Transfer-Wk 30,Mon-Accomplishments

Last week I started at the new client I mentioned previously. It felt really good to start there, and I’m excited about the project I’m working on. The requirements, my skills, and the client are good mix to really make a leap forward in their business.

But what I feel best about is that for the first time in over a decade of working in an industry where people make huge hourly rates, I am finally making the going rate. I’ve seen first year programmers go on to make $90/hr, based solely on their projected image. Some went on to increase their pay even more by ripping off the consulting companies who got them the great rates, then writing bug infested programs for the client. I’ll be the first to admit that these programmers may have been so much better than me that I wasn’t even smart enough to realize it … but I do believe it was image that got them the huge rates. Image is something I’ve had trouble projecting due largely to my stutter.

Sorry for the rant, but I’ve felt under paid for a long time. Mostly this has been due to the unwillingness of headhunters to send me on interviews because of my stutter.

My stutter has increased a bit working at the new client. It’s bad enough to be obvious, but not bad enough to hinder my ability to communicate confidently. I’m missing Full Breath targets a lot, and I’m not stretching my syllables enough. After my therapy, I was stretching my syllables enough to maintain my fluency, and received only positive comments from people, but I still feel self conscious stretching … it’s a psychological thing I’ve really got to get past.

I need more structured transfers.

Because I’m only there 2 days per week, I’m sitting at somebody else’s desk, and their phone rang while I was there. I wasn’t going to answer it, but thought if I don’t answer it and it’s somebody looking for me, it might look kind of weird. So I answered it. This is something that would have terrified me previously, and not that I was enthusiastic about it this time; I did it anyway.

“John MacIntyre speaking” … omg! I did it. Full control.

It turned out they were looking for the regular person who sits there, so I just told them I was new and temporarily sitting at their desk. The whole conversation was in full control, and uneventful. WOW, an uneventful phone call! I love it! Hallelujah!!! ;-)

So that was a big accomplishment for me this week.

I also made 3 … count em … 3 … THREE … successful drive thru attempts last week! None were structured, and I actually wound up in the drive thru from some turn of events which prevented me from going into the restaurant. (btw-I’m not a total fast food freak, but I do like coffee.).

All of these were in full control … it was pretty cool. Maybe I’ll attempt the Timbit transfer again in the coming month! … I’d like to nail that one.

I’ve got a Toastmasters speech on Wednesday. I’ll let you know what happens with that on Thursday. My last few have been getting worse and worse, so I have to work hard to make sure this one is as effective as I would like.

Overall I’ve also noticed an improvement using phone in everyday life.

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Not meant as advice, please find a qualified therapist if you are interested in similar therapy.