I have to make a decision soon
I have to make a decision soon
(OP)
So, I am currently working at a great job in a temp to permanent position. Perm is based on if a new product line takes off and it has. I have been here for two months.
My current company (company T) is really small but the past year has grown like crazy. Got rated in the Boston Globe as one of the top ten small medical device in MA. There is tons of growth potential here, but nobody above me that I can learn from directly. The only problem I have with company T is the lack of a senior engineer to provide career direction to me based on his personal experience. Something which I valued in my previous job. Small companies are also more risky.
Well I have a job offer from a great company (company A&A). One of the top medical device companies in the world (seriously), maybe the best. It is actually within a group at A&A that I have been applying to since my 3rd year in college (about 5 years ago).
I applied and interviewed a couple months ago. They have a lot of openings and are busy. So I finally got the offer.
I need to accept by Friday (two days away).
The commute is the same, salary is similar. Benefits at the A&A are bit better. People do not leave A&A. You stay, move up, get fat and rich, and then retire.
So, do I ask my current boss about my standing within company T? Do I mention the new job offer? I currently have no benefits and am in need of medical insurance because of my alergies.
I'm thinking if it was looking really good for me here they would have already said something to me.
I have completed all of my assignments here on time and done correctly.
Anybody have any advice?
Maybe I just need to feel out my current boss gracefully?
The last thing I want to do is to burn a bridge.
I hate being pressured with a decision.
-Chris
My current company (company T) is really small but the past year has grown like crazy. Got rated in the Boston Globe as one of the top ten small medical device in MA. There is tons of growth potential here, but nobody above me that I can learn from directly. The only problem I have with company T is the lack of a senior engineer to provide career direction to me based on his personal experience. Something which I valued in my previous job. Small companies are also more risky.
Well I have a job offer from a great company (company A&A). One of the top medical device companies in the world (seriously), maybe the best. It is actually within a group at A&A that I have been applying to since my 3rd year in college (about 5 years ago).
I applied and interviewed a couple months ago. They have a lot of openings and are busy. So I finally got the offer.
I need to accept by Friday (two days away).
The commute is the same, salary is similar. Benefits at the A&A are bit better. People do not leave A&A. You stay, move up, get fat and rich, and then retire.
So, do I ask my current boss about my standing within company T? Do I mention the new job offer? I currently have no benefits and am in need of medical insurance because of my alergies.
I'm thinking if it was looking really good for me here they would have already said something to me.
I have completed all of my assignments here on time and done correctly.
Anybody have any advice?
Maybe I just need to feel out my current boss gracefully?
The last thing I want to do is to burn a bridge.
I hate being pressured with a decision.
-Chris





RE: I have to make a decision soon
Company T:
no clear direction, no benifits, no one to learn from, not full time (yet?), questionable future.
Company A&A:
Established leader in your field, benifits, money, stability.
From what you say, I wouldn't look back. Is there somthing you expect to gain at company T that you won't gain @ A&A?
RE: I have to make a decision soon
However, I have been told by several people familiar with the group that I got the offer from that it is the perfect job for my skills/interests.
I am new to these types of decisions so I really don't know what my criteria should be for deciding.
I am really not sure if I can be honest with my boss about this. I wish I could tell him my dilemma and not get looked down upon.
The two people who I know I can ask from my last job are on vacation this week. Typical.
It would be so much easier to just be a union iron worker. Plus the view is great.
-Chris
RE: I have to make a decision soon
RE: I have to make a decision soon
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Good luck!
RE: I have to make a decision soon
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Regards,
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Loyalty isn't all it's cracked up to be. Fire them if they aren't the better employer.
RE: I have to make a decision soon
That is a marvellous way of looking at it. 'Fire your employer'. A star for you.
----------------------------------
If we learn from our mistakes,
I'm getting a great education!
RE: I have to make a decision soon
They don't teach career decision making in school.
So, as soon as my boss is out of his meeting, I'm going to fire him!!!
No, I'm going to be polite, explain the situation, and leave here on the best terms possible.
I wonder how much notice I have to give? Do I owe two weeks notice?
RE: I have to make a decision soon
What did your current company say about making you permanent?
This may be a situation where growth is causing too many people to be firefighting and taking too many people for granted. It's a human failing but a most unfortunate one in company managers. None the less you have the legitimate opportunity to approach your boss, remind him of the promise made to you and ask about your future "When will I be made permanent?" (note: "When" not "if") Ask if they are hiring new people and if there will be a "guru" recruited that you can work with and learn from? (do this in the right way and it can make you look very good, the bad way makes you look insecure).
Personally I would never get into a job auction, the question has been discussed in many threads here and some research will find you some excellent responses. Beware, some of us are jaded cynics and others incurable optimists, you will have to balance the advice against your first hand knowledge of the situation and your own personal ethos.
Keep your alternative job opportunity to yourself, it isn't a good idea to try and use this to parlay a better deal and especially not with the prospective employer. This is your hole card. If, after taling to your boss you decide to go, go.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: I have to make a decision soon
I was sponsored through University by a company. This involved spending a year with them before UNiversity and then each Summer whilst at University. I also got a good bursary to suppliment my grant (remember grants?). I really enjoyed my experience with them and I naturally felt honour-bound to work for them on completion. However, where I was a bit concerned about the company's future (rumoured takeovers, site closures, etc).
During my final year I accidentally stumbled on my dream job and through my previous experience, was highly qualified for it - more so than many of the other new graduates. I was made a good offer.
