transferring to another department

Ok, here's the deal. I am currently the Salesforce.com administrator/systems analyst and have been for the past 7 months. However, we are in the process of having a consulting company set up Salesforce and train me. I come from an IT background. My last position was a jr system administrator, which I really enjoyed. But the job was 60 miles away as pat of a government contract that was about to be up in a few months. I got scared and also wanted to be around my 1 year old son more, so I started looking for a job closer to home. I found a job as a systems analyst at he company I now work for. It is 2 miles from my home so this is great. But I really miss true IT work. I have A+, Network+, Security+, and am studying for my last exam to have MCSA 2003. the company I work for is the corporate headquarters and they have several Admin jobs. I don't really know how to go about trying to transfer. I'm afraid that I haven't worked here long enough and done enough meaningful work to ask for a transfer. I have thought about earning my MCSA and then go try to talk to one of the sys admins managers to let it be known that I am looking. But will all of this look bad on me? I don't want to burn my current boss. What should I do? I've been trying to get into this company for many years and now I am here, but not in the department I want to be in.

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Comments

networker050184

Are there any corporate policies in place about internal transfers? I know most of the places I've worked you have to stay in your position for at least 12 months before a transfer.

As far as how to go about it, the very first person I would talk to is your boss. Last thing you want is to burn your current boss and end up with no job at all. If you have been a great worker a good recommendation from your current supervisor will get you a leg up on any external competition.

bhs00

Yea I agree. I am thinking I should stay at this position and finish the project before I talk to her about transferring. I can stay at it and learn Salesforce and wait until everything settles down and there is an actual Salesforce routine in place. By that time it will definitely be over a year that I have been with the company. I can always work on other certifications. I just don't want my admin skills to grow stale.

nethacker

bhs00 wrote: »

Yea I agree. I am thinking I should stay at this position and finish the project before I talk to her about transferring. I can stay at it and learn Salesforce and wait until everything settles down and there is an actual Salesforce routine in place. By that time it will definitely be over a year that I have been with the company. I can always work on other certifications. I just don't want my admin skills to grow stale.

if you like what you currently do, i'll say stay put but if you don't like what you are doing and you are actually concerned about your skillset going stale, then you have to weigh your options well. I was in your position few weeks ago but the difference was that there was a network engineer position available and i was not considered knowing that i have all the certifications and skills needed for the job. I was also concerned about my skill set and at the end of the day, i decided to move on and overcome fear since my skills (developing and maintaining it) were more important to me than the pay. Now I am happy that I am using my skills to better myself as well as do my job. I am only saying this from a single man perspective,i don't have a child yet.

bhs00

nethacker wrote: »

if you like what you currently do, i'll say stay put but if you don't like what you are doing and you are actually concerned about your skillset going stale, then you have to weigh your options well. I was in your position few weeks ago but the difference was that there was a network engineer position available and i was not considered knowing that i have all the certifications and skills needed for the job. I was also concerned about my skill set and at the end of the day, i decided to move on and overcome fear since my skills (developing and maintaining it) were more important to me than the pay. Now I am happy that I am using my skills to better myself as well as do my job. I am only saying this from a single man perspective,i don't have a child yet.

Well I do agree with you. I am not sure if I like what Im doing now or not. I haven't really been doing anything yet because it has taken forever to get the project off the ground. I know that in the future I am going to take over an existing instance of Salesforce from a company that was purchased and then start another Salesforce project with another sales department. I want to change positions but I guess right now is not a good time. Im thinking that I can study for other certifications such as MCITP:SA or Linux+ while i'm waiting for the right time. I can keep checking the bulletin board for jobs and make a note of the qualifications. It would be great if I had an idea of what systems we have at the company so I can try to learn the basics of those systems. Then when the time comes I would be a shoe in. But at least I am at the company I want to be at. This is pretty much the only IT game in town. Its one of those deals where I don't want the job I currently have but I want to stay with the company. Its better to already be in the company looking that being outside of the company and looking.

nethacker

bhs00 wrote: »

Well I do agree with you. I am not sure if I like what Im doing now or not. I haven't really been doing anything yet because it has taken forever to get the project off the ground. I know that in the future I am going to take over an existing instance of Salesforce from a company that was purchased and then start another Salesforce project with another sales department. I want to change positions but I guess right now is not a good time. Im thinking that I can study for other certifications such as MCITP:SA or Linux+ while i'm waiting for the right time. I can keep checking the bulletin board for jobs and make a note of the qualifications. It would be great if I had an idea of what systems we have at the company so I can try to learn the basics of those systems. Then when the time comes I would be a shoe in. But at least I am at the company I want to be at. This is pretty much the only IT game in town. Its one of those deals where I don't want the job I currently have but I want to stay with the company. Its better to already be in the company looking that being outside of the company and looking.

This is a trade-off kinda situation. If you are more interested in the NAME of the company than your job responsibilities, then you don't have to worry about your skill set in the long run.However, when you are trying to move and there are no positions available within the company, you have no choice than to stay but remember that in IT,nothing can match up with relevant experience and skills. I guess we are different in terms of what seems important to us in this IT field. My previous job was with National Institute of Health and believe me a lot of my friends are dying to step their feet into the door and do just anything because of the NAME. But I was not just fulfilled as the only thing I do is to shut and unshut switchports as well as assign them to vlans per user requirement. I already set my goals and have my eyes on a CCIE # one day so I don't see myself doing that to become a CCIE.Like I said earlier, there was a network engineer position available but I was not considered and my boss knew my intention. I have worked hard over the past years to build my skills up till this point and I won't trade it for any NAME (That's just me) because the NAME can vanish but if I stay abreast of the latest technology through practice,my skills will always make me marketable
My 2cents, don't settle for less than you deserve(not in terms of money this time) because if you settle for less than you deserve,you'll get less than what you settled for.