Ode to IBM

Today is my last day with the company, so I thought I would write down some of the highlights of my career so that when I am old, I will remember what a hotshot I was :)

2000

I was hired as a summer intern in Tivoli, working on mainframes. I had never written a program in REXX before because in school we were using Java. My internship extended into the fall, but then the area got downsized that winter, so my internship transferred to WebSphere.

2001

I was hired full time in WebSphere the day after I graduated. Looking back, I would say I should have taken a week off, because you can only accrue half your vacation time when you work half the year. But, if I had done that, things might not have worked out as well because two weeks after being hired, that area was downsized. Luckily for me, my first manager when I was an intern had an opening, so I was able to transfer to that area.

2002

Just short of my first anniversary, I was promoted. The manager I worked for was amazing, and gave me all kinds of growth opportunities, and I really excelled. For example, I got to prototype design work and sit in architecture meetings with customers, which is rare for a new hire.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2002:
Heather continues to amaze me. She seeks out new and challenging work, puts forth excellent ideas, is a team player, and is recognized as a hard worker with exceptional technical skills. Heather has a great sense of personal responsibility and always takes ownership of problems within her area. She acts independently, but also knows when to look for additional resources and support. She has excellent communication, teaming and listening skills. She has proven to be an asset to any team of which she was part.

2003

Of course, nothing in IBM is permanent. While I thought I was going to be able to lead the next project, the company decided to send the entire group to India, so I had to find a new job. For some reason, it was difficult to find a new job in development, so I went into test. Let's just be honest. Working in test is a really hard way to move up the ladder. So my career basically stalled out.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2003:
Heather has excellent communication skills and works equally well with all members of the organization. She is driven and thorough and seeks out ways to contribute to the group, always seeking to enhance her skills. She has been very proactive for accepting new assignments. Heather requires very little direction to proceed forward with creating scenarios, test plans, task definitions, or business modeling.

2004

I got to travel to Toronto for a customer seminar, and then to Boston to get requirements from a customer. This was my first taste of business travel, and I liked it. I got to eat good food, and while I didn't have time in Toronto to see the city, in Boston I went down to Harvard and got to walk around.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2004:
Heather has been very driven to creating a new automation strategy within the Commerce Organization using Rational Functional Tester. She did a good job of communicating to the team and has saved team members time from trying things that have been identified as broken. Heather will run with a task and drive it to completion with little supervision. She was our go to tester for Telesales. Bottom line, she did an excellent job creating testplans/testcases, providing feedback to Development (100+ comments against Telesales design doc), and in general, ensuring test had it's act together for Telesales, despite unclear designs and missed DCUT dates. Heather did an Excellent job of helping mentor/evaluate co-ops. She is always willing to accept additional tasks, including creating a demo for telesales, creating a Project plan, and taking the lead on the TRC automation. Heather has been presented with 2 Bravo awards and 3 Thanks awards for her 2004 achievements.

2005

As an IBMer, we have all sorts of different acronyms for IBM.... one of them is I've Been Moved. If you haven't picked up the pattern yet, 2005 is an odd year, so time for me to look for a new job. The reason this time was the project I was working on got it's funding cut. I was seeing a pattern, and so I decided to work on a side plan so that if I was ever really on the resource action list, I would be prepared. Thus begins the money saving spreadsheet to "retire" at 30. I also realized that changing jobs every two years was no way to get to the next level at IBM. Also, since I had just spent two years in test, no one wanted to hire me as a developer. So I moved back to Tivoli (which as you will recall is where I started as a co-op), and accepted a test role. This was the first time I was responsible for managing people overseas. What it means is 6 AM meetings and 10 PM meetings, sending many emails to try to make sure you are understood and that the work is on track. I was very sad that I didn't get to go to China to meet the team. As an aside, moving back to Tivoli, everyone there thought I was a co-op. Apparently I inherited my mothers good looks. But it was frustrating because I was trying to be taken seriously as a leader. So one of my mentors created a sign that said, "No I am not a co-op, I started work here at the turn of the century". Hahaha.


From my boss in my appraisal of 2005:
Despite her inexperience with the product relative to her peers, she accepted a 'stretch' assignment to take on the role of SVT lead for the release and was assigned a mentor to help with this significant task. Leading an SVT was also new ground for Heather and she came on boardfaster than I expected. In fact, from the mid-way point of the test and beyond, she did an outstanding job leading a fairly large geographically dispersed team in China and the U.S. Her communications with the entire team and management was both timely, clear, and complete. She approached her work in a professional, calm, and composed manner, a trait that will serve her very well as she advances her career in IBM. She listens very well and always seems to be in command of the issues. This year, she has clearly proven to be an effective leader, demonstrated excellent initiative by willingly stepping out of her comfort zone, but most importantly, showed strong aptitude in successfully delivering the results the business needed.

