[mikester]

This kind of thing is very much why I left my last job.

Thhe dude was an competent engineer in some respects though so his work was good enough but not any better than anyone elses and it surely didn't stand out from mine.

The kicker was - they made him the Sr. and that's why I left.

In this job the Sr. is a mentor and resource to Jr engineers more than anything else. It should be someone who is experienced and able to impart that experience to those jr engineers. These were my bosses words at the time of my review a few months before I left and right before HIS promotion.

He told me in my review that *I* was the guy everyone thanked when they had finished a project. *I* was the guy everyone came to at the start of projects, not just from our team but from all teams in our Data Center.

"Well, what's Mike think about it." That was the question; when there was a problem or an issue - I would get the call before anyone else. Yet they promote the guy who alienated anyone and everyone. He'd yell on conference calls, was generally disrespectful to all and was just an all around jerk as a rule.

For example; We were doing some switching work to the data center in Bakersfield. We had a full time engineer on site and it was his show but he took ques from us at the Regional Data Center. Mr. Candy went out there to do the maintenance and literally wouldn't let the other engineer look at his laptop screen. He failed - couldn't get it done.

He goes out a second time with same results; also not letting the on site engineer even consider helping.

I show up the third time and the on site lets me in and says; "Aren't you going to get your laptop?"

I say, "No, chris - this is your Data Center - you're going to do this and I'm going to help."

Chris grins of course and gets setup. We figure out the problem after about an hour and I head back to LA.

The end result is the Chris is now a better engineer than he was a few hours ago of course which was one of my goals to begin with. These guys were great to work with and I loved every minute of it. Then they promoted the other guy.

They announced it in a meeting with everyone. I got up from that meeting (not jumped up or anything) and walked out calmly. I packed my computer up and went home and went surfing for the rest of the day. The boss called me later that afternoon and said "What's up?"

I told him I had to take care of something and so I left. I came in the next day and asked him to pull out my last review and tell me why Mr. Candy just got promoted over me.

He simply couldn't even make an excuse.

I told him that he needed to promote me very soon, I also started looking for a job that day. I took my time and 3 months later he pulled me into his office and told me reluctantly that he simply couldn't get me promoted. So; having just received a good job offer and having already accepted it I gave notice right there on the spot.

It was a bit on the gratifying side but I must say - I miss that job and it sucks that *I* had to leave when I was the good one.

That's the way it goes though I suppose.