Change

I need some help.  I have a decision to make.  Recently, I have had an offer from another company and I am considering taking the job.  Unfortunately, this is not an easy choice to make.  Allow me to list the Pros/Cons for each place.

The Place That Shall Not Be Named
Pros:
-Vacation Time:  As of now, I get three weeks of paid vacation per year, plus the option to purchase a week (which, I did this year, and it only comes to $27 each pay.)
-I have plenty of friends there and that is where I met Lindsey.
-I am on a path to being promoted.
-From where we live, I have more options of places I can go to work.  TPTSNBN has at least eight different places I can work at from here.
-Comfortable and knowledgeable.

Cons:
-I have to work third shift.
-I cannot have a beard.
-Lower pay.
-Opportunities to move past GM.

The New Place
Pros:
-Higher base pay, bigger bonus.
-More locations across the country.
-No third shift.
-Fresh start.
-Allows a beard.

Cons:
-No vacation for a year, after that I only get one week after my first year, then two weeks after two years.  I will be 36 by the time I get back to three weeks.
-Longer hours.  No one would say this to me, but it seems that the managers work longer hours than we do.  Will I see Lindsey less?
-Fear of the unknown.  I have to learn everything again, I have to be the bottom guy.  I worked hard to move past that, do I really want to go back to the beginning?
-More locations around the country, but less in this area.  I would only have two options.

What would you folks do if you were me?

Author: Ngewo

6 thoughts on “Change

  1. It’s a tough call, and I imagine that lots of people find themselves there at some point. To me, it seems largely like a decision between career and non-work stuff. Do you take the hard-work and higher pay or stay where it’s comfy? Everyone is different – if it were me, I’d choose the extra time off. But lots of people – especially people with no kids – would choose to further their career, which for you may be a good option because you’re still young.

    So I don’t have an answer, but maybe I’ve given you something extra to think about. (shrug)

  2. What does the path to promtion look like? Is this something that you want and have talked about with supervisors? Is there an option to have fewer third shifts? Good luck! I don’t think you want me to make a big life decision for you!

  3. While you and I have never actually met face-to-face, I feel like I know enough about you to say we’re similar guys. Similar ages, similar interests, etc. That said, I hope that relating what I did when in early 2010 I was faced with a situation much like yours.

    The job I had back then I had been at for four years. I’d been promoted a few times and had a decent salary. I didn’t always love what I was doing, but I really liked the people I worked with, so there was that. I’d just moved into a new place in February and gotten engaged to my girlfriend of a thousand years. We’d also gotten a puppy. Things were going pretty well.

    In April, I got a call from my former boss. He was the guy that was responsible for the promotions I’d received. He told me he had a place for me doing similar work and it came with a 20% raise. No brainer, except it was in Omaha, Nebraska. Long story short… went out there, visited the company, blah blah blah took the job.

    I made it ten months. It was a disaster. The job wasn’t hard, but it was boring as hell. Hated all my Nebraskan coworkers. Every day was awful and slow. My fiance got super depressed being away from her family and friends. My dog got fat and routinely pissed on our bed. It was a disaster top to bottom, so much so that my fiance almost broke up after a trillion-year relationship.

    The fallout… In April, I moved back to PA and went back to my old company, though in a slightly different role. My fiance had to temp for awhile before she could find permanent work, and since I don’t make enough to support us both, we wound up living with our parents while in our 30s. Not cool. Especially not cool if you do it for nine months.

    So now that I’ve shared my story, here’s how I see the pros and cons:

    PROS for the new job
    – It could be a great move. It could work out really well and you’ll never look back.
    – More money
    – The pride that comes from knowing you weren’t afraid to do something unknown, and knowing that you won’t regret letting an opportunity pass you by without trying it.

    CONS for the new job
    – It could ruin your entire life like it did to me. You never know. (This one’s kind of a long shot if you’re not moving to Omaha, Nebraska.)
    – Seriously, it could be the worst thing ever.

    PROS for TPTSNBN
    – Being comfortable is really fucking underrated. I took a 20K pay cut to go back to my old job and I don’t regret it for a second. It is comfortable as hell. I love knowing exactly what will happen every day. I love knowing that I can handle every situation that comes at me. I love the lack of surprises.
    – There’s only one place for smiles.

    CONS for TPTSNBN
    – I’ve been to my local PTSNBN. I would want to leave, too.
    – Third shift is awful. I worked nights at a hotel in college for two years and hated every second, even though I slept at least three hours each shift. I was young then and couldn’t take it. I can’t imagine doing it today.

    So yeah, I hope this mess of a comment has been helpful. I’m not always the best at coming back to see further comments since I follow this blog in Google Reader, so if you want to talk to a stranger, my email is x[dot]jkelley[dot]x[at]gmail.com. (I’m posting this under my Google account, so it probably already gives my email address, which means posting it again makes me look like a real asshole.)

  4. Josh.

    let’s get a beer. you know what i did. i went to law school after doing what you do for over three years. it depends on a lot of factors. i am not afraid of change and i hate comfortable. let’s talk in person.

  5. The biggest question for me is would you be burning a bridge with the place that shall not be named???

    Who says moving on to the next company would not allow you to advance further in your chosen career and later down the line you can go back to the place that shall not be named with a better background and a promotion already in sight with better pay? You eliminate the 3rd shift while you were able to get your better pay while advancing yourself in your chosen field.

    The biggest question after that would be; do you start over from where you were if you go back in terms of vacation time? How important is your vacation time to you? And are you willing to make a move to a further location to become better in your field with a wider scope of what is available to you in the future?

    I hope this makes sense.

  6. I am a big fan of jumping companies for better pay and opportunities. I have jumped jobs twice in the 3 years and have subsequently raised my salary $15k and become head of a department (though still not a manager, because I am the whole department). Then again, I am also a big fan of more money over everything else, and am considering completely switching careers to IT for better opportunities when I move back to Pgh.

    Leigh agrees. She believes you should do what you can to promote yourself to a better long run situation while you’re still young and don’t have kids (if you even plan to have them).

    So, the (future) Offord household votes for new job. Good luck and let us know!

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