Hi,
I'm 26 years old, male, live in New Zealand, live with my 27 year old fianc'e (getting married February 2016) and am coming to the end of a two year management program through my employer in a couple of months. We live in rental accommodation and own a seperate investment property together in the same city. We will keep this as a rental and don't plan to live in it.
My employer has three main cities where our large offices are held and there are jobs going in all three that I could potentially take. I have both career and lifestyle decisions that I need to base the choice on. Options are below.
Option A-
- Role is in the same city I live in and is 2km from our current house we live in. This is a huge plus. Position is more sideways step to the career progression I want to head towards, but I've worked with this team before and enjoyed the work and atmosphere. The work is challenging enough to keep me occupied and learning in the role for at least 12 months. After 12 months or so, I can see myself getting restless and wanting to move up another level.
Option B-
- Role is in a city 1.5-2 hours drive away. I would most likely live in this city during the week and then drive back every Friday night to spend the weekend with my to be wife and be able to socialize with family and friends. I would then drive back every Sunday night or Monday morning to go back to work. This role is in our newest office and there are more opportunities to learn, grow and improve my career skillset. This is where our company is putting a lot of resources with talented people and money into.
Option C-
- Role is in the opposite side of the country 2 days drive and 3 hour flight. Myself and my fianc'e would have to relocate everything completely and set up a new life in a new city. We wouldn't know anyone there. We would fly back 1-2 times a year to visit family. This role is the role I've been hoping to get in my current city but there are currently no openings. This wouldn't side track my career and would allow me to move up in the company faster.
I also have to take into account that my fianc'e is likely to get promoted at her work, her family is in our current city and she would be definitely against option C and would prefer option A.
In the near future, roles such as option C would come up in my current city, but the office that has these sorts of roles is rougly 40km away from where we currently live, meaning if I took my dream role, it would mean a 2-2.5 hour daily commute, which I'm obviously not keen on doing. We would potentially move closer to this office, but then we would move equally further away from my fianc'es work at the same time.
I'm trying to balance my career ambitions, living close to work, spending as much time with my future wife and family/friends as possible and not spending hours of time in traffic (which I hate).
Thoughts?
How to balance career and life?