A decision about the job offer

I’m declining the new job offer.

Yesterday during my lunch hour, I spoke on the phone with my mom. She thinks that I should take the job and come home, which I knew she would. Her mindset is having her children close to her, and while I value her opinion a lot when it comes to career choices, I know that her thoughts were skewed with the vision of me being around more often.

During the evening, BF and I discussed the situation. He said that if it were him, and he was in my situation, he’d take the job without a doubt. But that being said, he doesn’t want me to leave. At all. The decision I have to make isn’t based on my relationship with BF, but it sure does play a huge factor. We would obviously stay together if I moved, but I’m at the age where relationships don’t just come and go. When I’m with someone, it’s because there’s the possibility that they could be “the one.” And I know that a strong relationship will survive something like this, but I sure would be miserable without him.

My ex-BF thinks I should take it. But he’s always been about the money, so I’m not sure if I trust his opinion.

This choice has nothing to do with money, because in the big picture, over my career, $10k is nothing. And if it were truly about the money, I would be living in Northern Alberta right now. This choice is about experience and the direction I want to take my career. And after weighing the pros and cons of both jobs, I can honestly say that I don’t think there is a right or wrong decision. I think that either choice would eventually get me to where I want to be career-wise. Keeping in mind that in order for me to pursue the career of my choice in the field of my choice (which is probably one of the most competitive industries around), I absolutely 100% cannot live in my hometown. I must be in Vancouver to accomplish this.

That being said, I could go home and take this new job. I could gain all that management experience I could in 2-4 years, save up a ton of money, and then move back to Vancouver. With that management experience, I would automatically become a more desirable hire, but I would have to start again in regard to networking with contacts and trying to meet the right types of people. And, this particular position is less interesting than what I’m doing now. It’s a lot less graphic design, and more writing … and this organization is just based within one city, whereas the scope of my current job is province-wide.

So if I stayed here in Vancouver with my current job, I would be able to keep up with my contacts and slowly build up a network of people, and increase my salary. This is a very good and highly respected organization to be working for. By staying here, when I do eventually decide to leave, I would become very marketable. And in terms of actual workload, my current job lets me utilize a broader range of skills (design, marketing, communications, event planning, writing, etc), whereas the new job would be mostly writing press releases and articles (boring!). Plus, I just got here to Vancouver. Out of all my frustration, I like my job. I like making a difference. I don’t especially like my boss, but I like the people here.

The bottom line is, I don’t want to leave. Even though you all might think I’m crazy for not taking this great opportunity, I’m going to trust my instincts. Just like I trusted my instincts when I was unemployed and kept turning down all those job offers because I knew something better would come along. My heart says I should stay. I think this organization and my life in Vancouver has a lot more in store for me than I can see right now, and my feeling is that I’m supposed to be here right now. So I won’t leave.

On Monday when I have my 3-month review with my boss, I’m going to bring up several things:

• Salary increase up to $45k (I’m pretty sure he will offer $42k, but I’m prepared to counter, and if I have to use the job offer as leverage, then so be it). My boss knows that at my previous job, I was making over $50k, and that I am not happy at all making the $41k I’m currently earning.
• Education allowance. I want to get going with my degree program, but I don’t have the resources to save for it right now, and I am 100% not taking out student loans again. EVER.
• Potential to change from Coordinator title to Manager. I am about to start managing an intern – and also I do manage a lot of volunteers that we have. Plus, I’m going to start managing a huge on going provincial-wide special event project. Not sure if that gives me a case for a title change, but it might.

I will let you know what happens.