2006

I realized I was tired of being in test and tired of not being able to move forward. So rather than wait for the next project cut, I decided to initiate my own move. It took a bit of doing, and I actually worked in three places in 2006, but I landed myself in a development role on the install team of another group in Tivoli. Let me just say that Tivoli is the only building in RTP that has real offices with real doors, and honestly, I didn't want to leave a real office.
Oh, I should also mention that I got to travel to Austin for a test automation convention. The last time I was in Austin was an interview for Dell, and I loved the city, so I tacked on a weekend to revisit some of the sites. I got bumped up to a mustang convertible rental car which was totally awesome because it was gorgeous weather. I drove around the parks, downtown, went out and had a great dinner overlooking the river. It was totally fantastic.


From my boss in my appraisal of 2006:
This was a big year for Heather. She started off as the team lead and project planner for the SOA for ITCAM test effort. This included testers in RTP and China. The distributed team required good communications and flexibility. She was a leader in the automation for her team, working with other automation gurus and establishing consistent code across the project. Heather was moved to CMDB around the middle of the year to help out the testing. Her assistance there was a huge help to the team, and she always made her very aggressive point targets. While she was on CMDB, she again brought her automation skills to bear, and coded up several routines that were used in the daily build verifications. Heather also spent time coaching and bringing her SOA peer up to speed on that project so that he could assume the lead while she was on CMDB. Her assistance made the transition seamless. Going forward, I expect Heather to continue leveraging her strong development skills and finding ways to make the overall process better.

2007

I began my quest to take over the world by aggressively learned the new technology, designing the new installer for a product IBM acquired, and becoming the Driver Queen. Basically I was trying to prove that I could lead and become a Chief Programmer by the time I was 30 and get promoted. (At IBM, promotion and title are not the same thing). I got to go to Anaheim, CA for a technical leader conference. I also tacked on some vacation time, and got to see the beach, whales, Ansel Adams display, and my first presidential library (Richard Nixon's).


From my boss in my appraisal of 2007:
Heather is extremely well organized and prepared as demonstrated in her leading, planning, designing, and executing on the install team. She is able to take on new tasks and responsibilities when necessary and show great initiative toward accomplishing goals.

2008

My hard work paid off, and I actually was promoted. I should also mention that I got a 1 rating, even while being at a new level. Ultimately I got five 1 ratings in the nine years I worked at IBM, which is pretty good.

From my boss in my appraisal of 2008:
Heather Morgan was promoted from Band 7 to Band 8 in July 2008. For this performance periord Heather was the Technical Lead for Base Services Installer (BSI). In addition to her leadership task Heather completed several install features lineitems on schedule. Heather always looks for ways to improve the process as demonstrated in creating a plan for quartely install deliverables, delivering function earlier in the media refreshes, and delivering drivers with testable functions earlier.

2009

Finally I was made the Chief Programmer. I also spent time in St Louis, which included vacation time to see the Arch, and also vacation time to visit my sister in Missouri. But the glimmer had faded. Too many resource actions every year. Too much indecision in projects. Too much overtime required to be a 1 performer. Too many headaches. Too many jobs moved overseas. Plus.... I hit 30. My golden age. Did I have enough money to really "retire", to complete change jobs?

From my boss in my appraisal of 2009:
Heather had an excellent year in 2009. Throughout the year she showed both technical and personal leadership in every aspect of her job. As the lead for the install components, Heather drove the creation of common Tpae based installation components. This was not only technically challenging, but it required the driving of organizational and behavioral changes. As Chief Programmer for the CCMDB 7.2.1 release, Heather drove the efforts to build the initial project plan and information to support the Plan DCP.

2010

For a long time I have dreamed about quitting, just throwing my badge on my boss's desk and walking out on a Wednesday. Well... I got part of that dream. I did give almost 3 weeks notice in order to not burn bridges, and frankly, I didn't want to leave the team stranded. Turning in my notice was way to much fun because it was such a shock to my boss, and then to everyone else. But we were able to put in a transition plan, and I am sure that everything will run smoothly (or at least continue to run) without me. But today, Wednesday, is my final day. It is just fun to leave in the middle of a week. I have to admit, quitting a job like this is much like attending your own funeral. So many colleagues have sent emails and sametimes congratulating me, telling me how much they appreciated me and my work, and also wishing they could do the same. It is so nice to be appreciated, and to be reminded that you did a good job, not just from managers, but from peers. I was very blessed to have this job for the last nine years, and to succeed and have all the opportunities I have had. I learned that I really don't like writing code, but I do like running teams and coordinating and managing people and schedules. But I am equally blessed to be able to quit this job, and do something new and exciting with my life.