I saw my brother on Sunday. It's not a regular occurrence, because he lives in DC and it's a long bike ride to Chicagoland. He was passing through on a long layover before heading to Mexico City. So we grabbed breakfast near O'Hare.
He's been working in operations for a public policy company that holds government contracts to administer health-related programs in developing countries. Essentially, he's one of the guys in the home office who sees that local program mangers get what they need. He's assigned to a couple of projects and gets to use his language skills from time to time when working with a local program manager in, say, South America. He's bright, hardworking, and altruistic. And he's paid a staggeringly low salary for the work he does. But in DC, there's a vast surplus of bachelor degreed 20-somethings, so they can pay low wages. There's also a vast surplus of masters degreed 20-somethings. It's a buyer's market.
Staffers typically leave his position after 2 years to go to grad school at 24. Because he's been told that he can't advance without a masters degree (which, granted, could be true), he thinks he has to leave in April. Not that they're going to kick him out - he'd actually move into an operations track rather than health policy track - but because "everyone else leaves after 2 yrsm, and people are asking me what I'm doing next."
With that in mind, and to get ahead of that timing, he's considering leaving his job for another that is more language-oriented - staffing the office of a language school. It's a slight raise ($1000) and after six months, he'd be considered for the "management training" program. Which is such a crock. Doesn't everyone have a fucking management training program? Hell, after a couple promotions, I'm on the fast-track to management. Geez. And he's argued passionately about going for it. I love languages, would be exposed to all kinds of state department officials who are going overseas and need language skills, after some time could eventually move up to direct a retail location (!) and get to take mandarin chinese for free."
I'm so jaded at this point I can hardly stand to listen to the drivel that he's been fed by the hiring manager. He may as well sign up for a cell phone store's management training program. He'll have little actual interaction with the students, as an office manager.
Mind you, the job he's in gives him exposure to global projects and issues. Sends him to Mexico City and Guatemala. And has only been on his resume a year. And they're NOT GOING TO ASK HIM TO LEAVE. I'm hoping he'll buck the family trend of job hopping every three years. Let's see how he feels after two weeks in Mexico City. The travel bug bit him hard, and he has no travel prospects with the "management" gig.
Bottom line, he's worth more than they're offering. I just wish he knew that.
