Which job would you choose?
Which job would you choose?
(OP)
I have a rare situation this week; 2 job offers.
A: A start-up company, 7 years old, run by a very young managment team, they do critical facilities management for technology companies. Most of their business is derived from two key clients. Mostly hands-on work, to which I am experienced and accustomed. Pay bump is 27% + bonus.
B: A large national design/consulting firm, does work for food & beverage, utility, and government. This would be traditional engineering, with calcs, specs, & plans. My impression is that they are very stable and they want to cultivate me into a leadership role. Pay bump is 17%. Commute is 3 miles!
I am a new dad and my wife stays home, making the steady job look appealing. But the startup looks so exciting!
What would you do? Thanks in advance; I have high regard for many of this group's insights.
A: A start-up company, 7 years old, run by a very young managment team, they do critical facilities management for technology companies. Most of their business is derived from two key clients. Mostly hands-on work, to which I am experienced and accustomed. Pay bump is 27% + bonus.
B: A large national design/consulting firm, does work for food & beverage, utility, and government. This would be traditional engineering, with calcs, specs, & plans. My impression is that they are very stable and they want to cultivate me into a leadership role. Pay bump is 17%. Commute is 3 miles!
I am a new dad and my wife stays home, making the steady job look appealing. But the startup looks so exciting!
What would you do? Thanks in advance; I have high regard for many of this group's insights.





RE: Which job would you choose?
RE: Which job would you choose?
RE: Which job would you choose?
That all assumes that job interest and satisfaction would be about the same with either job. I would endorse taking more risk for a job that you can really be passionate about!!
RE: Which job would you choose?
I to would go with job offer B as for your commute of three miles, try eighty miles round trip every day.
RE: Which job would you choose?
Well, where do you want to see yourself after say, 5 years ? 10 years ? What would the start-up company give you in terms of (a) knowledge and (b) good resume vis-a-vis the stable company ?
HVAC68
RE: Which job would you choose?
Hope you make the best decision for yourself and your family and share with us when you decide. Good luck.
RE: Which job would you choose?
You do not mention the commute time of job A, is it a major difference, unless driving in heavy traffic a few more miles adds little time to your journey, the first few minutes of any journey are getting the car out of the garage and on the open road.
In my limited experience of working for larger companies (I much prefer smaller ones) your ability to play company politics is as important as your skills/work and you are seen far more as a number than a person.
Whilst the start up company may ask more will they be more flexible? Taking work home and working around the babies sleep patterns may be an answer to both parties, again in my experience large companies tend to be less flexible, certainly in Europe as you cannot even appear to favour an individual.
My advice for what it is worth is get a feel for both companies and go with your gut instinct, somehow it is so often right, but whatever you decide go with it, the worst outcome is to think what if, good luck.
RE: Which job would you choose?
How would you rate your chances at getting another job if BOTH fell through?
What is the level of your risk adverseness?
Can you imagine trying to make this jump 10 yrs from now?
How important is it to enjoy and participate in your child's early life? Or would you rather miss out on Saturday sports later on?
One the other hand, it might be easier to handle the stress and time lost now, rather than later.
TTFN
RE: Which job would you choose?
Indeed this is a very critical crossroads and I must tread carefully. Thanks to all for the food for thought.
I'm off to interview the COO of company A. Never in my wildest dreams...
RE: Which job would you choose?
I'm in a similar position in many ways. I've got a fairly solid position with a relatively small company by my industry's standards, and have an offer from another much larger player. The offer as it currently stands is a small pay cut, but I get better benefits and have some longer term prospects for promotion which aren't there at my current position. I also get a lot more time off and paid O/T; in my current role I have no paid O/T and am working all hours of day and night.
Be careful that you don't end up where I am now if you take Option A. I'm seriously considering going to my equivalent of your Option B because I want my quality of life back. If I were in your position and had the insight of having done my current job, I would take Option B every time. Time is the most precious thing you've got with a young family. My father spent much of my childhood at work before I woke and coming home after I went to bed. If I could go back and make that choice for him, I would have seen more of him and had a materially slightly less well-off childhood.
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If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!
RE: Which job would you choose?
A few questions,
1) How old are you. Are you relatively fresh out of school and willing to risk a possible short-term opportunity for big money?
2) Are you a seasoned veteran with a mortgage, family and need something more than a temporarily lucrative flash-in-the-pan type job.
3) Would one job be more intellectually stimulating than the other?
4) Would one job look better on a resume' than the other?
5) Is one job a better "Stepping Stone" career-wise than the other?
6) Are you looking forward to retirement in the next few years? A big bucks job might be a good way to build that retirement nest-egg.
At my age and situation, I would probably take the lower paying long term job, however there was a time in my life (sometime during the immediately previous millennia) when I probably would have taken the more risky, lucrative position.
I remain,
The Old Soldering Gunslinger
RE: Which job would you choose?
Take the stable job. Opportunities like option A will come again so you shouldn't think like it is a now or never choice you have to make. You may find out that you will have some opportunitities for a bit of exciting field work even with the big company.
RE: Which job would you choose?
Some of the best career building experience I received was from a small, start up firm during my early career. The skills I learned serve me to this day, some 20 years later.
Bob
RE: Which job would you choose?
Seven years in business and only two major clients? How stable are those client companies? How much competition does company A have? What happens if one of those two clients is lost?
Is this something that you want? Why are you making decisions based only on your impression? With two offers you are in the driver's seat. Call them up and discuss your goals with them and how they can help you achieve them.
RE: Which job would you choose?
Here are the reasons I might have ignored much of the advice given here, and gone with company A:
-My particular skill set is very valuable to them at this time. Why not capitalize on that fact?
-I'd become one of the most senior technical professionals in a young organization, and play a large part in their success or failure.
-The markets that they serve could be poised for big growth.
Almost enough to convince me, but not quite. I went with company B, mainly because:
-Much more opportunity to learn from diversified projects and from senior engineers.
-I've been a plant ops guy for 12 years, and it's time to get exposure to the design side of things. It may be harder to change direction after another 5-10 years.
-I don't think the stress will be any less with company B, but the job will be around for a long time. I want to get the job-hopping years out of the way. I've already been burned twice by tech companies whose cash flow is either a flood or a drought.
-Lunch with my family is a big bonus.
-I was able to leverage more $$ out of B given the offer I had from A.
Thanks again for the input!
RE: Which job would you choose?