Getting Ahead at GBS

 

Getting Ahead at GBS

I was good at what I did and in fact, I was considered to be one of the stars of the company. At that point I hadn't fully realized that, but I knew I was good enough. I came in early almost everyday mostly so I could grab a computer and get some work done while it was still quiet. Early in Silicon Valley is before 9:00 and I was there by 8:00. The company VP (Phil) generally came in about 8 and he would see me working in the computer room when he came in the back door and up the stairs to his office. Most days I would be the only one in there at that time.

In the IT world I was quite underpaid. I didn't think much of it for awhile, after all, I was making more than all my non IT friends, the friends who I spent the most of my non-work time with. But after getting to know others doing the same job I was doing and finding that their salaries dwarfed mine it began to get to me. This experience helped me to understand professional athletes wanting to renegotiate their contracts. When you find out that someone else is doing the same thing you're doing and making considerably more money at it, and you also know that you are doing it better then they are, it begins to get to you even though you're making good money. I've never been overly driven by money. I never picked a job based on the salary. Salary has never been a priority. Well, of course salary was important. I mean the number 1 reason for taking a job was to make money. After all, money is kind of a necessity. There were multiple opportunities coming my way and many of my less talented (in a programming sense) co-workers were leaving me behind for greener pastures. It took awhile but I eventually started paying more attention to the size of my salary.

Due to both the low pay, and the abundance of jobs, not to mention the mess you could get yourself into attempting to produce program modifications quickly at GBS, there was a lot of turnover. I was getting calls about job openings at other companies that paid considerably more but I was liking the job so I'd been telling them I wasn't interested. I'd been working a little more than a year and was making about $1300 a month. I had already received three good raises and I hadn't pushed for any of them. I accepted what I got and it was hard to complain as I was receiving some of the biggest raises awarded. Sometime during my second year with GBS I decided, in my head, that I should be making 24K within the next year. At my next review I was offered a $400 a month raise. That was the biggest raise I'd ever been offered. I thanked Gary, my boss, but then said it wasn't good enough. I wanted $200 more. She was a bit shocked as I'm sure the $400 was already a much bigger raise than any programmer in my position had gotten previously at GBS. I told her “I know the raise you've presented to me was very generous but with my experience and skill I am worth at least what I'm asking”. She was disappointed in my reaction and said that may be so but she couldn't go any higher. So I got the $400 but after that I began to pay attention to some of the calls I was getting. One of the former programmers who had left called me and told me about an opening at her new place. I had taken over her accounts when she left. She had been working on a custom order entry system. It was only about half done when she left. She would call me from time to time to check with me in case I needed her to explain something about what she had done. I went for an interview at her place and they offered me the position starting at $2000 a month. They were concerned about me being so positive about my current job. I explained that I was just looking for a better opportunity. The guy asked me what happens if my company matches their offer. I told them not to worry I've seen like 8 people leave for better offers and the company didn't attempt to counter offer even once. GBS just didn't do those things. I accepted their offer and informed my boss Gary. Gary took me out to the near by bar and we had a few beers together. She told me she didn't want me to go and that I could be making a mistake. She said that I would be hard pressed to find this same type of environment that was at GBS again and there was value in that especially to someone like me . I didn't believe her at the time but I was to learn that she was right. Supportive, family like work environments were truly few and far between although they were more common in startup situations.

I gave my two weeks notice. I had a number of people come by my desk to talk with me including some of the corporate office staff. At the end of the week the company's Regional Manager showed up and took me out to lunch. He offered me a job as a Regional Software Coordinator. A newly created position that was above Gary's position, my current boss. It paid 2100 a month to start with the promise of more. (I learned later that our VP Phil had called Bob up and told him to find a position for me. I guess all those early mornings made an impression.) I was stunned. I told him I'd have to think about it over the weekend and that I'd let him know on Monday. I decided I had to accept, not just for me, but for the others as well. GBS finally did something to try to keep a good employee and I felt some obligation to accept if only to encourage them. The offer had one caveat that I was not too sure about. The position would be in Sacramento. I would have to move out of San Francisco, something I was not too thrilled about. The Regional Office was in Sacramento, largely because Bob lived up in El Dorado Hills. I was not sure about moving to Sacramento but my experience has been that laments tended to come from not taking opportunities. My default position was when in doubt do it, and so I did.

Monday came and I called Bob and accepted his offer to stay with GBS. I called the other company to tell them what happened and apologize. It was agreed that I would work for a few more weeks in Burlingame to finish up my current assignments. I was going to be moving to Sacramento. I reached my goal of making at least 24K plus within the year and not only that, I was going to be living in a less expensive area. Somewhere I missed the “Careful what you wish for” sign...