look! up in the sky!

I'm feeling rather powerful, and it's terribly frightening.

My department head has decided to outsource a large chunk of data validation which is GOOD because it means I won't have to a) validate the data manually or b) stretch the boundaries of my dubious brilliance to come up with a way to automate said validation. Truly, I am VERY happy about this.

What I am NOT happy about is the amount of trust and responsibility they're putting on my shoulders when it comes to communicating our needs to the outsourcing company. For example, when the department head asked me to write a scope document detailing what we thought we wanted the outsourcing company to do for us, I thought it was just for his purposes. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that he had forwarded it -- verbatim -- to the outsourcing company. Then, just today, I was invited to sit in on a conference call to the other company, and was appalled at how many times the words, "Lacy can tell you about that," or "Lacy's taking the lead on that portion," came out of his mouth.

To be quite honest, I feel totally out of my depth. Half the time I don't even speak the same language as these IT guys. I have no formal training, no degree or experience even to fall back on. Most of the time I'm making things up and flying by the seat of my pants.

When it's just my department, that's OK. They all know that I'm a temp. They all know that I frequently use words like "thingy" and "doomaflodgy" when I don't know the technical term for something. People from another company? Yeah. They don't know that.

It is unpleasant, to say the least, to spend two hours in a meeting terrified that you're going to make yourself -- and, in fact, your department, not to mention your company (if only by proxy) -- look stupid. Heh. Yeah. "Doomaflodgy" is not an industry standard term, let me tell you.

It went OK, but I am now all jittery and hyped up on adrenaline from sitting on the edge of my seat and pretending to be "Super IT Girl." Not a role I have much faith in. HA!

How do I GET these jobs??? It's still a mystery to me...