Just submitted the paperwork to the department supervisor for the job change, he nodded in approval, and now I'm feeling all excited at the idea of moving to QA. So this is probably a good idea. My bosses have been thinking I was being a stick in the mud job-advancement-wise anyway.

It's weird to work for a company that doesn't see me as a drone.

YAYAYAY Connie!

I look at my 15 years in the accounting group and compare them to the last 5 years and wow, night and day. I work with a lot of the same people, but am so much happier.

My boss just sent me the job descriptions for each of the levels in our group, so now I need to go through them and see which level I can make the best case for and what I need to work on for the level after that.

Yay, Connie!

Go Connie! I love that "yeah, that was the right call" feeling.

Damn, Suzi and Connie. Productive mornings!

I think I might have finally knocked over the supremely resistant hurdle. I can't think what else she could possibly come up with, but I have asked her to do just that--please think ahead and get a jump on the next two week's worth of objections so I can address them now.

Consuela, that blog is fascinating! The situations, the responses, the expectations--all very educational. I can't find the internal job shift one, though, and that's obviously a big source of paranoia for me right now.

Putative potential boss is giving a presentation and I don't know how to suggest to him that all presentations go through me before they see the light of day. Sure, it's probably OTT to adhere to the branding colour scheme for an internal review team meeting (but why not, all else being equal?) but the words advisor and adviser have actual different meanings--the latter getting past spell checks is apparently misleading.

English is his second language, though--it shouldn't be insulting for me to offer, but I still need to work out how to frame it.

I've been working on my "right to take up space" skills--and damn it's disheartening to realize in my 50s that I've been subconsciously apologizing to the world for inconveniencing it for my existence, so I'll just stand here in a corner and not try for anything beyond the minimum, but better late than never--so I've been shutting down the voices that say "No, that's thinking above myself, I'm not really qualified, they won't want me."

the words advisor and adviser have actual different meanings

Not in American English. The original correct form was adviser, but advisor became so widespread as to be accepted as an alternate spelling.

What would the difference be/have been?

Yay Connie, go you!

Someone forwarded me an announcement for a position in DC, that I was going to blow off, but maybe I'll put in for it. It's another government position, with a totally different agency, but more apparent room for advancement.

And given the speed of government, by the time they make a decision my family situation may well have changed anyway...

Of course the self-confidence demons are now all whispering "You know they're just going to change their minds, now, right? Or you're goign to crash and burn and they're going to boot you back to tech support."

Stupid demons.

And in a shout-out to the "sharing makes it better" theory, hearing everyone else here wrestle with their self-destructive demons has helped me realize that the voices aren't some unique speaker of truth, they're just voices that lots of people hear.