I need urgent work advice.
I currently work as a corporate marketing exec for a big company. For a long time (even here on /adv/, I've bemoaned how much I dislike this job - it's very stressful, and has terrible hours and a bad workload. Team morale is very low, because we keep losing talent, and the company isn't hiring anyone.
Today my former boss reached out with an opportunity that would be a promotion from my current job, but would represent a bit of a plateau in career growth. I likely wouldn't make much more money at any particular point than I will at the point of being hired, but in the short term I'd make more. I would be able to dictate most of my hours and would be much more relaxed.
The thing is, my current job has all of the prestige and the opportunity to lift up my career. I really love my coworkers. But I have to decide on this other job in the next hour or so. I'd go straight into my final interview and would be interviewing with my old boss, so there's almost a zero chance he wouldn't hire me.
Thoughts?
>>17175739
Is the job on offer a step-up in title/responsibility? If it'll look good on a resume and roundaboutly advances your knowledge of the business processes you're involved in, go for it. Doesn't necessarily have to be upward, but at least sideways to learn more about the processes/jobs in your industry as a whole.
If it's some dead-end per-hour busywork type shit you'd not want to put on your resume, forget it. Unless you just really need the "bandwidth" for personal growth at this particular point in your life that a relaxed type job would give you.
I'll stick around for a minute since this is time-sensitive.
>>17175751
Yes, it's a step up in title, and I guess TECHNICALLY responsibility, but my job right now is putting me in a position to end up working for the elite of the elite.
I'm in a more specific marketing vertical, but one that is basically the future of marketing... so even though I'd be working with more aspects of my industry, it would be at the sacrifice of mastery of something more in demand.
It's certainly not "busywork," but the progress of my career on paper makes a lot of sense. To suddenly jump to some small company seems troubling.
>>17175775
say you take the job with your former boss. would you regret not ever seeing the potential you claim to exist at your current job? will you sacrifice that grand possibility for the easy way out? which is more your style? how much gut do you have to stomach the risk?
>>17175739
I would literally kill myself before I dedicated my life to wage slavery for some fuck head. Open your own shop or suicide. Those are your options.
>>17175783
Honestly, I'd probably regret it. I'd probably see the disappointment in my mom's eyes and stuff like that, and wonder what could have been...
I've always been the type to rise to the occasion and have scraped and clawed my way up to this point. But at the same time, I question how long I can last at this pace. On average, two people are quitting per week in my current department, though.
>>17175775
Ah, so job is at a different, smaller company. I thought this was a sidestep into a different department/team.
Eh, that's harder to gauge but people don't know on paper how big the company is you're jumping to. Don't rule out a broader knowledge of your industry as being more valuable than specialized work under one company -- in the broader sense of employability in the industry. It's likely, either way you go, you will have to change companies to move up. That's practically the norm nowadays.
If the team you're in has been going downhill with no end in sight, that's bad for your career too. Have you actually seen upward mobility in the last couple of years, or is this something they're just dangling in front of you like it will happen "eventually"? How competitive are the positions in the elite squad and (honest evaluation of yourself here) are you up to it and feel like you're being undervalued?
>>17175797
Owning your own business is pretty much impossible in my field until you've built a reputation, because every Tom, Dick, and Harry is trying to hock the same product.
>>17175739
Sometimes you gotta step back to step up... not quite the same thing but in this case I'd go with the smaller company and discuss with the old boss how you'd like to help the business grow and thus you get to move up with it.
>>17175801
To add: where do you think you'll make the most difference in the next 2 years? Jumping to a smaller company and totally revamping their department will be better for you than dronework under some big company where you're only a number and a salary.
>>17175801
I've only been on the team for a year - I feel that the company is trying to eliminate positions as part of "attrition," but there's certainly room to move up. Our Director is new, and I think I've become her favorite employee - there's a lavish amount of attention that has been placed on my recent successes.