I wrote a (goodbye) letter to my sponsoring firm and an acceptance to this new employer. Those letters sat on my desk for days while I wrestled with my conscience. Then my friend suggested I turn the situation around and think about it the other way. I posted the letters. I've never looked back!
RE: I have to make a decision soon
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Focus on your next job!
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Hg
Eng-Tips guidelines: FAQ731-376
RE: I have to make a decision soon
So HemiBuell,
You definitely have the other gig, right? Just making sure.
"If you are going to walk on thin ice, you might as well dance!"
RE: I have to make a decision soon
I'm excited this morning. Having a meeting here at my current company today to figure out what I need to finish up and then I start on the 1st.
Along the way in my short career I have made some good friends and really did my best to keep up those relationships. I am happy that I did that because all of those contacts offer the best advice.
I learned in the last two weeks that being a professional is more than just a degree and some knowledge. It's about personal skills can making good career decisions too.
Without the advice of more expereienced friends and the contacts on this board I would definitely be stressing about my decision. However, I am excited and really looking forward to putting my best foot forward.
Now, another question. At a new job is it best to jump right in aggressively or to sit back and observe for a few weeks?
-Chris
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Glad to know you're happy about your decision.
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Pensions are being phased out with a badly synchronised policy to end retirement as an option.
Typical management ploy.
Population dynamics mean that there are too many old fogies approaching retiring age and not enough money for pensions as there are too few young folks coming along to pay for the old folks retiring.
The solution is to make pensions worth nothing. This makes workers more amenable to the idea that they never retire, they just die on the job(even if they have to leave a happy engineering career for stacking shelves at the supermarket.
In the UK this approach is well advanced but facing some problems.
It began with a certain Newspaper tycoon looting his workers pension fund and then falling of his boat and drowning. Where is the money?
Then the chancellor decided to tax pensions as much as he could to make them as worthless as possible.
Then the low interest rates mean that there is insufficient growth to suppport final salary pensions so they change to to "money funds" which most older folk have insufficient of and insufficient time in which to compensate.
The next government move is to "rationalise" state pensions, which weren't worth a lot anyway.
Now they think they are at the right point to suggest retiring at 70, especially as all you'll do if you retire is get in the wifes way, divorce and need two houses instead of one (unless you invest in a garden shed - not to live in, though it might come to it, but to keep out of the wifes way and from upsetting the routine she has adapted to while you were at work all day, and thus avoid divorce. A curious thing, while she might grumble about how much time you spend doing unpaid overtime, she will never complain about how much time you spend in the shed unless you are enjoying it too much... there is no chance of you stopping for drinks on the way home etc.).
The next step is to get the retirement age up to the point at which more people will die than retire and they can then tax the remaining money funds to death.
The two best things you can do are bury your money in the garden and buy a shed.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: I have to make a decision soon
RE: I have to make a decision soon
Where I am now is the rapid-growth underdog (medical devices even), and I often wonder what it's like to work for a multi-national corporation, or really anywhere with more managers than workers (no offense to any management types.)
RE: I have to make a decision soon
What a difference in attitudes also. Everyone seems to enjoy being here.
Thanks for all of the advice.
-Chris
RE: I have to make a decision soon
There is a lot that can be learned when you get into the big pond.
Congrats.
RE: I have to make a decision soon
RE: I have to make a decision soon
The last place I was at was a small (nah, tiny) company, about 15 employees. They brought me in to start documenting their existing products and designing new ones. There was no structure to the design process at that place. Before I got there, Mickey Mouse in the shop would bend some aluminum with pliers to make brackets to mount components into various types of enclosures. The enclosures were designed and fab’d by real sheet metal houses. It was my task to remove the control of the designs from the outside shops and control it with our own documentation. We would also document Mickey’s brackets produced in house so they could be manufactured outside. The problem is, I was brought in by the head sales guy, who knew the company needed formal documentation. It was almost as if the owner hired me just to humor the sales guy.
New designs were a similar story. No requirements, no design reviews. The owner didn’t want to waste time reviewing my designs, “just get them done and get ‘em built.” Once built, he had all sorts of suggestions to make them better. Suggestions that would have been great in an early design review stage, but costly after the first article was delivered. He would usually have Mickey rig something up to change the design. Then I would be told to document his method.
I attempted to implement (and failed) a rudimentary document control (with part numbers and revs... new concepts to the people there). It was a struggle every step of the way (with the owner). My lack of experience in a formal design environment produced a lack of confidence in support of the need for structure. I'll admit, had I been more stern with my demand for structure, it may have come to fruition. Now, a year and a half later, after working in a company that makes a solid attempt to follow a design process, I could take this new found knowledge back to the old place and probably whip them into shape.
The experience gained from working at an established firm with experienced individuals following established design practices is essential IMHO for the new grad. Sure I learned a lot while I was at that small company, but I didn’t learn it from anyone there. I learned from the sheet metal vendors that I worked hand in hand with to get products manufactured. The only thing I learned from the company was that I didn’t want to work for them.
Without some sort of guidance, be it a mentor or historical design data, how do you know that what you learned is actually correct?
RE: I have to make a decision soon
the problem with the small company you worked for was that they should have employed someone who already had all the experience they needed but they would have had to pay a lot more and probably couldn't afford it.
That meant that you learned the hard way.
It is hopefully a measure of the trust they have in your training and natural ability that you will do the job however you learn it. Sometimes it isn't knowledge that is valued but ability.
I think that a period of "hard way learing" makes you much more appreciative of being mentored than if you go straight into a mentored position.
While a great deal is spoken about not repeating the mistakes of others, making your own mistakes is a great learning experience i.e. you learn the benefits of learning from other peoples mistakes.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com