Career Questions... Risks, Pros & Cons?

[Vasiliki]

Good morning,

I'm back again for some 'therapy'. Or, rather, for your opinions, thoughts and possibly experiences. Been here before with a few subjects and you guys were awesomely helpful. So maybe you can give me some outside opinions on this.

Basically, I am currently at a cross roads where I feel I have to choose a direction pretty quickly. And that cross road is in the job field. Where I live, jobs aren't scarce, but they do require certain levels of experience. I am focusing on an office career at this point.

Currently I work as a Receptionist for a large oil pipeline supply company. I do multiple tasks, work unsupervised for the most part and have lots of unique projects I deal with everyday. I enjoy my job immensely, mostly due to the people I work with, my really great bosses and social environment. As well as being able to work at my own speed.

However, this has come at a price. I have to drive 1 hour to work, and 1 hour home from work every day through downtown traffic. I live on the North side. My job is on the South side. And there is only one main road that can take me home. If it's blocked off or an accident, I have no alternative routes. So there are some days when I'm 2-3 hours getting home.

I notice that these 2 hours I'm lacking in the day is putting stress on my home life, simply because I feel like I have no time to myself anymore. I leave for work, work, come home after stupid traffic, clean up and I maybe get an hour every day to do my thing. And most of that is cleaning up after the critters, which is fine.

So here is my dilemma. I feel like I have a few options here, and with the prospect of wanting to get into a mortgage in the next 3-4 years looming, I feel I need to make this choice sooner rather than later.

Choice 1: In order to make my commute seem worth it, I want to be making more money. I have offers on the table from two departments, Sales and Operations. Both would include a pay increase. Both would also include a workload increase, a difficulty increase, a responsibility increase and a general more 'serious' role.

Choice 2: I can start to look for an alternative position in the North side of my city similar to the one I'm doing now. This is more high risk, as I have no idea what I'd be getting into as far as environment goes. This would involve taking a paycut (to the tune of around $4/hr), but I would eventually be able to work up back to where I am now. Hopefully.

Choice 3: Or, I could stay with my current employer, transfer to the Sales side of things, get my 'experience', and then eventually start looking for a Sales position in the North side with a different employer. But, I am not sure how long it would take me to get into the Sales position (typically they start everyone out as a Sales Assistant and you work up from there). There is also the fact that I know I'd be using this company simply for experience, with no long term plans to stay with them.

Basically, my worry is for the next 3-4 years when we start to work on getting our house sorted. We are wanting an acreage, so if we do find a place, there is a risk I'll be even further away from my current job where I'm at now.

So I am leaning towards staying here, trying for Sales, getting experience and then eventually switching to a different Sales company later. But, I am apprehensive about it and wondering if that sounds like a reasonable plan?

Or should I try to switch to a different company now and climb that corporate ladder? Or stay here, climb here, get my experience here and then switch to another company with all the tools I gained?

Right now my other half makes the majority of our income, so I'm not worried about the immediate future. I'm worried about our long-term goals. I want to be set-up in a stable career with enough experience and tools that I can move up, can start making more to support us and our lifestyle a bit better and generally look at making a more stable life for us as we start to take on more bills.

I'm not freaking out just yet, but I feel like this is a pretty big jump. I love my job right now, but it's not going to get me to the point I need to be at in a few years. I did get a fairly large raise this year, which helped, but I'm worried that those will taper off and this position will eventually hold me back.

So, if you were in a position that paid well for now, but required 2 hours more out of each day and might not allow you to buy the house you want in a few years.... What would you do, if you were in my shoes?

[Mike41793]

I would NOT look for a job in North Side right now and take a $4/hr pay cut. You posted a thread very recently about worrying about your finances between you and your bf, so i doubt that would help that situation. Yes, you would have more time. But with the extra free time you'd be worrying about money. I would try and get a sales or operations promotion at your current job and then once you get experience in that look for a sales position closer to home. Or closer to where you guys plan to buy a home. How close is your bf's job to home?

[Vasiliki]

I would NOT look for a job in North Side right now and take a $4/hr pay cut. You posted a thread very recently about worrying about your finances between you and your bf, so i doubt that would help that situation. Yes, you would have more time. But with the extra free time you'd be worrying about money. I would try and get a sales or operations promotion at your current job and then once you get experience in that look for a sales position closer to home. Or closer to where you guys plan to buy a home. How close is your bf's job to home?

Thankfully, my other half and I sorted out the difference in our pay and he is actively contributing more to the household stuff, so that has taken a lot of pressure off. But obviously the idea of a pay cut is HUGE and something I want to greatly avoid.

My boyfriend's job to home is all highway, so it takes him 20 minutes to get to work on average. Sometimes less. However, if we were looking for a place where we are wanting, it would put his communte at 10 minutes.

I am leaning towards that option as well. I'm just really nervous about making that kind of a jump. I've never worked Sales before, so it's a daunting idea. But I'm sure I could do it, given a bit of luck and determination. So that's definitely where I'm leaning towards.

The other slight downside to this (it's somewhat minor, I suppose) is that getting a job in Sales is good, but I'd be working mostly with pipe and oilfield hardware. The North side of town doesn't typically have anything oilfield related. It's all on the South side. So if I were to transfer, it would be to a completely different division of Sales. Does that generally matter, or is Sales experience Sales experience? Anyone familiar with that?

[el8ch]

I if I were in your shoes...

I would probably stay with my current employer and try to increase my tenure and knowledge by switching roles to something with a higher pay level or to a position that could possibly fast track you or put you in a position of visibility. There is nothing wrong about actively seeking a better position outside of your current employer, but in the interim I would put in the extra effort to advance in the organization you are already in.

In terms of sales... Sales is all about confidence, strategy and product knowledge. If you are confident in yourself and your communication abilities you are ahead of the game already. Strategy will change depending on your target area, but once you have established a strategy or game plan you can take this knowledge and use it in any sales based position. All you will be doing is tweaking your personal strategy to fit the product and the buyer. Product Knowledge will come with experience. You can never know too much about your organization or it products/services. The one thing I stress, improvising on the spot is key, but never mislead the product/service you are selling. If you don't know the answer advise the client you will find out.

Good luck in whatever decision you make!

[Vasiliki]

I if I were in your shoes...

I would probably stay with my current employer and try to increase my tenure and knowledge by switching roles to something with a higher pay level or to a position that could possibly fast track you or put you in a position of visibility. There is nothing wrong about actively seeking a better position outside of your current employer, but in the interim I would put in the extra effort to advance in the organization you are already in.

In terms of sales... Sales is all about confidence, strategy and product knowledge. If you are confident in yourself and your communication abilities you are ahead of the game already. Strategy will change depending on your target area, but once you have established a strategy or game plan you can take this knowledge and use it in any sales based position. All you will be doing is tweaking your personal strategy to fit the product and the buyer. Product Knowledge will come with experience. You can never know too much about your organization or it products/services. The one thing I stress, improvising on the spot is key, but never mislead the product/service you are selling. If you don't know the answer advise the client you will find out.

Good luck in whatever decision you make!

That was hugely informative. You have my sincere thanks for that. It gave me a moment to stop and really ask myself if I have those qualifications and could handle it... And realizing that I kind of already do. I manage switchboard for the company already, and deal with clients daily. The communicating part is easy. It's the product knowledge I'm unfamiliar with. But, that's a learned skill, so it actually doesn't seem so daunting once you put it that way. It comes with experience. I can't possibly know it prior. But I can go into it with some tools already.

Hm. That makes the most sense out of these options.