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View Full Version : to get a job ... or not



madgeylou
5-26-11, 10:32am
as some of you may know, i'm knee-deep (maybe neck-deep!) in starting my own company. we are building, slowly but surely, and wrapping our minds around all the marketing things we need to do. but we are not really making any money yet -- just enough to keep the company going.

at the same time, i'm working part time at a local restaurant (a really great one!) as a hostess just to pay my bills around the house. it's a fun enough job, and easy enough to do, and i just make enough to pay my half of the household. but it's 2 bus rides away (i only take the car about half the time), keeps me up later than i'd like, and kind of wreaks havoc on my energy levels.

enter possible new job. a very cool local company is looking for, well, basically me. i'm sure the pay would be good (enough to get my fella and i, jointly, into 6 figures) and the work they do is super interesting. ALMOST but not quite as interesting as what my company is doing, but in an entirely different field.

so ... i am considering applying for this job. my skills would be a perfect fit, and i do think i could do a good job of it. however, this would squeeze my wts time into nights and weekends. i may be able to get this job to allow me to work 4 ten hour days rather than the regular 9 to 5, but it's the kind of job where you have to be on call to clients pretty much all the time (lots of them are on the west coast, so they may want contact well into dinner time in my area).

on one hand, if i could get any kind of flexibility in this job, i think it would be a really good fit for me.

on the other hand, i don't want to starve my own little company of the attention and brainpower it needs to grow and become the awesome thing i know it can be!

i guess i'm just looking for some impartial advice (which is hard to get from people who know and love me in person). the conservative get-out-of-debt-and-have-a-steady-paycheck side of me wants some security and, well, a steady paycheck. the visionary side of me knows that wts can be amazing and profitable and perhaps even world-changing, but it will take some time. time in which my savings continue to dwindle instead of grow...

there's also a part of me that worries that a job opportunity this perfect for me may not come by again soon ... and i also wonder if it's ethical to take a job knowing that i will not be there past the point which my own company is throwing off enough profit to support me.

at this point, i am thinking that i will just apply and see what happens. if there's no opportunity for flexibility, then i have my answer. and if there is, maybe i can negotiate something that will work.

what do you think, SLN friends? any facets of this i haven't considered? any "third way" options you can see with your impartial eyes?

thanks in advance :)

shadowmoss
5-26-11, 11:44am
I say apply and get more information. If they want you, then you have the decision to make. The Universe may help you decide. :)

fidgiegirl
5-26-11, 6:07pm
I say apply and get more information. If they want you, then you have the decision to make. The Universe may help you decide. :)

+1

leslieann
5-26-11, 6:50pm
Sounds very exciting, Madgeylou....how wonderful to have these opportunities opening up for you! Of course you won't have the same energy for the business but it may pay off in lots of unexpected ways regardless. Apply, have the conversations......enjoy!

Anne Lee
5-26-11, 7:49pm
I agree. Apply. Is telecommuting an option? If most of your clients are PT and you are ET, then IF you get the job, you could ask to work 1 - 8 or somesuch thing. That would leave mornings free for WtS. .

Mangano's Gold
5-26-11, 10:08pm
My initial (rhetorical) question for you after reading the outlines of your situation was: Could you use this potential new job as a platform for many of the things you are trying to accomplish with your business? You say what they do is interesting, and local (not sure if that means small). Would you be a meaningful part of the business, or just doing a job, albeit a very good job as far as these things go? If you can be great (murkily defined) in your business you can be great someplace else, as well.

Concern: if your part-time job as a hostess depletes your energy then you obviously need to try to gauge what full-time career-like employment would do.

I said that was my initial reaction. Then I followed the link to your website and was blown away. Your business looks incredibly awesome. Wow. I want to order a dress for my wife, mom, daughter, sister, and all the other women I owe gifts to.

cdttmm
5-26-11, 10:24pm
+1

Another +1.

