which you seem to be interested in) easier? or at least it can give this impression to future employers. If you are really that interested in Salesforce, I'd find a way to learn it on the side if that's possible.

Ride it out, from now 'till the end of 2020, a lot can happen. You might find that it's not as bad as you think it is...or maybe a new opportunity comes your way next month and you leave - who knows.

Hang in there - it's easier said than done with all that's happening around us, but time passes quickly. it'll be December 2020 before we know it!

itdept

I've wanted to get out of my job for 3 1/2 years. Sometimes you just got to suck it up. Wait for smoke to clear on this virus stuff first would be my advice.

scaredoftests

Go to the class. As people previously has stated..wait for the smoke to clear. Be happy that you are employed. :-)

TechGromit

Your making yourself indispensable to your employer, your in a good spot right now. Just don't let it handicap your future goals. I remember a co-worker that was a wiz on Tandem computers systems. His skills were in high demand across the many divisions of the government agency I worked for. Until the day the last Tandem computer was replaced with servers. Unfortunately he wasn't able to get up to speed on the new systems and six months later he was out of work. He makes a fraction of what he used to in his new programming job, with two daughters in college, not good place to be. 



     

Mudkip16

Hey all, thank you so much for your responses. I seriously could barely sleep because I had to think on it. And honestly, I just told them I'm happy to keep being that person for them...until they find someone else. It's really not easy to find someone good at this software, and so they will have to send someone who is willing to learn. I feel I am already in a niche position because I troubleshoot the company's proprietary software. I don't want to add another source of stress. I wrote the original  post because I truly considered going for it, but I have been doing it for a year already, and I told myself I have to get out asap. It's so bad. It's one of those softwares that you can't really google to find help, and if I mess anything up, it's all going to fall on me. I've had some close calls and wow, talk about not being able to sleep. All my boss left me was a binder that was bigger than my head. Anyways, just wanted to give you all a conclusion. I liked the idea of being an extra valuable employee, but for the stress of learning an old, unintuitive piece of software is just not for me. I must say after I told them my decision, I felt indescribable relief. It felt like the right thing to do.

Thank you! 

cyberguypr

I've also been there having to learn things I don't care about. Nature of the beast sometimes. Only reason where I would tap out in your situation is if they put a clause where I have to pay back training if I leave the company. Otherwise, nothing to lose.

TechGromit

Mudkip16 said:

It's so bad. It's one of those software's that you can't really google to find help, and if I mess anything up, it's all going to fall on me. I've had some close calls and wow, talk about not being able to sleep. 

Just make backups before you change anything, Lots and lots of backups. Snapshot code before making changes, Snapshot after. What's this thing run on a server? Can you set up a test server?  

Mudkip16

This software links to exchange so you cannot rely on backups even though we have them. Emails flow literally from exchange to this server, so if the user goes on OWA, the emails disappear and flow to the crm software (I know, scary and still doesn't make sense to me, but that's what it does). If I have to go back to a snapshot, these sales people will lose hundreds of emails. We do have a test server for it which I can do a lot of the same things, but not 100%. Some things just have to happen in real-time. For instance, employee terminations. Sales people have to have their calendar events migrated to another one using SQL and has to happen asap.
Anyways, hope that solidifies some of your thoughts. 

LonerVamp

1. I'll echo what others say. Honestly, right now is not really the time to rock the boat. You even said yourself this niche you have in the company saved you from a lay-off round. There are people who would come close to killing if it meant they keep their job...

2. Have a frank conversation with your employer. If this software is this important, and yet only one person knows it in the company, that is a pretty poor risk decision to make. They should think about making sure they can survive the leaving of a person. Then again, if you do this and they train up someone else to partner with you, be prepared for the next lay-off round to have the 50-50 choice land on letting you go and keeping the other person. In the meantime, again if it is that important, make backups, backups, and more backups! And test them so you or others know how to perform successful restores. And start suggesting moving forward to a modern solution. And keep in mind you may have to do the work for that, as no one else may be able to!

3. At the end of the day, this is software. I know you won't want to hear that, but you're not a doctor right now or nurse. Much of your stress is going to be self-imposed, rather than absolutely forced on you. And the only reason I say stick it out is because of the current COVID-19/economic climate. If that wasn't a thing, I'd say jump ship elsewhere. And once all of this passed or at least settles into a new long-term normal, you'll still be free to jump elsewhere, mate. The worst case otherwise is to have something happen, the CRM goes kaboom, and you get fired for it. Well...then you're just in the same boat as your laid off colleagues.

4. Learning outdated tech sucks, and definitely feels like a dead end. But, if it means having to buck up and live with it for a year or two to keep yourself useful to the company, I'd say do it right now. Again, you can always leave later.

Best of luck, and stay safe.