What to do when a new job is not a good fit

shodown

If you follow my blog post you know I took a new job, however after being there for a few weeks I'm wondering if it was a good fit. I left a job being a Wan Engineer to a Senior Cisco Support Engineer.

I'm by no means coming in there and changing the show, but I'm kinda feel left empty. I went from Designing and adding onto the network to doing Support for Cisco VOIP. I was told that the job would be taking tickets and solving them(which I do and have done well), but I have been put in with the best of the "help desk" type staff and I even take there calls, have 30 min lunches, and time is monitored on how much you answer the phone and ticket logged time. This is suppose to be 2nd level support, but its not, so I'm wondering should I just put my time in for the next year get my experience and go? or should I just bail now?

Priston

To me it sounds like you just took a step down from what you were doing. If you can find a better job I'd go for the new job.

QHalo

Were you unhappy at your old job? Reading some of the posts, the one about the manager conversation specifically, sounded like they didn't treat you very well there. Did you make an emotional move because it was the first thing offered that was not with your old company rather than really thinking about the job description or did they just promise something and they didn't deliver?

If you're unhappy just find a way to take advantage of any learning you can and look for another position elsewhere. Perhaps for next time there is something you can learn from this situation that you can use to prepare yourself at interview time to try and avoid getting into another situation as this. Try to find as much good as possible while you look for something better.

shodown

Let me add I knew it was a step down but it feels like a fall. I'm learning a lot about voip that I didn't know but after a few months I feel a fast stop in growth coming.

powerfool

These are all things that I have learned that need to be asked in an interview process. Sometimes you have to take a job, but when you have a choice you need to probe about certain conditions that you wouldn't enjoy:

- Time tracking
- Breaks
- Other duties
- Fill in the blank with things that you would hate

QHalo

I guess I'm just confused. You left an R&S role for a VoIP role and you're studying for the CCIE R&S. :

shodown

I wanted a voip role. My problem was that I only had done one call manager deployment (2 sites 4500 phones) and most people wanted more experience. I also had done voip support at another partner years ago back when I was real green. I was hoping this role would we a step back for a jump forward, but I'm not getting that feeling. I have decided to work at it in a positive matter for 6 months and then re assess.

QHalo

That's a good attitude. GL!

Hypntick

It could turn out to be a good thing. Then again it couldn't. Your choice to stick with it 6 months is probably a good sign for resume purposes. However I don't know to many people that will fault you for finding something that's a better fit.

AlanJames

I would find a better job. VoIP support jobs are generally very different to VoIP implementation jobs. You generally just do call manager admin.
6 months is a long time to be in a place you don't enjoy working.

Turgon

shodown wrote: »

If you follow my blog post you know I took a new job, however after being there for a few weeks I'm wondering if it was a good fit. I left a job being a Wan Engineer to a Senior Cisco Support Engineer.

I'm by no means coming in there and changing the show, but I'm kinda feel left empty. I went from Designing and adding onto the network to doing Support for Cisco VOIP. I was told that the job would be taking tickets and solving them(which I do and have done well), but I have been put in with the best of the "help desk" type staff and I even take there calls, have 30 min lunches, and time is monitored on how much you answer the phone and ticket logged time. This is suppose to be 2nd level support, but its not, so I'm wondering should I just put my time in for the next year get my experience and go? or should I just bail now?

You need to get out of there. No place for a CCIE aspirant. Suck 3 months out of it to distill anything useful. Keep the paycheck until you find another job.

blargoe

Turgon wrote: »

You need to get out of there. No place for a CCIE aspirant. Suck 3 months out of it to distill anything useful. Keep the paycheck until you find another job.

This is correct. Go ahead and start looking. By the time you find something, you'll be familiar enough with Call Manager.

Ryan82

I understand your pain. I kept waiting for a year and a half for my current position to materialize into something worthwhile. Well, it never did, and I just gave my 2 week notice. Don't hang around too long or you may find that your skillset has diminished, your end goals are further away, and it will only make finding a different position more difficult as a result the longer you wait.