Much like you, I am trying to build my own fledgling business. I applied for and was offered a great job at a local college. It is a job that I would be great at, but I ultimately decided that it would sap my energy (mostly because of the lack of flexibility in the workplace), and that I won't have necessary energy to work on my own thing. So I turned down the position and have decided that the fastest way for me to get my own company to turn a large enough profit to support me was to focus all of my attention on it. Not split my time between a full-time job elsewhere and working to build my own company. Just my 2 cents.

madgeylou
5-27-11, 12:34am
i knew i would get thoughtful and helpful feedback here! thank you so much. you've given me a lot to consider.

a few more details: at this point, i kind of have to work somewhere to bring in some cash. i don't have enough savings to get me by for more than a few months if i don't. i do have just a little bit in an IRA that i could cash out, which would buy me half a year. that is obviously a last resort, but it is there.

so ... after a month and a half of working at the restaurant 20-30 hours a week, spending many hours on the bus, and bringing home just enough to cover my household nut (which is not much!), i'm thinking that if i'm going to work this much, i may as well get PAID.

mangano's gold, you asked whether i could accomplish a good part of what i'm trying to do with wts at this other company, and i think i could. it's a very small design and software firm that does crazy inventive and impactful stuff. if i did get a job there, it would be a pretty significant way to contribute to the world. that's part of what makes me interested in possibly working there. but ... it's not wts, my baby for which i have such huge plans!

the thing that saps my energy about the restaurant job is that my natural pattern is to get up early and go to bed early. that's impossible now, and i feel out of step from my fiancee and from the normal patterns of life. i have a fantasy that if i had a normal hours job again, and wasn't stressed out about money, i could be very productive in the early morning.

thinking about this, there may be another way. i may be able to find a better-paying, part-time tech job. in the meantime, i am going to apply for this other job simply because i am curious about what they are up to these days.

thanks again for helping me think it through, and especially for your kind words, mangano's gold.

chrisgermany
5-27-11, 3:32am
1 more for "apply and see what happens".
On the ethical question: when you start work there you do not know when (if ever) you will leave for your own company. When the company tells you that you have the job they do not know for how long they really will employ you. So it is a fair deal IMO.
If they wanted to make sure that an employee is there for a certain period they could offer fixed term contracts.

lhamo
5-27-11, 5:17am
Apply and see what happens. Maybe they would be open to discussing a more part-time arrangement. Maybe they will have another great candidate who is in a similar position and be interested in splitting the position or job sharing. Who knows. You won't know if you don't pursue it, though.

Totally get the schedule thing. I am also an early morning person and would totally be messed up if I had to work late nights. I have actually grown to like getting up at 4:30 am. And Im home by 4 and have time to work out before the kids get home. Leaves evenings free for family and other fun stuff.

Good luck and keep us posted!

lhamo

PS: JUst thought of something else. If you are making a decent living wage doing something else, maybe it will give you some wiggle room to hire on extra help to push MTS to the next level. Hire people to do the stuff you don't necessarily thrive on yourself. That way you are not only improving your own bottom line, you are also helping someone else make theirs. WIN-WIN!

jennipurrr
6-3-11, 12:15pm
I am a little late to the party, but I hope you went ahead and applied! If it doesn't work out I would definitely consider finding some part time techy work. I don't know what your real hourly wage is hostessing, plus the effect of the schedule, but it sounds like it is incredibly draining for not the greatest return in the world. You might be able to find some part time, fairly nontaxing work, even if its not life changing, that you could do from home or something and then have a lot more time to devote to your business. Good luck! Hope all is going well!

madgeylou
6-10-11, 12:08pm
just wanted to let you guys know i just had a phone interview for the dream job and it went pretty well! i will know next week whether or not i made it to the next round ... thanks again for the ideas and support!

Reyes
7-3-11, 12:37am
just wanted to let you guys know i just had a phone interview for the dream job and it went pretty well! i will know next week whether or not i made it to the next round ... thanks again for the ideas and support!

Any news on the dream job?