On Choosing
Originally published at Kickin' the new Kuh-nowledge. You can comment here or there.
Today I made a choice. I decided to take a job at Overstock.com instead of One on One. I’m super duper excited about the new job. Who wouldn’t be. I would have been excited about either job, really. Let’s break it down a little…
Overstock offered slightly more money and better benefits. Overstock is closer to my house. The job at Overstock is a defined position within a defined department doing a defined set of tasks. There is variety there, don’t get me wrong… but the idea I’m trying get across is that it’s a job that can and has been described.
One on One offered something a bit more amorphous. However, the offer implied growth, change, potentially greater rewards. The job at One on One is not defined… at all. There are certain things that need to be done and there is the promise of more to come beyond that. As you can see… the two jobs are quite different… even though there are some similarities in tasks.
Here’s the deal… The job at One on One sounded very good. It sounded like it was right up my alley… so why did I balk and jump in the other direction? I had a moment to think about this because One on One called me back after I turned them down.
The real reason I turned the offer down is uncertainty. After a lay off, the last thing you want to hear from a potential employer is that your actual job hasn’t been created yet. While the job at One on One would have likely been more rewarding overall… that level of uncertainty about what I would be doing took the shine off the whole idea. My exact wording was a bit more diplomatic, but that was the gist.
I’ll be honest, if I had been living in Utah longer or if I had been coming from an existing job, I would have gone with One on One… hands down. Right now though, I need something steady and certain in my life. Sure, it’s only been a month of unemployment. But I’m a worker bee at heart. Up until this layoff, I hadn’t really been without a job since the day I turned 16. And the prospect of not having a job… well, it scared me.
So when I was presented with this choice between two very different employers… I decided to take what appears to be the safer route. The thing is… I know it’s not really any safer. There will be challenges at the new job, there will be change, there will be growth, and there will be rewards. I know this… and yet I definitely feel like I might have let that big fish slip my grasp.
I had this feeling before when I took the job at USA TODAY. Back then, the other job was a technical writing position vs. the more technical job at the newspaper. I always thought it was funny that I turned down a writing job to go work at a newspaper where I wouldn’t actually be writing. At any rate, I had a similar feeling back then… like I let something go that I shouldn’t have.
After 12 years at USA TODAY though, I can honestly say I don’t regret it. I learned a lot there, I grew, I saw change on every level and ultimately it was very rewarding. I suspect the same from Overstock… and I’m really looking forward to getting back to work. Having been unemployed… I know one thing for sure. I don’t like it.
If you haven’t heard me say it… thanks to everyone that has sent a word of support. I couldn’t have made it without you. Lots of love!