Post: #1

I have 2 days to decide, I'm on the fence and ultimately the decision will be mine. I am looking for input on pro's and con's. I work in the finance field.

1) Job in Washington DC at a new company. 40% pay increase, should be pretty easy, new town, new chicks, new experiences and get to adventure outside of my home town. I figure I would stay there for 2 years and rack up some experience and get a better job. It's a contracts job so the experience is valuable.

2) Stay at my current company, go to corporate and work for a hard ass. I would get awesome experience in the long run but the pay increase will be 4% tops. I'll be working with the CFO occasionally and working on some stuff that will look killer on my resume. Keep the same friends and chicks, but that has cons as well.

Post: #2

I don't know what your profession is, if you get nice offers like #1 there are more to be had if you keep looking for them. The economy and jobs are so fluid today there is no 1 dream job if you have good experience and are skilled. Jobs, like girls and buses, a new comes every 15 minutes.

I vote to take a job like #1 just in a city much better than DC. I fully believe in today's global economy with hard work you can get high pay compared to cost of living, a good job, in a good city. Less in my mind is settling. Some guys are willing to grind in S.F. finance/tech or up in the oil fields. I like to try and enjoy every day.

Trust your gut though above all.

Post: #3

Make a spreadsheet and figure out how much extra you will be saving per year. Then convert this money into time. For example, you you save an extra 18K per year after tax, every year you work buys you one year of freedom somewhere on a tropical island like Bali or Phuket. How? You can live there on $1500/month or 18K/year. If you manage to save $36K more per year, then every year your work buys you 2 years of freedom. You get the idea.

There are very, very few reasons to waste your life earning less than your potential. One of these reasons may be working for a good boss as opposed to an asshole, but you're saying that the other job should be pretty easy, but you'll have to work for a hard ass if you stay with the current company.

I would try it if I were you.

Post: #4

Maybe I'm missing something, but option #1 seems like a no brainer. Higher pay, new experiences, you'll be pushed outside your comfort zone. The main downside seems to be that its on contract. In this work environment, a normal corporate job only gives a marginal amount of safety compared to contract gigs.

What is compelling about staying in the same place, potentially working for a hard ass, and getting only a four percent raise?

Post: #5

#1. Unless you the new cost of living is going to off set the pay raise

Post: #6

(03-18-2015 08:58 PM)Kissinger2014 Wrote:  Maybe I'm missing something, but option #1 seems like a no brainer. Higher pay, new experiences, you'll be pushed outside your comfort zone. The main downside seems to be that its on contract. In this work environment, a normal corporate job only gives a marginal amount of safety compared to contract gigs.

What is compelling about staying in the same place, potentially working for a hard ass, and getting only a four percent raise?

I tend to give a lot of weight to obtaining new experiences, and #1 seems to offer that.

That's probably why I left home when I was 17 (more than 30 years ago) and have built my life on new experiences.

In the end, you gotta consider what is valuable to you, and sometimes there can be considerable value in staying within your area because you already have a niche and credibility within that area.

Post: #7

Thanks for all the feedback guys. The overall difference b/w the 2 jobs from a savings standpoint is about 200$ a month by my rough estimates.

I currently work for a very stable firm in va beach, va working as an operations finance analyst. I am ready to do something new job-wise and would like to move as well but I can remain here and be happy for another 2 years tops.

Job 1 is an acquisition analyst position in Washington dc for a similar firm. The experience in contracts would be valuable and I could move to another firm in a few years and make more $$, however I want to break into management soon at which ever job I pick.

Job 2 is a strategic finance position at the corporate level in our company. The experience is invaluable as I would be working with some very intellegent people and working on super high level shit. All good resume stuff for the long term too.

What this boils down to is where do I want to be in 10 years? This move will determine that. I like the corporate side of finance and I think there's a lot of opportunity there. My dad is into contracts and says there's plenty of $$ there too

Post: #8

Well 40% vs 200/MO sound very different. In that case option 2 sounds better, but you have more information than we do to make your decision

Post: #9

It's actually about 500$ a month, and I get a roommate which I think I just did... It's 800$

Post: #10

(03-19-2015 12:00 PM)-g- Wrote:  It's actually about 500$ a month, and I get a roommate which I think I just did... It's 800$

If i were in your situation, I would probably chart it out for myself and project the different possibilities for the future on a piece of paper or in an Excel spreadsheet.

