The initial job wasn't too bad, I enjoyed it and I enjoyed the company culture. It was when they sold to the larger firm and they tried to fuck me over that I didn't like it, and I ended up leaving about a year after that happened. I think I have somewhere between 5-10 years left. Hard to nail it down with so many variables. How much will our spending increase with a kid? How much will it increase or decrease as we get older? What will my salary be? $75k vs $95k is a pretty huge difference and I'll be saving $20k less per year. I feel like I am racing to get to the finish line because having to deal with company acquisitions, and lay offs, company bullshit, and interviews is super stressful and I think that stress would be greatly eliminated if I had achieved lean FIRE. Once we reach that I will likely continue to work to pad the stach so we can afford more luxury, like having a big vacation fund, paying for my sons college education, etc. Or maybe continue to work part time for a little bit, if it's a low stress job, to pad the stach and keep benefits and transition into FIRE.
I'm not going to turn them down because I don't know what else I can get, but I have a lot of interested parties. I was contacted by a recruiter for a position at a different consulting firm, for what sounds like a similar role, but maybe slightly more salary. I also had another consulting firm contact me directly and wants to set up an interview, and that same contact gave me a couple of leads for environmental manager positions that I'm following up with.
I checked online but the salaries listed are all over the map and I don't think they are reliable.
The position itself sounds pretty good, so does the company. But maybe my opinion will change once I'm inside. It sounds like there is the potential for OT at straight time if I want it, but I don't know if I want to work any OT. The whole idea of straight time OT seems like bullshit - they are providing me a whole bunch of expensive benefits along with my salary for the first 40 hours (health, dental, life insurance, HSA with company contribution, 401k w/match) for my total compensation, but if I work OT they aren't providing me with any additional benefits. They are getting a sweet deal to only pay me straight time for OT.
I'm going back for a 2nd interview with the company next week. I assume that the earliest they would present me with an offer could be immediately, and I would likely be able to request time to think about it until the following week, so hopefully I will have a better idea of what my other options are by that point and can make a more informed decision.