Seeking advice for career opportunities that have come my way
June 30, 2017 10:18 AM Subscribe
So I am in the enviable position of have two really great career options, but I'm confused and need help clarifying the pros and cons as to which the best option is.
Background: I'm a trans woman. I live in Austin. I hate living in Austin but I have a job I love with a group of people I adore at a company I am in love with. I've been here 4 years. Recently we were acquired by a bigger company based in Seattle, a place on the earth that I love and want to move back to so bad that it hurts. My son also is desperate to move back as well.
Option 1: Stay in Texas and get promoted to a management position on my team.
Option 2: Take a position at the parent company that is a lateral move, get to move to Seattle.
My thoughts:
1. I hate, hate, hate living in Austin. HATE IT.
2. I love love love the company and team I work with and for.
3. Texas is leading the war against all the trans and gay people. Why am I here.
4. The parent company is big and huge and I would be a small fish in a big sea, while the place I work now I am a highly trusted decision maker and thought leader though the entire organization (2500 employees)
5. The parent company already knows me and is super-duper thrilled and eager to bring my skills over to their organization. I would start there with my reputation as a thought leader already well-respected and admired. I would basically walk in the door able to do my thing without having to first prove myself.
6. The parent company is way better about the trans stuff than the place I work.
7. My son desperately wants to move back to the PNW. So do I.
8. The place I work now is more a "butts in seats" place. Remote work, while allowed, is stigmatized a lot.
9. The parent company would let me work from home or remotely as much and as often as I like.
My question is, Do I not listen to my heart, which wants to move the PNW and take the management offer instead? I could *eventually* take another position at the parent company, it doesn't *have* to be this one, but I'm not sure how many more chances to to transfer will come along.
TLDR version: Is a lateral move to a company that loves you in place you love worth giving up a career advancement opportunity at a company you love in a place you hate?
Background: I'm a trans woman. I live in Austin. I hate living in Austin but I have a job I love with a group of people I adore at a company I am in love with. I've been here 4 years. Recently we were acquired by a bigger company based in Seattle, a place on the earth that I love and want to move back to so bad that it hurts. My son also is desperate to move back as well.
Option 1: Stay in Texas and get promoted to a management position on my team.
Option 2: Take a position at the parent company that is a lateral move, get to move to Seattle.
My thoughts:
1. I hate, hate, hate living in Austin. HATE IT.
2. I love love love the company and team I work with and for.
3. Texas is leading the war against all the trans and gay people. Why am I here.
4. The parent company is big and huge and I would be a small fish in a big sea, while the place I work now I am a highly trusted decision maker and thought leader though the entire organization (2500 employees)
5. The parent company already knows me and is super-duper thrilled and eager to bring my skills over to their organization. I would start there with my reputation as a thought leader already well-respected and admired. I would basically walk in the door able to do my thing without having to first prove myself.
6. The parent company is way better about the trans stuff than the place I work.
7. My son desperately wants to move back to the PNW. So do I.
8. The place I work now is more a "butts in seats" place. Remote work, while allowed, is stigmatized a lot.
9. The parent company would let me work from home or remotely as much and as often as I like.
My question is, Do I not listen to my heart, which wants to move the PNW and take the management offer instead? I could *eventually* take another position at the parent company, it doesn't *have* to be this one, but I'm not sure how many more chances to to transfer will come along.
TLDR version: Is a lateral move to a company that loves you in place you love worth giving up a career advancement opportunity at a company you love in a place you hate?
You know there are bad things about the current place and situation.
You think there may be bad things about the next place and situation.
And the bad potential things clearly weigh less heavily on your mind than the bad actual things.
Go to Seattle. Just don't get weirdly into soccer.
posted by Etrigan at 10:29 AM on June 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
You think there may be bad things about the next place and situation.
And the bad potential things clearly weigh less heavily on your mind than the bad actual things.
Go to Seattle. Just don't get weirdly into soccer.
posted by Etrigan at 10:29 AM on June 30, 2017 [4 favorites]
I would definitely go for the move to Seattle.
