Job Responsibilities
I manage seven direct and 14 total employees in IT, Purchasing
and Accounting (I run a cross-departmental section from within
the IT department). Day-to-day management activities (including
staff meetings, budgeting, performance reviews, etc.) take about
25% of my time. Non-routine maintenance and support of major
financial and purchasing automation systems (I handle the most
serious problems myself!) takes another 10 to 20%, depending.
The rest (and most important) of my time is spent in managing
short and long term projects for automating, streamlining, and
monitoring various financial and purchasing activities that
remain primarily paper-based and labor intensive (at the clerical
level). Our most important long-term goal is to enable data-
mining of and to build a generally-accessible knowledge base from
the data we accumulate during daily operations in the financially-
oriented departments.
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Job Requirements
People in my immediate section include supervisors of data entry
clerks, purchasing or accounts payable staffers who are
technology-oriented, and IT analysts/developers. An
undergraduate degree is required as a minimum for all positions
with advanced technical degrees (or equivalent experience)
required for the IT contingent. HR rules for my group are
flexible, recognizing the value of experience and attitude as an
acceptable substitute for specific degree work in the older
candidates. For entry-level hires specific educational
requirements are much more strict - we strongly prefer an MS
degree in Computer Science for our IT candidates, including my
eventual replacement. I have only a B.S. in business
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Uppers
Having more or less invented my own position I have a great deal of flexibility
and freedom in defining it - this is by far the best aspect of my job. Leading
innovative projects with teams of creative professionals is my best and largest
responsibility. We have frequent brainstorming sessions to develop new ideas, in
which an anything-goes, no-ego atmosphere prevails (if I have anything to say
about it, which I do!). This is my favorite sort of meeting and generates lots
of valuable projects. The best (or worst) part of any job, however, is the
people you work with - and I'm fortunate to work with the hand-picked best!
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Downers
Dealing with the occasional 'problem' employee (rare) or employee
problem (a bit more often than I like) is the worst aspect of
being 'in charge.' These types of problems eat up an enormous
amount of time when they occur, and I've been fortunate not to
have too many of these! Composing the annual section budget is
an onerous chore; as happens in large organizations it's
difficult for me to tie raises for my reports to performance to
the degree I would prefer, and justifying new or upgraded
computer equipment is like pulling teeth (this applies to AEP
managers in general, not just to me!). Finally, there??s always a
few big egos in other departments who feel that it somehow
magnifies their importance to tear others' down, so even though I
hate it I'm forced to play the 'office politics' game at times if
only for the sake of protecting my people.
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Lifestyle
When one is 'creating' a job out of whole cloth so to speak, it takes very hard
work and very long hours before the results will justify your existence! My
successors (if any) won't have that problem, but my position will always require
greater sacrifice of leisure and family time compared to other jobs of similar or
even greater responsibility and pay. The projects we undertake MUST be finished
quickly and MUST show results (meaning a high ROI) immediately or the plug could
be pulled from above at any time. Yes, that's a lot of pressure - and if you
take a job like this you have to be the type of person that seeks out and thrives
under pressure! To do this job well requires risk-taking and willingness to bet
your reputation (and your peoples??) on every new endeavor. It??s really a job for
a young person with little or no family responsibilities and who can withstand a
mistake or two without ruining their career. Others are likely to be too
conservative or risk-averse, which will in the end be just as career-destroying
in this job as any mistake you could make at the other extreme. Travel is
infrequent although you should try to catch as many technology shows and
conferences as time and budget allow, they are irreplaceable sources of ideas.
There is no customer contact involved in this section so dress is business casual
for me and slightly more casual for my employees.
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Compensation
Since I was the first to hold this position at AEP, the
compensation was based more on MY previous pay grade and salary
history than anything else. As a highly regulated public utility
AEP offers no regular bonuses or stock options below the officer
(VP) level. Their exempt benefits package is generous (and
fairly typical for a Fortune 500 company), including medical,
prescription drug, vision, and dental coverage, life and
disability insurance with co-pay, flexible spending accounts,
company-matched 401(K), and others. My (final) salary is $96,600
but my replacement's could be less (likely) or more (unlikely)
depending on who it is - this is still an evolving position and
it's even possible I may be both first and last to hold it.
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Advice to Jobseekers
AEP is a fine company to work for, though of course there are
(like at any other large company) some managers here I'd be
inclined to avoid. In the past the main advantage of working
for any utility was rock-solid job security, and compensation was
well below that offered at other, more market-vulnerable
companies of comparable size. The downsizing wave of the 80s
and 90s changed all that, and now you can get laid off here as
easily as anywhere... especially if your performance is sub-par.
The bright side is compensation packages are much more
competitive today; they have to be at attract the sort of
superior candidates AEP wants. If you're ready for the extreme
challenges facing the energy industry today we'd love to see your
resume!
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