I work in the agriculture industry and trade grain regularly, including buying futures contracts, options, puts, etc. The company I worked for over the last 2 years paid me a decent but low salary for the work I was hired for and was doing. After being employed with the company for a few months a ridiculous legal situation came to a head and the company was at risk of a $2 million loss, in total with market positions it's about $11 million but I only handled the physical grain side at the time. The company got in really deep in the market and had no idea how to dig itself out. I stepped in and worked the situation doing all communication with the other companies we were involved with trying to make things right on the grain contracting side. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I was cursed at, accused, or just downright told to go kill myself because of how bad my predecessor was at handling things and the position the company was in.
Ultimately, we ended up needing to cancel commitments and do some shifting of international contracts on our end. I handled EVERY SINGLE ASPECT of the external communication with multiple companies daily and spent evenings and weekends calling farmers, grain elevators, and any other grain entity to find replacement product. I did all of this on my own with little oversight from my manager and only told him the solutions after I figured them out.
The main company I worked with was an international agriculture company that we had a significant contract position with. I called the same individual, let's call him John, every day and coordinated with him. They have 30+ locations and we had contracts delivering into 20 of their locations. On the daily calls I would ask him what his inventory levels were, where he needed grain, etc. and planned an entire delivery schedule to make sure their needs were met and didn't have a single second of downtime. For anyone who knows the grain markets you can run up local price by creating demand with just a simple phone call and that's exactly what happened here. What I ended up doing to save the $500k was simply talking with John and building a relationship where he knew I had his company's best interest at heart. Several situations arose where farmers would tell him they absolutely would not deliver the grain under any circumstance and I was the one calling these folks negotiating. Whether we paid drying charges, freight, or anything related to the actual delivery I was able to get contracts delivered that were thought to be lost by John and his company.
Once the entire situation was finished I called my boss, it was a remote position, and asked for two days off to rest and recharge because this situation lasted 6+ months. Immediately denied because there were other projects that I needed to focus on that I had been neglecting. Excuse me? I had a well documented path that led to the $500k savings and provided that the next week to be considered during my performance evaluation. I shot high and asked for a 10% raise and a $30,000 bonus, not even 10% of what I saved them, and in the end I received a 3% raise and no bonus and felt crushed.
The very next day I received a call from John, who I hadn't talked to in a few weeks since things wrapped up, and he simply said “what would it take for you to leave your current company?” To be honest, it was hard not to laugh and say I'd take a pay cut to leave. So instead I told him I'd call him back and we could chat more. One thing led to another and he gave me the range they were looking to hire someone in at and guys… I nearly fell to the floor. I gave him a number, 40% raise from my current role, in the middle and the offer was extended the next day!
Once I received the offer one of the VPs reached out to me and gave me the job description letter and I very quickly realized that I am 8 years underqualified and do not have any of the certifications the job requires. It is easily two steps up from where I was at and far beyond where I thought I'd be at this age, I'm in my early 30s.
I don't say this to brag but to simply tell you that yes… It sucks to work hard and not be recognized by the company you work for but people are noticing the work you are doing! If you have a good attitude, work hard, and put yourself out there you never know who is going to call you and offer you a life changing position. I've been with the company for about a month now and we have a few trips planned to get my feet wet, no pushy situations, no stress, no “you have to know everything now”, and no disrespect.
The right position is out there for you all and I am confident you will find it! Keep your head up.
Edit 1: Grammar/spelling