Part of the issue with "broadening" my knowledge, is that what I'll be broadening to is probably the more dead part of the industry. Digital marketing is the future, and I can skyrocket without knowing too much about buying print or TV ads.
With the new Director, the time for upward mobility is now. She wants to make some changes, and quite a bit of that seems to involve me taking more of a leadership position than I have been in the past.
Go for the new job.
It's not worth it to keep a shitty job, no matter how paying it is.
One month into the new job, reflect upon the move and ask yourself if you're happier. You'll find a tremendous difference.
>>17175814
I'm much further along than drone work though... I hold a pretty important position as is, and make and dictate decisions worth millions of dollars a year already. If I keep working here, I can get hired ANYWHERE soon enough.
If I switch to the other job, I'm basically saying "okay, I'm going to work in small-medium businesses from here on out, mainly regional things."
There's nothing disrespectful about that. Part of that sounds appealing. It's that kind of shit where you can eventually just be like "hey I've been here forever and I'm going to dictate the policy and I'm going to go take a month off to go on a trip with my kids." In the other gig, it's like "I can never leave my phone out of arm's length but Google just bought me a $130 steak and a bottle of Dom Perignon. I'll see you bitches in my penthouse tonight."
>>17175837
I'm getting a clearer picture now. If you're getting recognized, you've only been there a short time, and it's looking like things are improving (attrition isn't necessarily a bad thing - trim the fucking fat), with all the info thus far I'd say stay where you're are and come on in for the big win.
It sucks now, but don't get complacent - dig in and ask for more. Make yourself invaluable, take the reins on projects that are going stagnant, etc. Make them fire the fuckholes that want to work just hard enough to not get fired by leaving them nothing to do.
I'm in tech attached to the real estate industry, so I've seen some ugly fuckery in my industry for the last 7 or 8 years but came out on top.
>>17175865
I didn't mean dronework in the literal sense, even upper level managers have dronework; I meant stuff that doesn't challenge you. If you're 40 or under, use your youthful vitality to your advantage. Now's the time to bust ass and move up. There will be time to take that month off later (or retire early!) if you play your cards right.
tl;dr - You've got your head screwed on straight. It sucks now, but stay where you are.
>>17175885
Thanks, anon. You've been a huge help. I'm going to give it about another 10 minutes of though, but I think I owe it to my team to stick out what I'm doing.
The one unfortunate thing is that they already trimmed the fat, and now the attrition is cutting into the muscle and important arteries... but we'll see what happens.
I turn 30 this year so it's crucial to be smart about it.
>>17175923
I know what you mean about cutting into the muscle. The team I was in (the multidiscipline special ops team for our multi-state region) got cut in half and then eventually split up into functional groups. I've had to reapply for my own job with a new manager every year for the last 4 years. Shit sucks. If you're worth a shit (and it seems like you are), you'll do fine. Just stay hungry and don't get bummed out by what decisions the powers-that-be are making that negatively impact you in the short-term. It's worth sticking out at this point IMO just to see what happens.
Cheers and good luck to you. Drink some Dom Perignon for me. Final bump for anybody else with /adv/ice for you.
OP again, looks like I have even more leverage than expected... I told him I couldn't commit this strongly to the opportunity and that while I appreciated it, I needed to give my company a little bit more time to decide what they were going to do.
We're going to do an interview either this week or next, so they're basically going to give me a sales pitch soon.
>>17175985
Let it ride and keep an open mind. Tabling a decision is an effective tactic to make somebody second-guess themselves. Evaluate their pitch on its merits, but stay strong. They will likely be using "forward-looking" statements about their future viability/profitability in the industry but don't let that color your opinion [I assume you've been doing this long enough to know where both companies stand in the industry].
Even at their best projection, are they going to be able to give you an opportunity for advancement like you have at your current company? Maybe, maybe not. You'll have to asses your risk. You know best. Bounce it off the people closest to you...there's only so much relevant advice you can get from an erotic medieval Croatian tapestry bulletin board.
