Author Topic: Possible new job - Am I afraid of change, or is it not a good fit?  (Read 1200 times)

ncornilsen

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Hi,

I've been low-key looking for a new job closer to my wifes family, which is about a hour from my family. We agreed to wait for a good opportunity, not to leap at the first thing available.

It's been slim pickings for something that pays well enough, matches my skills, and is in the Wife's Family Area. (WFA)

A recruiter randomly messaged me on linked in about a job that's close to my family. We could live in an area about 1 hour from her Mom and her Dad, but the job is about another half hour away from her family.  This is closer but not ideal, as I have little ties to my hometown, my parents are super busy with their lives and it's hard to say how much more involvement we'd have from them or help with our 5 month old.  Her family has members that work part time, primarily, and would reduce our daycare bill and be super involved.

All of that is to say that the location is better than where we are now, but would probably be far enough from my Wifes family that we wouldn't get that network of involvement we're looking for. She has stated she would almost rather stay in Portland. she says if its something I'll love or will advance my career and I'd excel at it, then she'll make that move with me, though.

For the job itself, I think I could get a small raise (I'm massively overpaid for what I do, so I don't expect a pay bump and am going to use the LCOL as our "raise.") benefits and such seem good enough, and there's a large relocation package.  I'm not worried about this part.

currently I'm at a company that is growing rapidly, has billions in sales that we could capture if we had capacity (as our competitors are failing to meet quality requirements) and I'm on the team that's growing our plant to capture that. I find that I'm bogged by alot of legacy projects that I support that the appropriate owners are doing a good job of dodging ownership of, which sucks, and I'm plagued by a reputation from my earlier career of being an asshole. One of my weaknesses is that I am a chameleon to my surroundings - our culture was pretty toxic in those days, and I was a good example of it. I've reinvented myself as that leadership team left and things changed here...My boss and numerous people have said this. I'm not worried about my job here going away. I'm not itching to leave my job, in a word.

As for the new job, it's doing what I do now (capital projects) to a smaller extent, but also owning their continuous improvement culture, and managing some direct reports. I'm not afraid of direct reports... I've had them before and have been effective. I'm aprehensive of owning and sustaining the 'lean' culture as they describe it.  I'm not an expert in Continuous improvement/Lean/6 Sigma,though i am familiar with it and use some of the tools I've found effective. I'm concerned I'd be not expert enough in it to articulate the principles well enough to win over skeptics... and in the past, changing a culture has not been something I've been effective at. (our millwrights are STILL using impact wrenches on sensitive vacuum pumps, despite training, warnings, demonstrated success and improved up time from properly torquing the bolts!) The question in my mind, is will I become a chameleon and accept the status quo?

But then again,  I can take some classes and read some books to brush up on it... then I can be the guy who can commiserate with the employees who have dealt with the charlatans that have been there in the past, can say that yeah, some aspects of lean don't make sense here, so lets apply the things from Lean that do make sense... etc. 

I'm also concerned that this is a smaller company, with 1 product line. (they're part of a larger company, however)  They've been here a while, and this location weathered 2008... but I have apprehension about anything related to the housing and construction industry, as boom/bust as it has been.

I don't know. Part of me is afraid of change. Part of me is afraid of having my wife resent moving near my home town instead of hers when she isn't seeing her parents as much as she wants. I want to push through irrational fear into new challenges and growing... but I'm finding it tough to tell if this is fear, or intuition saying "This isn't right for you."

There is no offer on the table yet. They want to do an inperson interview... and I don't want to waste anyone's time and drive all the way over there if I know it isn't right.

This was definitely a stream of consciousness thing... but writing it down has helped. I still haven't made a decision. I probably will do the in person interview, as the practice can't hurt, I suppose.

Thanks!

Linea_Norway

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Re: Possible new job - Am I afraid of change, or is it not a good fit?
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2019, 01:16:34 AM »
Headhunters can also be described as overhead hunters. Don't just feel flattered, because you are called by a headhunter. Sometimes they just look for job adds that are out there and are not hired by the company itself.

Your big company sounds like a place where you have options to grow, or change to another department internally. It also sounds like a safe employer.

I think you should work towards the goal of improving the life situation for yourself and your wife. This means moving or finding a job that is closer to your MILs rather than moving further away from them. If your wife is doing the majority of the childcare (you don't explicitly write this), then this is very important for her well being.
If this job opportunity is not bringing you closer to your final goal, I wouldn't take this job. Instead of waiting until you get head hunted again, maybe you should actively make a list of possible employers who bring you closer to your goal and then work actively on building a network and getting hired there.

mm1970

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Re: Possible new job - Am I afraid of change, or is it not a good fit?
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2019, 10:58:39 AM »
Go for the interview.

You literally cannot say it's a waste of time until you go.  That's the whole point of an interview.  You are interviewing THEM as much as they are interviewing YOU.