Change of Career

After 6 years with Savvis Communications I decided I needed a change. Savvis has not been the same company it was when I joined them. The work is no longer challenging and the rewards for your hard work are slim to nil.

Oddly enough Savvis has been encouraging their employees to join LinkedIn, a social networking site. On the site was a listing for a Windows Administrator position with a company in the next county. The commute would be cut by half, I wouldn't have to pay taxes in two states and I regain a normal work schedule of Monday-Friday.

So on May 19th I submitted my resume to The Maschhoffs and waited...and waited...and waited. Finally on June 10th I heard from the company. The position was still open and they wanted a phone interview. That interview led to a behavioral evaluation test and two technical exams. The interview process continued. I was asked to come into the office for a personal interview that would last 1 hours. The date of the interview was personally arranged for me to accommodate my vacation schedule. They even went as far as to prep me for their interview questions the day before. My interview started at 7:30 am. The first interview actually ended at 9:00 am, 30 minutes late.  They asked me to stay around for more interviews, two total. I finally left their office 5 hours after the original interview started. None of that time was spent waiting for people, it was a constant shuffle to talk to everyone from the person I would work with to the directors of the IT department, to the VP himself.

After many telephone conversations and e-mails, yesterday I got my official offer letter. I'm getting a 20% raise in pay over Savvis and the benefits are matched except for PTO time. All in all it's still a better deal. I'm really excite about this change, which is odd for me because I don't like change.

When I got to work last night I pulled the senior manager aside and presented my termination letter. Within that letter I presented three options for Savvis to which they must reply in writing by the start of my shift next week:

1. Counter offer, however what I would accept is far too big for Savvis to respond. I asked for $80k plus a 3% raise every year for 5 years effective January 1st of each year. Savvis has a habit of giving raises for the year towards the end of the year which means you lose out on the extra pay for most of the time.
2. They can hire a replacement within the next two weeks and then I would train them for an additional 4 weeks. This would give me two paychecks for a month. Savvis has always been very slow to hire. I've been working someone's shift for 4 months because they won't hire a replacement.
3. If they to not exercise the options then my termination date is no later than September 10th. Surprise, it could be earlier.

After talking with the senior manager, who took the news well, he did say he appreciated the offer for the options and that we will talk again next Friday. We'll see what they have to say because my options are non-negotiable. Knowing the decisions that Savvis management has made in the recent past, I don't expect them to truly comprehend the options I have present and take advantage of them, but we'll see. Until then, goodbye Savvis, hello Maschhoffs.