SharePoint Consultant just writing Excel Macros [closed]

Question

I am an experienced SharePoint Consultant/Contractor with a very solid technical background and excellent refrences. In Decemeber last year, I accepted a 6 month contract of "SharePoint Developer" in one of the country's biggest organizations.

In my job interview, in addition to SharePoint technical questions, I was asked about my Excel macro development skills. I clearly and honestly stated that I am not an Excel programmer and just use Excel as and when basis.

Since I have started my contract, I am continuously being assigned to develop different types of Excel worksheets, macros, formulas, etc. Everybody talks in Excel and they just use SharePoint as a repository. No one has ever developed a solution in Excel and even nobody has ever installed Visual Studio on their machine.

My question is what should I do?

1. Should I resign (which is quite difficult for me because of financial reasons for the time being)?
2. Just wait and keep developing useless Excel Macros? In this case what will I write in my resume about this contract?
3. Talk to manager and tell him to assign me only SharePoint related work?

People don't know anything about SharePoint, but they use SharePoint. Therfore they hired me as a "SharePoint Developer" to create Excel sheets for them :)

By the way, everybody is very happy with me because I have designed some some very good macros for them. However this is not what I wanted to do.

Answer 1

You're already between 2 and 3 months, presumably, into a 6 month contract so quitting early is almost certainly a bad idea. The world tends to be rather small and the chances that you'll burn a bridge that you'd like to use in a few years is rather high. Plus, it sounds like quitting would be problematic for you financially which makes it even less attractive.

If you are doing short-term contract work, the problem tends to be how to compress, say, 10 6-month contracts into a paragraph to show what you did for the past 5 years. You can talk about the business problems you solved without needing to be specific about which technologies were used on which contracts. Realistically, though, it seems likely that a few months of heavy-duty Excel macro development would be a good skill for a Sharepoint developer to have given how most people use Sharepoint.

The only reason I would consider talking with your manager is if the company has told you that it intends to renew your contract at the end of the 6-month period. If that's the case, it may be helpful to meet with your manager and explain that you're perfectly happy to fulfill the contract doing Excel macro development but that you aren't going to be interested in renewing unless there is more Sharepoint work to do. And you may want to suggest to your manager that they may want to change the job description if and when they look for a new developer because they are likely to be better served by someone that has more Excel macro experience that can pick up Sharepoint than the reverse.

Answer 2

First, look into your contract to see what kinds of terms would you have if you did quit or if you tried option 3 only to be told that you aren't a team player and so your services are no longer required here. This is a starting point as it could determine what other choices you have.

Second, how horrible is it writing Excel Macros for another few months? You could claim that you improved productivity by automating report generation among other things. The key here is to get what was the business value of the work you did. If it is helping the business be much more productive and efficient then that is the benefit you want to tell for future employers.

I'd be careful about trying option 3 as I could see that backfiring as you may well end up committing Excel spreadsheets in SharePoint so that you do use it a little bit.

Answer 3

In addition to what has been said in other answers, I would like to add the following:

1. Don't resign!
2. If they are willing to pay you to develop the Excel Macros, they are by definition not useless. I would explain on your resume how you adapted to successfully solve the the business's problem.
3. Do not tell your manager what kind of work you should be assigned to, this is literally part of their job. You need to sell the advantages of SharePoint development over Excel Macro development. You need to convince everyone that there are benefits to using SharePoint as more than just a repository.

Any position is created because the business needs to solve a problem that it cannot currently solve or at least solve quickly enough. This means that a job posting for new technology will involve fixing mission critical old technology. Every position is going to have legacy code, products and processes. The goal is to innovate within the existing structure to provide a greater Return on Investment(ROI).