Yesterday, I signed paperwork, making me the Interim Business Resiliency Manager at BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. My first thought is, “FINALLY!”… followed promptly by “Uh oh, what have I done?”
In 1996, I started my IT career at a relatively small, but well-known, candy company, Brach’s Confections. At that time, I set a 5-year goal to become manager. 27 years later, I am now closer than I have ever been… as I probably should be, after 27 years.
One might ask, “Why did it take so long to even have the word ‘manager’ in your new temporary title.” The answer is, “I really can’t say, for sure.” The closest I have ever gotten to a definitive answer, from someone, using words, was back in 2015, or thereabouts. My, then director, now CIO, called me to her office and explained to me why I wasn’t getting an interview for a manager job, for which, I had applied. She said it was because I hadn’t logged enough supervisory years to qualify for the job. I cannot disagree. I had recently left an Operations position, where I had been a Team Lead for about two years, for the position on my current team, in Disaster Recovery… not a team lead position. I was applying for the same job, in which, I am now serving on an interim basis. The challenging part is that my current team has no team lead position, as it is a relatively small team and doesn’t require one.
I think this opportunity is a healthy mix of need, on the part of the business, experience, I have now acquired (nevermind, that I still had not acquired that management experience, for which, I was denied before) and new management above me, with whom, I have developed a good rapport.
When they get around to actually posting the new job, assuming I have done a good job, in my interim role, I will be permitted to, viably, apply for this role, in earnest and not have that “interim” tag.
I guess we’ll see how it pans out. I haven’t reached that 27-year-old 5-year goal yet, but I am darn close, and I am going to try my best. More later.