OT: need advice about difficult career choice

First question is if you're paid by the hour.

Sounds to me like they'll work you 75 hour weeks and be pissed you're not working more.

Contract, eh? Ask your current employer to sub you out to them.

S.

Hourly, with OT after the first 40. If they want me for 75 hours in a week, they would be paying a steep price, counting the agency's share. Six months of those hours and I could pay off half my mortgage, after payroll taxes and my usual monthly bills. A year like that and I could pay off my whole mortgage. Or half my mortgage and all of my girlfriend's student loan debt. My mind reels at the possibilities.

Go for the extra sex and unlimited brownie points in paying off your girlfriend's loan.

You know it makes sense !!

I really appreciate all the advice here. If nothing else, this situation has made me realize that I am very unhappy with my current lot in life, and I am probably willing to take a big gamble if one presents itself.

That said, I suspect that the company will pass on me. Big companies have only rarely ever talked to me, as there is a strong bias against hiring small company people. I had a bracing interview last July with an executive at a medium-sized company who came from a big company background. He walked into our meeting unprepared, as he had only been there for a month and had delegated the hiring process so far to the HR folks. He glanced through me resume for a few seconds and started swearing softly. He spent another 30 seconds looking it over and then apologized for wasting my time. Because he didn't recognize any of the companies in my resume, he didn't see any possibility that he would hire me.

Since I had driven 20 miles for this interview, I asked him to give me 10 minutes to change his mind. I made my best pitch, emphasizing my broad range of skills, my extensive experience, and my work ethic. I closed by handing him a page of contact information for professional references and invited him to call them. The best he could say in response was that he would call around and see if any of his connections were looking to hire a small company accountant.

I'm sure that my recruiter will try really hard to sell this company on my background and my potential, but they are likely to react the same way as that executive that I met last July. To make matters worse, four out of the last five companies that I worked for are out of business, and my 3 months as a warehouse monkey at FFG aren't on my resume. So all this angst was probably for nothing, as I am not a purple squirrel.

Shellhead wrote: ...

That said, I suspect that the company will pass on me. Big companies have only rarely ever talked to me, as there is a strong bias against hiring small company people...

...I am not a purple squirrel.

The Imposter Syndrome is a powerful force. Don't fall victim to it. Honestly self assessing your skills is important but people tend to be terrible judges of themselves. If you really need help growing I suggest speaking to a manager or former colleague who's opinion you trust - getting honest feedback is far more helpful than questioning your own abilities.

The interviewing process, disheartening and exhausting as it is, is another good opportunity to find out more about yourself - where you're weak and what skills needs to be developed before you try again. And if you're lucky you'll turn out to be the person they need and wind up with a job you want.

my 3 months as a warehouse monkey at FFG aren't on my resume.

Looking over what is not on your resume...If you are willing to move to Guangxidong, China we might could use your help assembling copies of Milch und Gherkin when it is printed in 2015. No need for an interview, just email me your SSN and bank account number and I will put you on the payroll. Your lodging will be taken care of, you will stay on campus at the production facility. I will see to it personally that you get one of the XL cubbyholes, a new bedroll and two rolls of TP a week.

I look at things like this: If you're making 20K less than your last job, that's irrelevant. If you can make double what you make now, but only for six months, if you saved every dime of it, that would buy you 6 months of safety net while looking for new work if the contract expires and is not renewed.

But people don't generally work like that; the more they make, the more they spend. So, if you take the job and are out of work in six months, and you didn't save, you're fucked. So, if you work for six months and make double, but lose the job after 6 months, you actually made the exact same amount of money for the year, but got 6 months of paid vacation. So, really, the pay is the same on a per-annum basis.

I'd keep the existing job. From a money standpoint, the money's the same. 6 months at 120K = 12 months at 60K, but you'd be out of work at the end of the 6 months.

Now, there's a third option you haven't considered in this: Start your own accounting firm. My accountant is a small-town, small-company guy. He worked for exactly one company for his entire life (granted, 35 years) and now he's got his own little accounting firm. He offers reasonable prices to local small businesses and has proven his worth time and time again. He lives in a small house with his wife and has a small office that he meets clients at, built right onto his house. The guy drives a nice truck but nothing fancy. You wouldn't know he was quite wealthy, and you're never going to meet a happier guy. 100 clients at 1,000 per year is 100,000 per year, and all of the business expenses guarantee that you'll pay very little in taxes, and that which you do will be taxed at lower bracket rates.

The best part is that you can start it today, with zero investment, doing people's annual taxes to network, and spend Saturdays soliciting small, local businesses. Once you get enough clientele to replace your existing income, quit your job and then go big.

Just a thought.

To mirror what Uba said, I'm naturally suspicious person too...and I've seen that this kind of thing does often turn out to be a scam but it sounds like you're doing your homework on it.

In all seriousness, if this is a real opportunity I would rethink staying in your current job and instead redoubling your efforts to find something else. The main reason is because contract work SUCKS.

I've been a contractor a couple of times. One time, when I was working at the CDC, it was a GREAT contractor that lasted for many years. I worked for an amazing small business that contracted with the CDC to do basically all of their library management work. I was there for five years, and I also got to work on some other contracts for the National Parks Service and Coca Cola. But in year five, this company's contract with the CDC came up for renewal and they lost it. The CDC actually did something that from what I understand was legally questionable, they undercut all of the bidders themselves or something like that, so my company suddenly lost their gig. And so did everybody working there.

Another time I was with a consulting firm that had a large contract with Cisco Systems. The whole time, I was just waiting for the call where this company said "well, your position is no longer being funded, we have to terminate your contract". And eventually that is exactly what happened. My boss didn't lose her job, so she lobbied to get me back on. They had a position for me, and I accepted it...while turning down a job offer at this environmental remediation company that I would have loved to have worked for and would probably still be with today. The day after I start, I get the call "well, your position is no longer being funded, we have to terminate your contract." I was out of work for almost a year.

The point is that contract work, even if you have things written in your contract to avoid getting fucked over, is not permanent and you simply do not have as much security as a salaried or regular full-time position. There are instantly more variables introduced. That said, it's not like ANY job is 100% secure- my team has had two massive layoffs in the pass couple of years out of nowhere.

So if you do go with this- and I do agree with what Pete said about the money- have an exit strategy in place DAY ONE. If that means looking for another position for six months, saving all of that extra money whatever...just make sure you're not getting yourself into a situation where at the end of six months you've got your thumb up your ass wondering where all the money went and why they aren't asking you to stay on longer. It does happen, of course, that temps get hired permanently and you might go in there and become a real asset to the business that they don't want to let go. But do not bank on that happening, assume it's a six month gig.

Shellhead wrote: It would help a lot if my girlfriend could land a full-time marketing job. Cash flows would be more tolerable and I could start paying down debt and saving for the future again. But hiring tends to be slow around the holidays, so I don't expect her to find anything until maybe late January at the soonest.

You should've told me you had a person you'd vouch for that was looking for a marketing gig in MN. It's gone now, but my buddy had a great gig open for a while.

Have her send a resume to Sales Consultants of Buffalo.
www.scbuffalo.com/

Shit, send your resume too. PM me your real name and I'll tell my "inside man" over there that he should put yours on top of the pile. I've had dozens of friends placed by these guys.