Arrow does not follow through on Mike Long's message about promoting from within. Twice, passed up for external candidates and was told that I was a close second, but they hope to see me apply for other opportunities.
Arrow job responsibilities for Pricing Specialists are wholly based on knowledge of a very customized system and very lengthy relationship history between Arrow and suppliers. There is no independent, 3rd party, training course that will help you do what you need to do at Arrow. Everything you need to do as a PM is going to need Arrow specific training.
Because of this, managers are either stellar in helping you succeed in your job, or have set you up for failure, touting that "you should know how to do this." Usually it's the latter, because those managers would rather be, and are, on special projects, leaving their teams unguided and without any communication on interdepartmental processes to resolve issues. When you do go to them, you get a snide "don't you know this?" response.
If I knew it, I wouldn't be asking.
Product Managers started with about 120 or more people - people who knew the business, were committed to Arrow, had history and tidbits at their fingertips, who could train on systems, suppliers, and overall business processes.
Over the last 2 years:
- Product Manager numbers dwindled down to about 60 or 70.
- Arrow changed my title from Product Manager to Pricing Specialist.
- Changed my position from salary to hourly.
- re-org'd, combined groups, then re-assigned me to another manager, then assigned me back to my former manager, then assigned me to another manager
- processed no less than three separate layoffs of Product Managers
The clincher...?
Arrow now has 30-50 temps, on-site, learning to do Product Manager/Pricing Specialist responsibilities.
This has created a constant state of worry for many of my former team. It did for me.
When Arrow changed job titles from Product Manager to Pricing Specialist, they essentially communicated a downgrade in what they perceive our contributions, knowledge, experience, and skill-set to be.
