Just as the title says. I am a manufacturing technician at a pharmaceutical plant. However, my credentials are “Bachelor in Chemical Engineering.” As a new immigrant without much local work experience, I tend to get discriminated by recruiters in jobs that I'm qualified for. Hence, I put my ego aside and took a step down to get hired, so I can continue paying bills.
Management was already aware that my plan was to gradually move from Manufacturing to Validation. I thought, by going above and beyond, there will be a higher chance to get promoted. This was all false. All I'm doing is mechanical maintenance of the machines and basic operations. I don't even get to touch and play with the micro controllers that the Validation department has to test. My manager straight up told me “Unfortunately, the access to controller settings is only restricted to engineering.” I'm an engineer with a mechanical aptitude. The office politics won't let me spread my wings and learn more because of my job title. Technicians are blindly expected to memorize basic operating functions. I like to understand the machines in more details and in a logical manner. No one's letting me learn that way. I am held behind because of the dirty work. Also, the job description said “Engineering Degree preferred.” However, the locals who dropped out of college made it to this job and we're all treated the same way. Even when I was requesting projects from Engineers, they were preventing me from collaborating.
Coworkers from other departments only see me as a pathetic technician that just fixes stuff. If there are any issues on the machines caused by the engineers, I have to be the one to stay late and fix it. And worst of all, I'm forced to work in the evening/night shifts as the senior colleague has to interact with the upper management during the day and train the newbies. I am expected to solve problems in the evenings when there's a lot less staff around. I have never taken a scheduled day off and was always on time since the 6 months that I joined here. Meanwhile, that one girl who always shows up late everyday had the choice to work in the day shift. It's just unfair that when I'm getting good at my job, I'm being punished and forced to commit during strange hours because the newbies are learning so slow and are not at the level to act independently without the manager and/or senior technician. At the same time, I was denied a raise despite the added responsibilities. I'll have to wait a couple more months during the official performance review other than the annual salary increase due to inflation at the start of every calendar year. At the same time, I need to finish one year in this company to qualify for permanent immigration. At least one continuous year of work experience is a requirement, so paychecks must cover a 52 week period. It's easier to accomplish this at one job. Or else I'll lose any down time when job hopping.
Additionally, here's what I don't understand. Why are lower paid people expected to own cars so they can work evenings, nights and weekends when the public transportation is almost non existent? While all the upper management staff and engineers work the traditional 9-5 and have the convenience of taking the cheaper way to and off work. I need work experience to get the equivalent of a green card in this country. Until I have a more permanent future, it makes no sense to lease a car. A car is just an expensive tool that depreciates rather than an investment. Just another case of rich get richer and the poor get poorer.