Image Credit: Daniel Hoherd
As an IT manager you go to work every day, you do the best job possible using the IT manager skills that you have, and you hope that your boss notices the good work that you are doing. We all hope that when a more senior position in our company opens up, because of the good work that we’ve been doing, we’ll be selected to fill the role. However, sometimes the position does open up and we are not the one who is selected to fill it. What should an IT manager do then?
What It Means To Not Get The Job
So there you are, you’ve just learned that a position that you want in your company has opened up and you are just sure that you are going to be the one who will get picked for it! Time goes by, the people who are doing the hiring tell everyone that they have an announcement to make and you start working on what you’ll say during your acceptance speech. Then bam – they tell you that someone else (clearly less qualified than you are) has been picked for the job despite all of the IT manager training that you’ve had. What should you do now?
Let’s face it, when / if this happens to us we are ready to quit right then and there. Clearly this company does not appreciate the time and energy that we’ve been putting into working for them and so screw them – you are going to take your talents and go work somewhere where they will appreciate you. In fact, if you’ve been watching the news that is exactly what some of the big boys over at Wal-Mart, Pfizer, Proctor & Gamble, etc. have been doing. When someone didn’t get the top job, they just up and left.
The good news here is that many companies are starting to tell workers who were vying for a job, but who were not selected for it why they were passed over. The reason that they have started to provide this level of information is because they have started to understand that if they don’t, then they are going to lose their top performers. This is good news for you.
How We Should React To Not Getting The Job
So when the worst happens, what should you do? You’ve got a lot of options, but the experts suggest that you stay on. Yes, getting passed over for a job that you wanted is a huge emotional setback, but it’s not the end of your career. This event could end up propelling you even further up your company’s management ladder if you take the time to reflect on what has happened.
What you are going to want to do is to use this rejection to take time to review your career goals. Do you still want this position? A very important point for you to understand is that you don’t want to waste any time asking the people running your company why you didn’t get the job. Instead, what you are going to want to do is to ask them what you need to do in order to prepare yourself in order to be a strong candidate for a similar job sometime in the future.
Ultimately what you are going to want to do is to find ways to conceal your bruised ego. You now need to take the time to find ways to showcase the talents that you do have. If you want to flourish after being passed over, you are going to have to find ways to make yourself vital to your company. Once you do this, the next time around the job will be yours.
What All Of This Means For You
As IT managers we all believe that we are pretty good at our job. It is our hope that our management sees that we are good at our job and how we do IT team building. This is important to us because when a new, more senior, position opens up in the company we would like to get that job. However, sometimes despite our best efforts, we get passed over for these openings. What’s an IT manager to do when this happens?
Often when something like this happens to us, our first instinct is to quit. Just walk away. They don’t understand how valuable we are to the firm so just let them try and get along without us. However, companies are starting to realize that you might feel this way. They are starting to provide information to the people who get passed over as to why they were not selected. A better way of handling a situation like this is that realize that it might be able to provide a boost to your career. You need to take the time to find out what skills the people who are doing the hiring think that you still need to work on. You need to show everyone the good things that you can do so that the next time an opportunity shows up, you are the one who gets the job.
Rejection is hard for any of us to handle. When it happens we want to lash out and strike back. However, if we can hold off on doing this and instead take the time to do a self-evaluation of why we were not the ones chosen, then we can prepare ourselves to be successful in the future. Use rejection to build yourself up and be ready when the next opportunity comes along.
– Dr. Jim Anderson
Blue Elephant Consulting –
Your Source For Real World IT Management Skills™
Question For You: If you find yourself working for the person who go the job that you wanted, should you stay there or should you transfer to a different department?
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What We’ll Be Talking About Next Time
As an IT manager, you are in charge using your IT manager skills to manage a set of skilled IT professionals. This group of people can contain members who are, how shall we say it, “wound tightly”. What this means is that at times they can become very stressed out. As their manager, it is your job to help them to calm down even though none of us have ever had any IT manager training in how to do this. The least effective way of going about doing this is to tell them to “calm down”. There’s got to be a better way…