I have a backlog of updates to do, but this one can’t wait.
Thursday I interviewed for a 50% time web job on campus. I was supposed to hear back from them next week, but they called today with a job offer. So now I have some decisions to make.
They can’t offer me the max pay for the position. But! They offered to make the position full time for a set number of months (the number of months needed to pay off my debt) before going back to 50% variable. They also sounded ok with the fact that I don’t want the position to go back to 100% after my debt is gone. Temporarily for certain projects sure, but long term? Not so much.
If I do this it would also be only a slight raise compared to what I’m making now. I need to crunch the numbers and be sure that I could still pay all the necessary bills once I go to half time.
Possible downsides: My current bosses and coworkers (except for the token one person of course) are awesome and I love working with them. That might not be true at the new position. But if it is then I can just look for a another new position or see if my current one is still open.
I feel bad leaving my current position after barely six months with the training they invested in me.
On the other hand, I don’t want to let guilt keep me a wage slave.
Also as far as the guilt goes, I also mentioned that I’d like to give a month’s notice instead of two weeks and they were ok with that too. And the temp my current boss has right now might be interested in my position, which would make it easy to train my replacement.
I considered the possibility of working both positions at half time until they find a replacement, but that can take a long time and I don’t know that I could handle the added stress. My therapist already warned me that working two jobs halftime each is more tiring than one full time job. I’d still be available via email/phone/im to answer questions.
So the last question is really can I afford to go half time with the pay they’re offering? Calculator time!
Calculator results are that I can afford to take the position.
I gave official notice yesterday in writing, though I told my supervisors on Friday.
My current job did ask if they could give me a raise to keep me, but the part time thing is part of my long term career plans and they weren’t willing to match that. I’m really excited about the new position!
If you’re only leaving because of the money, giving 1 month’s notice to your current place will give them more than enough time to come up with a counter-offer if they feel like what they invested in you is worth not losing (2 weeks is sufficient nearly everywhere). And if not, then you shouldn’t feel (too) bad about leaving (only for the co-workers who like you and don’t have a say in whether or not to give a counter-offer to keep you around). (=
On the flipside, I’d say your new job being flexible right off the bat is a pretty good sign. Just make sure you’re happy with the results once you’re done using your calculator. =D