Success, Continued

When I joined the Workday ecosystem, I had no idea what that meant. I wasn’t just trying to be in Workday or get certified. I just wanted a job. I had no idea how fortunate I was.

As I mentioned in Success, I had no idea Deloitte was a Big4 company well-renowned by pretty much everyone. I also had the added bonus of being able to sit next to someone and ask them for help.

My first day at Deloitte was in Pleasanton, CA for certification. I was terrified. My job was on the line if I didn’t pass. New place, new coworkers I met when I got there. My teacher told me I couldn’t use the cheat guide I was given by my onboarding buddy. My teacher also told me when I turned in my HCM test that she thought I was going to fail. I got a 94. I was the only one from the three of us at Deloitte to pass. Yes, we did study together (I had that question from leadership a lot when I got back.)

I went straight into my Absence certification. The concepts were easier for me because of my background in Absence Management. I then interviewed for my first project. It was a global Phase 2. If I did well, I could spend my career on that client. I consider myself lucky again because I had an amazing lead who taught me so much about Absence. Since the project was global, I became familiar with a lot of the different time off scenarios. I rolled out somewhere between 6-10 countries in 9 months. I made a mistake during go live and was removed from the project. I sat at my desk after hours and cried. What was going to happen?

Being in the office had its perks because I got to know people doing different things. Two of my friends were staffed on a project that was supposed to be Time Tracking and Absence, but they only knew Time Tracking. We convinced the EM to let me help with Absence. That experience changed the course of my career.

I had also been running an internal initiative called The Mentoring Forum (sounds similar, right?) The EM on that project had become familiar with my leadership skills. About a month of me doing Absence on that project and I was asked to take over as EM. (Why this was a good idea) I ended up EMing that project AND doing Absence work, for that project and multiple others, for the next two years.

I’d had my daughter during that time and began to see others in the office leaving for remote opportunities, and more money. I ended up leaving. I still question if it was the right decision to leave.

I don’t want to blast the next company I worked for. I’ll say that I had no onboarding buddy, was routinely told the project I was shadowing was different from all the others, and I felt very disconnected from my coworkers in my first remote role. I tried to make it work and decided this was my life now when a former Deloitte coworker reached out about a great opportunity to be part of the leadership team for a company I’d never heard of before.

I negotiated for the highest salary I could get, which was smart since there were no bonuses and no raises for years. It also put my name on the list for the first round of layoffs. However, I did not get laid off… I think this part of my career warrants its own article… so until next time.