It all started late last year when I received a call from a senior scientist at Hospira in a mysterious place called McPherson, KS. I had been interviewing for a lot of positions at the time and the lack of call-backs was wearing me down. I sadly began to realize that characteristics I treasured about myself and that typically made interviewing easy for me, such as a hard-working can-do attitude rife with over-enthusiasm, all accompanied by outlandish social 'skills', made me a liability in a professional setting; especially considering my eclectic mix of professional experiences, lack of direct pharmaceutical employment, and young age relative to others applying for the same jobs. Could I handle the work? Yes. Am I a potential risk? Also yes. All this culminated in future employers choosing the safer bet, though I could work circles around those people. Why wouldn't someone give me a chance to prove what I could do?!
The interview went great, but then again I always thought they did, and I became mesmerized with the energy of the plant, the community and especially the team with which I'd be working. I had a feeling this boss could really direct me and use my skills appropriately; the position a dream job I didn't have the imagination necessary to conceive of its reality. I went back to Colorado to stew in my impatience, and after the two-longest weeks of my life, it was made; three much shorter weeks later I had a completely new life.
I couldn't have been more right about my boss and they proved it 1,000 times over this morning. After recognizing my accelerated and ambitious drive they put me on a special side project about two months ago, something which would propel me towards my ultimate goal of project management and also placed me working alongside the site's top leadership. I've always been great with data accumulation, manipulation, analysis and interpretation, but I had now somehow morphed into the site's leading statistician and data analyzer. The best part? My boss always makes it clear that I do the bulk of the work for this project; I'm their right-hand woman, a huge point of personal pride for me.
This morning my boss presented a project update for about 30 of the most senior level site-heads, including the top 2, who operationally maintain Hospira McPherson, a 1,400+ employee manufacturing facility, which is continually one of the highest functioning sites that Hospira owns worldwide. During the presentation my boss conveyed my contribution in no uncertain terms to these unparalleled industry leaders, pointing me out and making sure they knew my name. I, for probably the second time in my entire life, was speechless.
I have had two previous jobs, the first of which I literally almost killed myself over. I wrote and received funding for million-dollar clinical trials and managed patient care for hundreds of MS patients, all to have the credit go to the already world-renowned doctors who I worked for; I eventually quit to save myself from the stress of working 65-70 hours a week for $33,000/year. The worst part was that I owed money to my place of employment for stress-related doctor's visits made necessary by my job! The second job was a ton of money for the lowest work expectations I've ever experienced; sounds great right? And it was at first, but I was also a meager piss-on contractor who was not important enough to give credit to or gear towards permanent employment and project ownership, which I consider to be far more important than money.
Today I felt, for the first time, the immense satisfaction of not only owning my work but, best of all, having a boss who truly understands my 'wild-card' personality, what to do with that energy, how to temper and direct it, and will work hard to help me obtain my career goals despite their own agenda. No amount of money could possibly compare.
Congratulations, Summer. Your situation rocks!
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