On Self Improvement
Hello Heathens,
This is a pretty short post with 2 playlists; I mostly just want to remind readers that sometimes other people see things in us that we don’t see in ourselves.
I started my current job in August 2022, and my first employee review was at the six-month mark. It was a tense conversation with my boss, who said that I often told her what she wanted to hear rather than the truth about where my projects stood. She said that I was hard to communicate with, my technical writing was below expectations, and that I needed to improve in the areas of teamwork, communication, and the quality of my deliverables. I was well on my way to getting placed on a personal improvement plan.
I wasn’t exactly excited about her criticisms and started to look for a new job. During this rather childish job search, my boss and I took steps to address her criticisms of me. At my one-year review, all my scores had improved, my boss was much happier with me, and she confirmed that I was now back on track for my career plan. Due to HR policy, I would not be eligible for a promotion until I had 2.5 years of experience in my role. I was glad to have turned things around and that my work and communication had improved. I put the promotion length out of mind and kept focusing on my job.
A month ago, my boss told me that she had gotten approval to promote me early and wanted me to complete the paperwork for a promotion and a 10% raise. I was shocked by this as I felt like I didn’t really deserve to get a promotion so far ahead of schedule. I had been at the job for roughly 1.5 years when she told me all of this. I got the paperwork done, and when it was in front of my skip-level management, they voiced some concerns about promoting me so soon. My boss told them that she would quit if they didn’t promote me. She told them that she liked working with me, thought the quality of my work was now above what was expected of me, and was happy with the new ideas I brought to the table for our projects.
Upper management eventually approved it, and HR even backdated the promotion so I got it a pay period earlier than expected.
All of this is to say that there are people in our lives who believe in our ability to do better, and sometimes when you are in a bad spot and need to improve, you can push past that uncomfortable initial period and find real growth. I appreciate my boss calling me out on my shortcomings and giving me clear directions on what I needed to do to improve. I really appreciate my boss putting me in for a promotion that I felt like I didn’t deserve, and I appreciate the HR department allowing her to skip the policy because she advocated for me.
This also sounds silly, but this week I was given a pretty difficult task (even my boss admits it’s a bad project to get stuck with) of trying to update and fix some buggy code from 2012. This code is used for some reporting that was done in 2012, and there has been renewed interest in seeing how things have changed from then to now. I am not sure if I feel more confident in myself now that I’ve been promoted to a senior job role, if I’m better at my job, or if it’s a combination of both. I managed to troubleshoot the old code to a point where it would run. Then I got the code updated to use the new table schema we use at work and found some substitute tables for the code to use. Everything was going well, and I got all the code updated, running, and outputs validated a month ahead of schedule. This leaves me a ton of time for data exploration.
I wish I had a better closing statement or thought here beyond, when people tell you positive things about yourself, you should believe them. When people encourage you to make an honest change for good in your life, you should listen. I know it’s easy to downplay your good qualities and personal successes, tell yourself that people are just trying to be nice, and say that you can’t change. The reality is that other people often see positive things in us that we don’t see, and people in our lives can have a better idea of our potential than we do. Believe your friends, family, and coworkers when they compliment you, and maybe take a chance and start some self-improvement or a new hobby.
Keep Heavy The Sabbath Day
Buried In Code by Unleash The Archers
When the World Was Young by Glyph
Torkils Døtur by Tyr
Rikin by Hamferð
Architekt by Blaze of Perdition
Chapter VIII: The Undying One by The Vision Bleak
At the Going Down of the Sun by In Vain
Shrine to the Incomprehensible by REPLICANT
Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden
The Pot by Tool
Stalingrad by Accept
Forever Yours by Nightwish
The Rest of The Sun Belongs to Me by Sonata Arctica
Demonheart by Luca Turilli
Where Kings Fall by +1476+
You Were But A Ghost In My Arms by Agalloch
Seven Swords (In the Arsenal of Steel) by Valdrin