I have switched jobs, and company, from a mere codemonkey to a "specialist/consultant", for a Software that i have never heard about before. But from what i recall, it is quite extensive (ranging from SAP solutions to Autocad engineering tool and other business processing blabla). It is way better paid than my last job, and it has better benefits as well.
The thing is, my "mentor" or so to speak, have been trying to learn this for the last 3,5 years, and they expect me to get to his level within 6 months. And of course, they expect me to do managerial tasks when deemed necessary or became a temporary project manager when needed.
I have little idea of what i am doing, but i guess this is a necessary step to climb the corporate ladder, or forever be in the same position as Peter Gibbons in 'Office Space'.