Do I want a career or do I just want to work?
I have a new job offer and I think I'm going to take it. It's another PR agency here in NYC with a great culture, awesome (female) CEO, nice people, interesting/diverse clients, etc. They gave me an unofficial offer (without mentioning numbers) before we took off on our trip and I pretty much considered it a done deal in my head for the whole time we were away. BUT... when we got back, I found out that I could definitely keep going with freelance and make some OK money. And when the agency gave me the salary offer, I was kinda ticked. So, then I thought for sure that I would stick with freelancing... It's hard to beat working from home in PJs. THEN... last night I met with the agency again and spoke with the CEO for a while. She totally got me. (I think they must bring her in as the closer.) She's a former dancer and she runs a very entrepreneurial office. I met with the HR woman before I left (who is more of a partner to the CEO since she’s been there since the beginning) and expressed my concerns with the salary (I told her it’s $5k less than what I left my last agency job at), vacation time and how hard it is for me to give up such a “cushy” gig I have working from home right now. She was very nice and said the money is negotiable and she would talk to the CEO and SVP about it. She also said that I need to decide where I want my career to go… If I want to move up in the “PR world” and manage people, I’ll need to go back to an agency to keep developing the necessary skills. If I want to just keep working at a steady pace but not really change my situation in the future, freelancing is perfectly fine. That hit me the hardest. I know I want to keep working, if at all possible, when we become parents. But I must absolutely LOVE my job in order to do so. I see myself letting it all go if I’m not on a “career path” (for lack of a better word). I can also always go back to freelancing later on but I may not be able to go back to “the real world” without taking a huge pay cut if I wait a few more years.
When I got home I emailed the SVP who recruited me to ask him one more Q about the accounts I’d be assigned to. When he replied, he wrote “BTW, you didn't hear this from me, but the money level [HR] talked to you about this afternoon is lower that what we'll be offering you tomorrow...”
Of course that made me happy and I feel like I need to at least try this job out. Freelancing will always pay more but there’s no guarantee that I’ll be busy enough. I was sort of jerked around this past year with promises for more hours that never came through. I just can’t afford that - in many ways - this time around. Eric will be working ‘round the clock so I need to have my own life outside this apartment. We also need a steady income on my side if we’re ever going to put money away for a house - not to mention pay our huge a$$ rent checks.
Pros & Cons for the new job:
Pros
· Decent money
· Good people, interesting clients
· Good work environment
· Awesome CEO (I don’t know why, exactly, but I love working for female-run companies.)
· Work/life balance is a priority there - everyone has something going on outside of work that really matters to him/her.
· It will get me out of the house and keep me occupied. ;)
· Up for promotion in a few months since I already worked at this level at my last agency
Cons
· I have to give up working from home.
· Commuting on the subway (though it’s not really a bad commute and I always read so much more when I’m commuting)
· What if I hate my co-workers? ;)
· Freelancing can pay a LOT more (if I’m busy)
I will certainly miss having my cats at my desk all day long. But I don’t want to turn into a crazy cat lady.
Assuming I take this new job, I’m going to try to keep up some freelance work. Maybe 10 hours/week? That could bring in an extra couple thousand a month (which doesn’t hurt) - and maybe I could make that my “play money.” Shoes, anyone?