It's up to you about the extent you want to share the specifics of your charting with guys here (but could be a good feedback tool - especially since you already began a thread on the topic).

Accordingly, I would write out the finances for each and then write out the various non-tangibles (you could even assign numeric values to the non-tangibles and even probabilities factors to parts that are unknown and in the future).

Then write out the timeline - for currently, and various points into the future (such as 3 months, 6 months, 9months, 1 year, 18 months 2 years, 3 years, 4 years 5 years etc). The timeline can also assist you to see (once you made your choice how close you are to your projections or to tweak the projections based on new factors or outcomes that vary the new possibilities in the future).

I am a bit of an Excel addict because I like to be able to tweak things and then see how the numbers change based on various tweakings (whether receiving a promotion or not etc). And using Excel can help you to put it into a format that you just continue to use, no matter what choice you make.

Once you list all the variables in one job, then you can fairly easily cut and past and create the same spreadsheet and change the variables to customize the projection for the second jobs (and there are a lot of formatting possibilities for things like that whether you do it all in one spreadsheet or if you use two spreadsheets or if you link some of the cells in order that you do NOT have to retype them but you could change the formulas or something to have the amounts show up at various places in each cell. Excel is very powerful to use for various kinds of financial (and life projections) and could help you to consider the whole matter with specifics and compare and contrast and decide which feels best for you with the various projections and possibilities.

Post: #11

I would just say don't underestimate the value of connections and experience. If you are young, I would base my decision solely on these factors.

Post: #12

In your line of work and at your age, it would be better to build contacts and experience in a target rich environment. DC has this over VA beach, hands down. Get up here, start slugging it out and start getting to know people in the community - networking events, professional associations, etc. Eventually your best job offers are going to come from people who know you, not employment listings. Therefore I think you are selling yourself short staying in the relatively remote location of VA beach.

Yes, DC has its problems on the social scene, but you don't need to stay here forever. You also don't need to live in DC proper either; you can scout around for an ideal work location to minimize cost as well as commute. As much as I and everyone else likes to talk shit about it, the DC area has been good to me.

Post: #13

(03-19-2015 01:02 PM)Repo Wrote:  I would just say don't underestimate the value of connections and experience. If you are young, I would base my decision solely on these factors.

Actually, this is a very good point, Repo. There are so many times in life, especially in my youth, that I worked for free or near free because I wanted to obtain experiences and networking opportunities that ultimately helped me to land a fairly lucrative and sought after job in later years. I placed a lot of my intern (and volunteer) experiences on my resume because I was able to do a lot of things and perform lot of work that NO one would have previously paid me to do.. but once I had the experience, I was paid pretty well to do very similar work that I had previously been performing for free.

Post: #14

(03-19-2015 12:37 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 12:00 PM)-g- Wrote:  It's actually about 500$ a month, and I get a roommate which I think I just did... It's 800$

If i were in your situation, I would probably chart it out for myself and project the different possibilities for the future on a piece of paper or in an Excel spreadsheet.

It's up to you about the extent you want to share the specifics of your charting with guys here (but could be a good feedback tool - especially since you already began a thread on the topic).

Accordingly, I would write out the finances for each and then write out the various non-tangibles (you could even assign numeric values to the non-tangibles and even probabilities factors to parts that are unknown and in the future).

Then write out the timeline - for currently, and various points into the future (such as 3 months, 6 months, 9months, 1 year, 18 months 2 years, 3 years, 4 years 5 years etc). The timeline can also assist you to see (once you made your choice how close you are to your projections or to tweak the projections based on new factors or outcomes that vary the new possibilities in the future).

I am a bit of an Excel addict because I like to be able to tweak things and then see how the numbers change based on various tweakings (whether receiving a promotion or not etc). And using Excel can help you to put it into a format that you just continue to use, no matter what choice you make.

