am 30 years old, with 6-7 years of experience for major car manufacturers in after-sales. rose up the ranks relatively fast from dealership worker to corporate middle-management.
about a year ago, i left Toyota (after 5 years) to join another (smaller) japanese manufacturer.
got a cold call from a head hunter a few months ago. asked if i was interested in a senior management position in after-sales for a local non-automotive manufacturer. Since I never say "no thanks" to cold calls from headhunters, i went in for an interview. 2 interviews later, I got more details, no salary mentioned yet, but those kinda of jobs pay at least twice my current salary.
the position manages the after sales division for a local manufacturer of house appliances. The position reports directly to the CEO.
its a dept of about 100 people (the company is fairly large, 500+), but they (as its the case with most south-american manufacturers) really have no clue on how to manage such a large after-sales operation. There are no KPIs, no defined standard operational procedures, and productivity seems to be very low. Its a very crude operation, as far as I can tell.
They want a "Toyota guy", to put the house in order, design processes and implement KPIs. As weird as it might seem to americans/europeans/japanese, that kind of know-how is fairly rare in developing nations; even at multi-million dollar family-owned businesses.
Now, the problem.... I have never managed more than 10 people... and am not really a "people´s person".
Plus, I really like cars... and the more technical the job, the better I like it. So I dont really feel like am the perfect fit for this job.... And then there is the cultural issue of jumping from an international corporation to a family-owned peruvian business (in the process of becoming a corporation); and the low probability of returning to the car business, once I jump to home-appliances.
On the other hand, I´ve had a few interviews with Mercedes Benz. They asked me what I liked to do, because they wanted me in, but they werent sure where to put me in..... On thursday I meet with their HR people (I have already interviewed with 3 managers, including the HR manager), so my dreamish hope is they offer me a job burning rubber on AMGs or something awesome like that. The bad thing, is that a good biking friend, who happens to be a senior manager at Mercedes, set me up for a interview there.
So there is a chance I´m offered a position to work under him (and having your friend as your boss usually ends up badly), or a non-technical position as a product manager or something like that (even though, I have told them I do not like sales).
My current employer has laid out 250 workers (out of about 1000) over the last 5 months, including 6 senior managers (including the one who hired me). This, among other reasons; have had me testing the waters and interviewing with these companies.
what would RM do?
about a year ago, i left Toyota (after 5 years) to join another (smaller) japanese manufacturer.
got a cold call from a head hunter a few months ago. asked if i was interested in a senior management position in after-sales for a local non-automotive manufacturer. Since I never say "no thanks" to cold calls from headhunters, i went in for an interview. 2 interviews later, I got more details, no salary mentioned yet, but those kinda of jobs pay at least twice my current salary.
the position manages the after sales division for a local manufacturer of house appliances. The position reports directly to the CEO.
its a dept of about 100 people (the company is fairly large, 500+), but they (as its the case with most south-american manufacturers) really have no clue on how to manage such a large after-sales operation. There are no KPIs, no defined standard operational procedures, and productivity seems to be very low. Its a very crude operation, as far as I can tell.
They want a "Toyota guy", to put the house in order, design processes and implement KPIs. As weird as it might seem to americans/europeans/japanese, that kind of know-how is fairly rare in developing nations; even at multi-million dollar family-owned businesses.
Now, the problem.... I have never managed more than 10 people... and am not really a "people´s person".
Plus, I really like cars... and the more technical the job, the better I like it. So I dont really feel like am the perfect fit for this job.... And then there is the cultural issue of jumping from an international corporation to a family-owned peruvian business (in the process of becoming a corporation); and the low probability of returning to the car business, once I jump to home-appliances.
On the other hand, I´ve had a few interviews with Mercedes Benz. They asked me what I liked to do, because they wanted me in, but they werent sure where to put me in..... On thursday I meet with their HR people (I have already interviewed with 3 managers, including the HR manager), so my dreamish hope is they offer me a job burning rubber on AMGs or something awesome like that. The bad thing, is that a good biking friend, who happens to be a senior manager at Mercedes, set me up for a interview there.
So there is a chance I´m offered a position to work under him (and having your friend as your boss usually ends up badly), or a non-technical position as a product manager or something like that (even though, I have told them I do not like sales).
My current employer has laid out 250 workers (out of about 1000) over the last 5 months, including 6 senior managers (including the one who hired me). This, among other reasons; have had me testing the waters and interviewing with these companies.
what would RM do?
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