Job switch? What to do...

[cyrex]

So right now, I'm working doing custom development for a small company. I was the 2nd official full time employee hired at this company about 2 years ago and we have since, doubled 3 times since then. The company is getting bigger and doing better, but slowly. I'm 700 miles from home and my wife and I would like to start a family in the next couple of years. We would really like to be closer to home when that happens.

So, 2 days ago I received an email from a HR recruiter for another custom development company that does more specialized development. This company is a MUCH larger company. Approximately 750 employees. They have a much better benefits package and I think I could probably get about 5k/year more out of them. I'm very confident that I would get a job offer after the interview process finishes and they are willing to hire someone that needs to relocate. The cost of living in this new place is slightly less than it is where I am currently so 5k/yr more there would be like 7k/yr more here . . .

The new city is about 2 hours from home which is much closer than the 12 hours it takes driving from where I currently am. That is close enough to visit my brother, niece, nephew, parents, and all my other relatives a little more often. Also this new city is half the size but still big enough to be well cultered. There is probably a lower crime rate as well.

My wife and I just purchased a house here in November, so moving would be a bitch. She makes about 95% as much as I do so her job makes up half of our money which means she would also need to find a job, but she could easily stay here while we sold the house and for her to have time finding a job.

Anyways does anyone have any opinions?

I'm interested in this new position, but seems like moving after buying the house now would be a bitch and also the uncertainty of my wife finding a job (although she is a very capable accountant)...

 

[cyrex]

anyone?

 

[BrothaBill]

Bueller?

 

[feisty11975]

Sounds to me like your mind is already made up. Do what is best for you and your family. That is all that counts!

 

[nycgirl]

Why would you have to move if the new job is only 2 hours away? I will admit long commutes suck (all my job, except 1 & the new one I start next week. had at least a 90 min commute one way).

 

[cyrex]

no.. the new job is 2 hours away from 'HOME' where I grew up...
from here 'HOME' is 12 hours away...

from here to new place is 10 hours....

if the new thing was only 2 hours from here I wouldn't have even responded to the initial email

 

[digger]

Are you actually doing a ten-hour commute? I'm SO confused.... "home" needs to be where you and your wife live. That will make everything else fall into place.

There are all sort of unconventional approaches you could take. I thought about taking a job two+ hours away -- would have involved buying a mobile home to live in M-F and coming home on weekends. What you're describing doesn't call for that sort of creativity, for which I'm sure you're grateful.

You take the new job; you move close enough to it that the commute is trivial; your wife finds a new job, or perhaps goes into private practice. (Accounting is a good field for that.) You've got a lot of options.

Good luck!

 

[cyrex]

HAHA


OK.
I've been in Tennessee for 2 years..
i grew up in Iowa and lived there all my life until two years ago

the new job opportunity is in Iowa...

My wife doesn't like public accounting she does more stuff like accts payable/billable/bookeeping/auditing type stuff not taxes

 

[cyrex]

Also, I don't want any commute really..
now my drive to work is about 25-45 minutes depending on traffic

back in Iowa the company is in the area of the city that I'd want to live in anyway, i couldn't see it taking more than 20 minutes there also

 

[cyrex]

Are you actually doing a ten-hour commute? I'm SO confused.... "home" needs to be where you and your wife live. That will make everything else fall into place.

There are all sort of unconventional approaches you could take. I thought about taking a job two+ hours away -- would have involved buying a mobile home to live in M-F and coming home on weekends. What you're describing doesn't call for that sort of creativity, for which I'm sure you're grateful.

You take the new job; you move close enough to it that the commute is trivial; your wife finds a new job, or perhaps goes into private practice. (Accounting is a good field for that.) You've got a lot of options.

Good luck!

does EF need any more developers? ;-)

how many people work on the site?

 

[Apexx]

Cyrex,
Something to keep in mind if you move and sell ur home. Not sure where you are in TN, but the home appreciation in many counties is pretty low there. If you just purchased ur home in November, I doubt it's appreciate very much since then. Typical realtors charge 6% for their services and I doubt ur homes value has increased that much since Nov. If ur not carefull, you may end up losing money after the sale when you factor in the closing costs of the purchase plus the 6% realtor fee for selling. If you do sell, try listing it yourself, or working with companies like Help-U-Sell, or Assist-to-Sell. They are just as effective as regular real estate brokers and their fee is typically around 3%.

Good luck with whatever you decide bro

 

[cyrex]

I'm in davidson and actually based on zillow.com It is up about 5k from what it appraised at and we actually bought it with 8k equity. we paid nothing down (seller paid closing costs) so I'm hoping at a worst we don't lose more than 5k on it..

 

[digger]

Capital gains become a problem if you DO make money on real estate you haven't held long enough. Then again, being an absentee landlord is a whole 'nother passel of problems.

(You got mad PHP skillz?)

 

[cyrex]

I got some mad PHP skillz

been doing it for 7 years.. 6 years professionally
zend certification will be complete in a few weeks (not that it means anything, but it looks good on paper).

I've also taught and managed other php programmers ;-)

 

[chewyxrage]

Your wife can find a job anywhere as an accountant Take the new job!


You gotta self-promote. Sucks about the house but you should take this opportunity.

 

[cyrex]

we'll see what happens. I have a phone interview on Friday. Not sure what happens after that if they will want me to come up for an in person interview, take any tests or anything but I'll let ya'll know what happens ;-)


I'm kinda hoping they will ask me to take a brainbench exam for a PHP developer... I actually had to do some of the hiring for the new programmers we hired at my current company and took the test as a benchmark. I scored very well on it in the personality area as far as what they recommend for personality traits for a PHP developer and then in the technical area they tested Math, Reading, PHP, MySQL, and basic programming knowledge.. I aced it all except 1 of the math questions which time expired on BOOO
So if they ask me to take it for this new place I already know some of the answers anyway since we had at least 6 ppl take the test when we were hiring so I saw a large amount of the question pool.