I have been at my current company for just over 10 years now. With some luck and hard work I have done fairly well for myself. I started as an entry level call center rep in customer care and worked my way up through analytics roles and am now a senior technical product manager.
My org is having re-alignment recently which means I have whole new leadership change.
I recently had a one on one with my new senior director, think my boss’s, boss’s boss.
Well I was introducing myself and talking about my background and I said that I started entry level as a call center rep and he was frankly shocked. Like stopped talking for about 5 to 10 seconds to process that.
I think this really shows how the American dream is frankly dying cause for me, I don’t think I did anything special. I just started working at a company and just worked hard and always moved toward my next goal. What I did is me fulfilling the American dream.
Having said that, the fact that people are so shocked and surprised that somebody could even do what I did is kinda depressing. Like an electrician starts at entry level and then works up. Why isn’t it the same for corporate level positions too?