So I had that automation project for a while, while I was real hype about but don’t expect anyone to remember.

That got handed off to a senior manager because over six months it became rapidly apparent the level of automation that senior-senior management wanted us to effect was way beyond my level of influence, aka: I can’t make managers invest time they don’t have and I can’t order around my peers and next-level-up associates on how to do their work.

That snr manager and I had a relatively-okay-as-far-as-it-goes-considering-it-was-a three hour long meeting to hand off the automation project. He used to work in IT. I’m confident he can handle this better than I can. I’m happy to hand it off.

One thing he said to me, which was confidential but also imho as a ‘millennial’ completely on point, was “I think our department will have to shift from being transactional auditors, to basically technical managers who oversee scripting and backend automation testing. And I don’t frankly know who’s ready for that.”

I’m good at my job. I’m pretty fucking good for 28, at least. But I know most of what I’m good at I’m also smart enough to really efficently and accurately automate. I’m talking gap reports and targeting high risk populations to pinpoint errors, stuff you could never do with a random and manually reviewed population.

But like there’s only so many reports I can ever make before I cover most of everything,

I gotta learn how to write reporting and read scripting, man, I just don’t see any other option.