Once you list all the variables in one job, then you can fairly easily cut and past and create the same spreadsheet and change the variables to customize the projection for the second jobs (and there are a lot of formatting possibilities for things like that whether you do it all in one spreadsheet or if you use two spreadsheets or if you link some of the cells in order that you do NOT have to retype them but you could change the formulas or something to have the amounts show up at various places in each cell. Excel is very powerful to use for various kinds of financial (and life projections) and could help you to consider the whole matter with specifics and compare and contrast and decide which feels best for you with the various projections and possibilities.

I would like to se a thread on this.

My mentor is a VP at our company and he has introduced me, etc,. to a lot of people. He said the same thing that the job in DC would be great for me and I would meet a lot of people and be given a lot of opportunities. He also said the job here isn't a sure thing because i haven't interviewed, although the director/hiring manager called me and told me to apply... but in my experience thats a sure thing.

I'll keep you all updated and i will likely be able to push back my decision to early next week.

Post: #15

(03-19-2015 02:52 PM)-g- Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 12:37 PM)JayJuanGee Wrote:  

(03-19-2015 12:00 PM)-g- Wrote:  It's actually about 500$ a month, and I get a roommate which I think I just did... It's 800$

If i were in your situation, I would probably chart it out for myself and project the different possibilities for the future on a piece of paper or in an Excel spreadsheet.

It's up to you about the extent you want to share the specifics of your charting with guys here (but could be a good feedback tool - especially since you already began a thread on the topic).

Accordingly, I would write out the finances for each and then write out the various non-tangibles (you could even assign numeric values to the non-tangibles and even probabilities factors to parts that are unknown and in the future).

Then write out the timeline - for currently, and various points into the future (such as 3 months, 6 months, 9months, 1 year, 18 months 2 years, 3 years, 4 years 5 years etc). The timeline can also assist you to see (once you made your choice how close you are to your projections or to tweak the projections based on new factors or outcomes that vary the new possibilities in the future).

I am a bit of an Excel addict because I like to be able to tweak things and then see how the numbers change based on various tweakings (whether receiving a promotion or not etc). And using Excel can help you to put it into a format that you just continue to use, no matter what choice you make.

Once you list all the variables in one job, then you can fairly easily cut and past and create the same spreadsheet and change the variables to customize the projection for the second jobs (and there are a lot of formatting possibilities for things like that whether you do it all in one spreadsheet or if you use two spreadsheets or if you link some of the cells in order that you do NOT have to retype them but you could change the formulas or something to have the amounts show up at various places in each cell. Excel is very powerful to use for various kinds of financial (and life projections) and could help you to consider the whole matter with specifics and compare and contrast and decide which feels best for you with the various projections and possibilities.

I would like to se a thread on this.

[.....................snip.....]

There are a lot of threads regarding financial decision making and various strategies and tools that guys may employ in making their considerations.

However, I cannot recall ever seeing a thread specifically on the topic of the use of Excel, and you are correct that it could be a good topic for its own thread in terms of getting some discussion going back and forth regarding how guys might use or consider using Excel in their financial planning and/or in various other life considerations.

So far in my RVF membership, i have only attempted to start one thread, so I have NOT had much of an Modus Operandi as an RVF thread starter - yet I will consider the possibility of such an Excel related thread - since I do tend to incorporate various Excel tools in my various financial planning and related considerations - especially in about the past 15 years, I consider myself to be somewhat self-taught of Excel through trial and experimentation, and during the last 15 years or so, I had gotten into using Excel more and more and more... to track a lot of financial matters. In essence, I probably overuse Excel to structure various matters, yet in my thinking, Excel does seem to be a very powerful tool.

Post: #16

Always go for the money!

And if you do contract, become an S-corp in the state you will be working in and go Corp to Corp. There's still time to re-negotiate that. Once that's done, call up an accountant in D.C. and have him setup the S-Corp.

We might think things will look good on a resume for the future, etc. but who really knows what the future holds? You will also be gaining new experiences in a new city. That aside....

Take the money, always take the money!