If that's where you and your son would prefer to live, then live there. There are so many twists and turns in ones career, it's difficult to predict accurately which will have the better 'pay-off' in the long term so I'd focus on your families personal happiness.
posted by stevedawg at 10:29 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
If that's where you and your son would prefer to live, then live there. There are so many twists and turns in ones career, it's difficult to predict accurately which will have the better 'pay-off' in the long term so I'd focus on your families personal happiness.
posted by stevedawg at 10:29 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Move, move, move. Take the personal happiness. That's going to free up so much psychic energy you'll be even more invigorated to fight the good fight, and even contribute to efforts in Texas, albeit remotely.
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:39 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by BlahLaLa at 10:39 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Seattle is a wonderful place to live and I couldn't imagine living anywhere else. Housing is one of THE issues here, particularly affordable housing, so plan ahead and if you can, negotiate to make the move to a very desirable location not be painful on your bank account.
posted by lois1950 at 10:41 AM on June 30, 2017
posted by lois1950 at 10:41 AM on June 30, 2017
I agree, you should go. You'll be much happier.
As well as all the things others have said, let me add that another major "tell" is that you didn't say anything about the management job - nothing about management being exciting, or one of your major goals, or something you think you'll excel at, or a path to accomplishing something in particular. It's just a promotion. The fact that you threw it out there without any context makes me assume any promotion will be comparable, and this particular one is nothing special. Not to discount the value of a bigger paycheck and a career milestone, just to say that it doesn't sound like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
posted by aimedwander at 10:49 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
As well as all the things others have said, let me add that another major "tell" is that you didn't say anything about the management job - nothing about management being exciting, or one of your major goals, or something you think you'll excel at, or a path to accomplishing something in particular. It's just a promotion. The fact that you threw it out there without any context makes me assume any promotion will be comparable, and this particular one is nothing special. Not to discount the value of a bigger paycheck and a career milestone, just to say that it doesn't sound like a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
posted by aimedwander at 10:49 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: (We would move back to Tacoma where my son and I lived for three years)
posted by Annika Cicada at 10:57 AM on June 30, 2017
posted by Annika Cicada at 10:57 AM on June 30, 2017
Have you done management before? You can be a star performer and dislike managing a team, so I'd add to the chorus of Seattle.
posted by typecloud at 11:09 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by typecloud at 11:09 AM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
It really sounds like you want to take the Seattle position. Take it! Move back!
posted by aka burlap at 11:14 AM on June 30, 2017
posted by aka burlap at 11:14 AM on June 30, 2017
Also: you have gotten yourself into a position of leadership and being respected in the Austin location, and you are starting out in the Seattle location with some of that respect already in place. I am sure that the same qualities that led you to get this management offer in Austin will also shine through once you're in Seattle, and I bet before long you'll be getting opportunities to move up in the parent organization as well.
posted by aka burlap at 11:16 AM on June 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by aka burlap at 11:16 AM on June 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
Not much to say except to agree with everyone else and say this is an easy one: Go to Seattle, go go go go go. You will get more promotion opportunities. This sounds like an amazing opportunity and you should grab it with both hands.
posted by parm at 11:45 AM on June 30, 2017
posted by parm at 11:45 AM on June 30, 2017
I'm not seeing a downside to the Seattle move here. If you're already a leader at a place with 2500 employees, you're likely to be well-respected and become a leader at the new place too, especially since it sounds like the people who are in the position of hiring you already know you by reputation.
A while back I was faced with the decision to move to a new city where I wanted to live and take a less-senior job vs staying in my then-current city (which I liked well enough) in a job I loved. I took the job, made the move, and whaddya know, I love my new job and my new coworkers AND I love my new city! And I've moved back up in seniority and now make more money than I used to in my old city. Win-win-win.
I'm a big proponent of living where you want to live, because jobs change--the role changes, the people around you change, etc. Unless you have a really, really location-dependent job with very few openings, like you're an orchestra conductor or something, I think you should live where you want to live and find a job that works for you there.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 12:04 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
A while back I was faced with the decision to move to a new city where I wanted to live and take a less-senior job vs staying in my then-current city (which I liked well enough) in a job I loved. I took the job, made the move, and whaddya know, I love my new job and my new coworkers AND I love my new city! And I've moved back up in seniority and now make more money than I used to in my old city. Win-win-win.
