"They like me...they really like me!"

So yes, I had a successful "performance review" on Monday. At it was a performance review in the sense that they "are happy with me" and that they "want to make sure I'm happy coming into work in the morning," however, both were short since this company has never done them before and it really consisted of them going "you are awesome and keep it up."

To be honest, I'm not going to complain much, I like working for a small company that is really a large company, but hasn't gone sterile yet. I like that I can wear what I want and that I don't have to practice my diction or grammar skills and I love that I can blast my music if I want too. However, now that I think of it, I have received some real criticisms and help towards improving my calculations and how I do my work. I work very closely with my structural boss and we have a good "thing" going on where we dive onto a project and pick it apart. Then I run with it, ask questions along the way and then he'll do a review of it. He'll suggest better ways of doing something or easier methods of construction and then I'll apply those to the project. Then he'll review it again and then give it to the big boss for final review.

I think the best thing gleaned from the review was both my bosses saying, "we don't really care what you do or how you do it, just make sure you meet those deadlines and don't kill anyone."

As for the question of the raise, because of our economic times especially in my industry, I've been put on the secret bonus list and will be up for a full raise in 4-6 months. We have to get some more projects coming in and definitely a few construction projects as well. That'll grease our financial engine a bit more and that'll mean a larger raise for me. So a real sign of the times indeed, but I understand.