Crossroads, of a sort

PROS

1. The job I will be interviewing for is in the field I'm currently studying (accounting).

2. The pay will be comparable. The head of the company today told me he would match my salary.

3. In addition, there are prospects for career development in accounting that I don't have where I am now.

4. The job is interesting. In this position, I'd be working 30 hours per week contracted out to the government administering a grant program (a pretty neat grant program, btw). The rest of the time, I'd be working in the home office gaining experience I simply have no other opportunity to obtain in my present situation. In fact, the experience I could get in this job may even make pursuing much more education irrelevant.

5. Big one: it's a Christian environment. The company has a mission statement that involves praising Jesus Christ. The boss and I even discussed witnessing in a non-Christian work environment during the interview. It's not like I want to completely flee the world for a Christian bubble, but I do like the idea of working with and for people who share my values.

CONS:

1. I'm not quite sure about the benefits. I think we'd be OK, and I of course intend to find out more info before making any decisions, but it would be very hard to beat the benefits I have now as an employee of a huge corporation. Especially tuition reimbursement and the free goodies I get.

2. I've only been working my current job for 18 months. I wasn't looking to switch right now, and this came out of nowhere. The last thing I want to do is make a hasty decision. It's true I'm not thrilled with my job right now, but the people there have been good to me, and I'm well-liked, even if I'm not exactly challenged.

3. Timing. It's possible that the new job would start in about 3 1/2 weeks, which is about when little Charles or Maria is due. As it is, I have a week and a half of vaction plus a few sick days I can use to stay home when the baby is born. I don't think I could take this job if there is no way to work around this.

That about sums it up. There's a few less consequential considerations, like the loss of the company-contributed part of my 401(k) and having to pay back tuition reimbursement if I leave my current job, but those are minor. The decision really comes down to two things: will the benefits - particularly the health benefits - be comparable, and can we work around the upcoming birth of my second-born? If those two things fall into place (and, you know, I actually get the job), then it looks like the better choice.

Please pray for me, that if I am offered the position, I might make the right decisions for my family and for myself. I'm kind of on Cloud Nine (whatever that actually means) right now, because the interview today went so well, and I actually felt like the head guy really wants me for the job. I don't want to make a hasty decision based on that, though. I have some investigating to do and some real thought and prayer to put into this, but I can't help being excited.

The head guy is going to try to set up a meeting for me on Wednesday with the head of the grant program. Then I'll be calling back to the office to talk again to the head of the firm while the Lu- family drives to Columbus, OH for Thanksgiving. At that time, depending on how the meeting goes, I intend to ask more details about the benefits and time frame questions.

At the very least, it looks like if the full-time gig doesn't work out, I still got the part-time seasonal job that was the job for which I was originally interviewing. Even that would provide me with valuable experience and could be a foot-in-the-door for future positions for this company, which is strong and growing. It may even be the case that keeping my current job and taking this seasonal gig, which would be recurring, would end up better than jumping ship for this new place altogether, giving me "the best of both worlds" so to speak.

I guess there's more: the background to all of this is that I've not been terribly happy at work lately. Its not a matter of a hellish work environment - in fact a happy fringe benefit is that I'm quite often left alone with nobody bothering me. The problem is that I simply am not challenged in my job. Anybody can do what I do, but there was no real system set up for it when I got the job. Now that I've come up with processes and streamlined some others, anybody who'se moderately computer-literate and who can handle large amounts of paperwork can do it. Jenny and I have even discussed this recently and we talked about possible career-change plans for me.

Even so, I was not looking for this right now (duh, I have a kiddie coming next month). Although intrigued by this grant position when I first heard about it through an email from my instructor, I dismissed it because the email left me with the impression that it was just a permanent part-time thing. The grant job came up during my interview and it was only then that I learned about getting time in the home office, making it a full-time position.

As I said, I still have thinking and praying (and information-gathering and interviewing) to do. In the meantime, please pray for me an the Lu- family. I will keep you updated as the week unfolds.