Job Security

Well, I finally have news on my contract. It is good news, but scary at the same time. My boss at the client called me into a meeting on Friday to tell me they've decided to make me the lead writer on this major project that is VERY high profile for the company. It is the whole new way they are delivering their product to their clients and the way it is presented and documented (my job) is very important. It is going to involve me overseeing the work of at least one other contractor and possibly more. It is also going to involve me writing and pitching a documentation plan to the executive team.

OMG! I'm feeling a little bit over my head as although I've been funcitioning as a lead/senior writer within my group I've never had to supervise anyone else's work (at least not beyond editing it) and standing in front of people pitching my ideas has never been my strong suite. I'm a reluctant leader type - meaning I can do it when I need to - but my personality is really not very assertive, so it only happens when I sort of get pushed into that position - like now! Anyway, this means there is no way they are getting rid of me anytime soon - even if they decide they need to cut the budget and get rid of some contractors, I'd probably be first on the priority list of keeping around because of this project.

The boss at my client told me she picked me because of all the leadership I've shown in the last few months (I was called on to give input to the team on some new writing standards and apparently she thought I did well.) I just sort of feel like an imposter who has them all fooled into thinking I know what the h - e - double hockeysticks I'm doing, when I'm just sort of feeling in the dark. But I'm a fake-it-til-you-make-it believer too, so I'll carry on.

After they told me about this new role I emailed my boss at my contracting firm to let him know and he was all pumped too. This is exactly the kind of next step he had identified for me at last year's review. This year's review is next week, but he went ahead and told me anyway that he is promoting me to Technical Writer II at that review, which doesn't sound like much, but at my company it means you can bill more, fall into a higher salary range, and lead projects on your own, so it normally comes with more money and respect. In light of the recent paycut across the whole company I doubt I'll see any more money right now, but I'm still glad to be progressing rather than stagnating.

So after going on far too long about all of that, basically my new contract is through the end of September 2009, but really that will probably get extended too because that date was apparently decided before they gave me the new project. I am probably set through June of 2010. I light of that and a raise that Sean just received (gotta love a union gov. job with preset increases) we are going to go ahead with purchasing another home should be lucky enough to sell this one. So I'm happy, but scared I'll fall on my face!!