Thursday

Get oodles of money, but work for a company you don't like?

Just the other day, my former boss called me and offered me a position. The bump (OK, huge leap) in pay would be very nice - to the tune of at least a $10k raise (to be on the conservative side). This would push my current salary of $27K up to over $40K. I would be able to fulfill my short term financial goals of paying off the credit mofos, building up a great E-fund, fully contributing to my 401k and Roth IRA, saving up money for a vacation, etc.

And, you know what, I'm gonna turn him down. Yup, sure am.

Y'all, I HATED that job, with a passion. I would pray for road blockages so that I would have no way to go to work. I would sit in the parking lot when I got to work and tell myself that I all I had to do was restart the car and leave. I would be crazy to go back there. I'm fine where I'm at now. I am not desperate for the money. I even have extra to pay the credit mofos and give my mom some each month. Plus, if I really look at the benefits, it doesn't come out as such a great jump up anyway.

But, the money...

...is not worth my sanity or well-being, at all. Period, finish, no more questions asked.

I did some serious soul-searching to make sure that I came to the right decision. And I have. No amount of money would make me go back there for a real gig. I will, however, work there on a consulting basis making some good change ($25+ per hour) for a month or two until they find someone suitable to their needs. I have lunch with him tomorrow and I'll keep y'all posted.

What would you do?

Clink

*****Read the updates here and here.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Clink,

When evaluating opportunities, I like to think a couple of moves ahead. In other words: Where would this job take you? What opportunities could it open up? What would be the logical next step beyond that job? What opportunities for networking and meeting key people could it provide?

Sounds to me like you're still in the early stages of career & life. So, what's important now is doing things that open up future opportunities and give you the broadest range of options.

Also, look at it in terms of your career goals - would it be taking you closer to your goals or further from your goals?

And also, compare benefits - I think I read somewhere that your present employer is paying for your degree - Though I still have a question (from another thread below) about where an anthropology degree is going to take you.

The other question is: Are there other ways you could make +$40K? Just because this job pays as much, doesn't mean there aren't other opttys out there to do just as well. Maybe there is a simlar job, but in a better work situation our there that you haven't uncovered yet.

Clink said...

Can I say that I love how you're picking my brain like you do with SM! To your questions:

This position (we'll call it "old sucky job") will not offer much for career advancement in PH. Not even in the way of networking opps like you suggested. It will actually take me away from PH.

Right now, my current position also doesn't offer me too much in the way of career advancement in PH, but it is subset of PH and it looks good on the resume (I work in Environmental Health). However, if I got off my duff, I could have some room for networking, as I work with the local DOH.

Benefits-wise, my current place is waaay better, but, it still will not match the salary at old, sucky job.

One of the things I thought about when evaluating whether to rejoin old sucky job or not was if I'm going to be working at a job that isn't helping me career-wise, I might as well make more money doing it. But, after I thought about it further I realised that I needed to look for jobs in my field. So, yesterday, I applied for some other positions in the DOH that will get me closer to what I want to do AND (this is key) pay me more money.

(I'll address your study question on the other post.)

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