A little background. I graduated college in December with a degree in computer science and literature. I've been working for a long time as an intern at Omgeo, LLC. Last November, they hired me as a contractor (higher pay, more responsibility, real job, etc) until May. Because of the economical hardships of, well, the whole country, they cannot afford to keep me on as a contractor or hire me as a full time employee (despite what I hope is their extreme desire). So, it stands to reason that I am now looking for a full time job.
Currently, I work with databases. I intend on staying in this field. I absolutely love the work I do, and want to continue. I've been interviewing on and off for about 8 months now for a database developer job of some kind, in the Boston area. Lately, I've been having more luck. Probably do to the "real job on my resume" thing, and the hopefully improving economy.
I'm not going to go into the details of the two companies, jobs or offers here; it's inappropriate and not really what I wanted to blog about anyway. What I really wanted to talk about is how I feel about my indecision.
Not being able to decide things sucks. It just plain sucks. It's like every time I think about it, I make a new decision. Every time I talk about it with someone different, I make a new decision. Every time the wind blows, I make a new damn decision.
Indecision is good, in a way - I know that. What it means is that I've been offered two desirable jobs that I cannot choose between, presumably for good reason. That's a good thing, right? They have slightly different pay grades, but they also have slightly different commutes and slightly different responsibilities. Also, they will push me into slightly different career paths. These all affect their pros and cons. It's not unjust indecision, but that doesn't make it any less awful.
I thought that writing about it a little would help the ache in my stomach go away, but it hasn't really. I know what will - making a decision. F*ck. Here's a picture of Penny being cute and upside-down to make us both feel better:
6 comments:
How gutsy do you feel? Because you COULD go back to the one that pays less and try to get them to match the other salary. Would that change things?
Maybe that's the sort of thing you shouldn't try right out of school; I honestly don't know. But it's what I would do.
Haha, I'm not that gutsy, especially just out of school. Frankly, the offers are very close and both very generous, so that's not the part I'm really worried about.
After talking to Ben, I think I know better what I want to do, but I also want to sleep on it and talk to a couple of other people. I just hate the indecisive feeling and needed to rant!
OK. In that case, I will just point out a few things that you probably already know:
- A longer commute is a bigger deal than it originally seems. (This is also the case when buying a house in a different neighbourhood.)
- At this point, you do not have to worry about getting into an organization where there is lots of room for advancement. Just get yourself into a job that will allow you to make a lateral move into another organization where you can move up in a few years. Everyone's looking for the job that allows for advancement, but if you plan well, you can do the same thing by starting in a place that doesn't have as many promotion options.
- The team is more important than the work. If you hate the people you're working with, it doesn't matter how great the job is.
I hope this helps. Good luck.
What did you decide?
A hard question to answer since I didn't describe either of the companies. (:
I went with a small consulting firm in Boston, where I will be doing database consultation for them. That means they send me into their clients and I will help their clients manage the data in their databases. This job is very close to where I work now, on the public transit lines, as opposed to the other one which was a good 30-60 minute drive away.
I think I made a good choice, as does everyone I've talked to about it.
Yeah, that sounds like a good choice. Congratulations!
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