I'm a big proponent of living where you want to live, because jobs change--the role changes, the people around you change, etc. Unless you have a really, really location-dependent job with very few openings, like you're an orchestra conductor or something, I think you should live where you want to live and find a job that works for you there.
posted by The Elusive Architeuthis at 12:04 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Take the lateral move - in a larger organization you'll certainly still have opportunity for upward mobility once you're there. Once you're a manager in the smaller org, it may be slightly harder to find lateral moves to the Seattle parent org. (that is, many organizations prefer to hire managers from their pool of individual contributors.) Make sure they are taking into account basic cost of living adjustments to your salary, if possible.
posted by vunder at 12:09 PM on June 30, 2017
posted by vunder at 12:09 PM on June 30, 2017
My son desperately wants to move back to the PNW. So do I.
Unless the management role is life changing amounts of money, do what's best for you and your family. Thirty years from now, whether you went into management or not will probably not be something you reflect back on anywhere near as much as how happy you and your son were together during these years you have together.
I'm not sure how many more chances to to transfer will come along.
You're a leading network security engineer - the world is your oyster for the next five to ten years. Definitely do what you think the right thing is now, but don't worry that you'll be locking yourself into it for the rest of your life. A decent recruiter could get you three genuinely good job leads within a day and if you stay in the current role and regret it, I'll bet that the new parent company would create a new opportunity in order to keep you. Good security people are hard to find and good companies are well aware of that.
posted by Candleman at 1:10 PM on June 30, 2017
Unless the management role is life changing amounts of money, do what's best for you and your family. Thirty years from now, whether you went into management or not will probably not be something you reflect back on anywhere near as much as how happy you and your son were together during these years you have together.
I'm not sure how many more chances to to transfer will come along.
You're a leading network security engineer - the world is your oyster for the next five to ten years. Definitely do what you think the right thing is now, but don't worry that you'll be locking yourself into it for the rest of your life. A decent recruiter could get you three genuinely good job leads within a day and if you stay in the current role and regret it, I'll bet that the new parent company would create a new opportunity in order to keep you. Good security people are hard to find and good companies are well aware of that.
posted by Candleman at 1:10 PM on June 30, 2017
It sounds like a no-brainer to me too, and I'm a person for whom my career is really important (in that it's important to me to have work that is meaningful, to do well at it, and to work with good people). I also made the decision to live in Seattle, which I love, even though it's not nearly as good for my career as the city I used to live in, which I hated, and I don't regret it. It sounds like this move will be a huge net positive for your overall well-being and that of your son.
I was going to mention the housing market aspect too, but Tacoma is not crazy yet, and if you buy in the next couple of years, then you will probably build a lot of equity there as more and more people move there from Seattle. The commute would suck but if you only had to do it once or twice a week it's probably bearable.
One thing - is the big Seattle company that bought your Austin company the really huge, very public acquisition of an Austin company by a Seattle company that was front-page news? If so, I would proceed with a bit of caution. That Seattle company has a rep as a bad employer, but based on friends I have who work there, it really depends on your team. I have some friends who love it and have really grown there. I have other friends who couldn't get out fast enough. So if it is that company, I would really vet the team and especially your supervisor. (Sorry for the vagueness)
posted by lunasol at 1:24 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
I was going to mention the housing market aspect too, but Tacoma is not crazy yet, and if you buy in the next couple of years, then you will probably build a lot of equity there as more and more people move there from Seattle. The commute would suck but if you only had to do it once or twice a week it's probably bearable.
One thing - is the big Seattle company that bought your Austin company the really huge, very public acquisition of an Austin company by a Seattle company that was front-page news? If so, I would proceed with a bit of caution. That Seattle company has a rep as a bad employer, but based on friends I have who work there, it really depends on your team. I have some friends who love it and have really grown there. I have other friends who couldn't get out fast enough. So if it is that company, I would really vet the team and especially your supervisor. (Sorry for the vagueness)
posted by lunasol at 1:24 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: It's not Whole Foods and Amazon. I spent 7 years at WFM as a senior network engineer and I'll never go back and I've seen enough good friends get chewed up by the Amazon beast to know better than to go there.
posted by Annika Cicada at 1:48 PM on June 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Annika Cicada at 1:48 PM on June 30, 2017 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Is it okay if I Oprah this thread and give best answers to everybody?
posted by Annika Cicada at 5:23 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
posted by Annika Cicada at 5:23 PM on June 30, 2017 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: I formally accepted the offer this morning.
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:58 AM on July 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
posted by Annika Cicada at 9:58 AM on July 24, 2017 [2 favorites]
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