Go figure after I plan to leave...need opinions.

[chaos70]

Okay...so I pretty much gave up on working here in Seattle. I had made most of my arrangements to leave after the weekend back to Atlanta. So today, I get a twist. Give me some thoughts because I'm kinda of conflicted.

 

Atlanta - grew up there...friends and family are there. And I'm in the running for a marketing managers position with a great company with a great salary that is annual. Everyone wants me to come home in order to heal...and many have offered to stay with them rent free until I get on my feet.

 

Seattle - moved here because wife got transferred. Haven't found real work for past 5 months. W wants a D now. Moved out to my own place but money is tight. But I came here with my own career goals in mind as well. Just got a call at a really good company for a contract position that is close to the pay that the one I'm in the running for. Have phone interview in two hours. But have no friends here and stxw is here.

 

Both are similiar to pay...one is hourly...the other annual.

So if you were in my shoes (and I do NEED $) which would you do?

[Craig]

Family + friends + emotional support + healing + plus prospect of job positions at similar pay + lower cost of living has me leaning towards Atlanta.

[ImaManDammit]

Go home bro. Seattle hasn't been kind to you. I understand that you had some goals set when you went out there, and it feels like you're giving up.

 

There is never any shame when reveiwing your goals and decisions and realizing that you need to shuffle them and reprioritze.

[RecordProducer]

Your post sounds like you want to go to Atlanta cuz you named many valid reasons pro Atlanta and practically no reason to stay in Seattle. Personally, when I think of the weather in Seattle (never been there though) I would choose Atlanta. But I think there is something that connects you to Seattle more than money? Because the choice seems so obvious yet you seek advice. Is it your wife? Would you rather work on your marriage if you got a good job in Seattle?

If yes then you should talk to her and see if she is willing to work on it too. It takes two to tango. In any case, if the marriage is already broken then do what you feel like doing combined with what seems best. Sometimes the best things don't happen when you expect them to happen cuz all the odds are on your side.

Do you have any children?

[soccorsilly]

What line of work? I might be able to recommend a place that is growing in the telecom field in Seattle

[chaos70]

To answer RecordProducer - No kids, just a sick 5 year old beagle which I will keep. My desire (as odd as I find it now) is yes to work out in conseling with W. But she isn't even waltzing let alone tangoing. She wants to "find herself" first. And that's a whole different thread...

To answer soccorsilly - I may take you up on that offer.

 

I came to Seattle with a dream of working with "the big dawg" (I think you can guess who the dawg is). Working for an agency for 8 years was rewarding because of the different clients, but there was a part of me that wanted to make a difference on the client side rather telling/showing/doing it for them in short term projects. Impact so to speak. I felt that my next career path was marketing manager. Granted it was combined that my stbxw got a promotion to here, but even that aside...I wanted it/tasted it/desired to work for this company before I even met her. Even with that relationship in the crapper heading toward D with no desire on her end to even work on it, I could have just as easily went home 6 weeks ago and fly back if an opportunity did present itself.

 

My ties to Atlanta are beyond just family and friends. Part of my soul is tied to it. I was reviewing some of my old work from the agency and found a video I helped make for a golf community. When I saw their marketing video, I cringed because the beauty of the video shots didn't flow well with Scotish music in the background. So I brokered a deal to use Ray Charles - Georgia on my mind as part of the background music and it clicked amazingly. Just that change alone increased their sales by 168%. So as I watched it, trying to "find myself" being down about not finding full-time work here. I found that I missed it all. The slow moving Chattahoochie, Stone Mountain, southern hospitality, biscuits, Blue Ridge Mountains, Savannah's Gold Coast Isles, all the lakes, the antebellum houses from the Civil War, and the farms of middle Georgia where I grew up. Not because my marriage was in the tubes. No matter what beauties and wonders of the world I've seen from Kenya, Zambia, Egypt, England, Brazil, India, Russia...something in me is tied to land that is Georgia and Atlanta.

 

 

Tale of the tape.

 

Atlanta job

- home where my heart and soul is

- annual pay with 10% bonus guaranteed (2x my previous salary)

- cost of living is less

- company is well off and quite well known...extremely low chance at any layoffs for years.

- friends and family there.

 

 

Seattle job

- where my dreams led me

- hourly pay with OT which is equal to said job above

- new adventures and beauty

- the company will NEVER go under and after a year, I can transfer to any division in any city that has similiar position available.

- stbxw is there

 

So an update. They called, the phone interview went extremely well. They want a formal interview on Monday. I requested soon because I told them I was planning to go back to Atlanta "to visit" and wanted to book tickets. If this goes well on Monday, they will confirm the offer they informally told me today. I will do the formal interview with the company that wants me in Atlanta and if I have letter of intent, see what they say...may give me the edge over the other two people I'm in the running against. And see what my heart and soul says in the end. But if big dawg wants an answer right then, I may take it. Neither is a lock...yet and who knows...both may not materialize.

 

Right now as I listen to Ray Charles, I know if both wanted me...I would take the Atlanta job over the big dawg. I wanted to sleep on it and see if my thoughts change.

[chaos70]

Well I seem to have knocked the socks off at "big dawg" today. They had no reservations and were very impressed. That's good, I hope to have a firm answer to acceptance by tomorrow.

The one in Atlanta...not so good. HR person was impressed, but the VP marketing wants someone with longer experience. HR person is trying to arrange for a web analyst position for me to try because he was impressed at what I can bring to table.

 

Not exactly the answers I hoped for, but if big dawg comes a barking...I will come stepping.

[chaos70]

The good news is that big dawg hired me officially. Got the dream job I wanted, and with all the chaos I've endured for the past year...this is the best I've felt in that time. SWEET!

And to think, I was 12 hours from leaving here...now I'm staying in Seattle.

[westernxer]

Congrats... any minute now she'll come crawling back.

[chaos70]

Dude, I wouldn't doubt it...and if she did...the door is closed.

I'm riding a high right now that you couldn't believe.

[westernxer]

Rock on, buddy!

[sarah12]

Congrats!!

 

Many of my friends are working at that unmentionable mentionable place, and they are being treated like royalty. I'm glad you've decided to say, and like you said, you can always move after you've worked there.

Pretty much anyone with a brain would hire you if you wanted to move back to Atlanta after working at the 'big dawg'.

[chaos70]

Well, I still in dash status but after 4 month...based on the dept head, I would be FTE. Once that is done, I can move freely to the satellite office in Atlanta.