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 leaving 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 afraid of owning and sustaining the culture they're trying to instill in people. Will I become a chameleon and accept the status quo? 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!)
I'm also concerned that this is a smaller company, with 1 product line. 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.
But then again, maybe 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 Lean Charlatans that have been there in the past, can say that yeah, it's dumb to do XYZ, so lets apply the things from Lean that do make sense... etc.
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 dont want to waste anyone's time and drive all the way down there if I know it isn't right.
Sorry about the stream of consciousness. Writing it down has helped. I still haven't made a decision. I probably will do the inperson interview, as the practice cant hurt, I suppose.
Thanks
