Hi Career_advicers.
I've spoken to a few friends and colleagues about this and not sure I trust the input. So I thought it would be better to advice from reddit. Not sure what that says about my judgement though...
TL;DR; been here 8 years. Feel my soul rotting in a big company, but can make it work for my life. Offer to make 40% more, doing what I like as a hired gun. Need help figuring out what to do
The situation: I'm an IT pro with 20 years exp. Started at my current employer 7-8 years ago, big company. In Canada. You'd know the name. I haven't been happy here for years and definitely feel like I don't fit in. I've had several roles here and basically realized a long time ago that those who succeed/grow here have a certain pathological (to me at least) need to please management, do what they are told (not question/understand it) and give people what they want. Most of the people I work with rarely, if ever, add any meaningful insight to problems/discussions. Accountability is distributed across a group of teams - unless something goes wrong, then it's clearly someone's fault. Because of this, almost anyone can be a stakeholder in a discussion/topic/problem - it's basically impossible to get clear a distinction or boundary of what a team does or does not do. No one ways "that's not my area, I can't help here" - everyone has an answer to every question. In fact, that seems to be critical to advancing - if you have answers to questions (more than "Let me look into it"...), and leadership likes the way you talk/present/work then you get visibility and you get ahead. I think you get the idea...
So, I'm in a high demand part of IT (a niche in the security space) and have lots of job opportunities. I've been pushing for about 3-4 years to build a team/department around my area of focus and have been trying to convince management we need to do something about this (because it's the right thing to do - every org needs to do what I'm talking about. PM me if you want details). My team/area is very slow to budge, won't go after the space entirely (2-3 other teams are doing part of it, all differently, all with their own goals...). I've been repeating/rehashing proposals to build a team for the past 2 years. It seem like we are always one or two meetings away from getting somewhere, but it's a sisyphean task...
What I like: the commute isn't bad, fits my family life. I have lots of flexibility in time and effort (I've learned to dodge things that aren't worth it, can manage expectations so that I can take time off when I want, basically be lazy if I want to be..., which is actually making me feel like I've lost my edge) . My boss is OK, been there 30 years, so embodies all the above traits. Wants to help, see me succeed, but is caught up in the games of the company. I do like working with him cuz I've gotten to know him well and enjoy talking to him. However almost nothing of value to advancing work (I mean getting things done...) every comes from our chats.
Money: The money is about 20-30% less than market right now. Last 6 years I've gotten raises of 1-2 %.
The problem: should i stay or go chase the money? I'm an employee right now and have an offer to do pretty much the job I want as a contractor for a consulting firm. It's a 1 year or longer contract. The role would be dedicated to 1 client, work from home 80% of the time (if not more) and be at least 40% more money (even after I buy insurance,etc to get me up to the same benefits level I have today, although wife has good coverage). From what I can tell, growth prospects shift radically if I take the contracting role - instead of climbing the ladder at a company I'd probably just look for opportunities to earn money, get good exp and build my reputation. This might impact my family life a bit - as the contracts change over time, commuting/travel becomes unpredictable (I would assume) and require constant adjustment. Doable, I think. Also, the reality for me is that I get bored/impatient after being in a role/company for 2 years or more. In the past I've always sought a change (in place or outside) every 2-3 years.
The rub: I had an offer a few months ago, literally the day before my mid-year review. My review was very positive and my boss said he's working on plans to move me up to the next level by end of year (I've been after this for the last 2-3 years... my has known this and been working on it.. allegedly) . At the end, I told him if he wants to keep, he needs to make that happen now. I have an offer that I'm sitting on (described it to him, offered to show it to him even). It was for the above contracting role, but perm. That offer wasn't much better than my current pay, but I'm sure I could have pushed for more. Anyway, my boss surprised me and got me the promotion with a minor bump in pay (as I expected), effective immediately. I thought I would be happy now.... then I met with my new "boss". I have to report to someone different because of level (actually my boss's boss), and the first thing out of his mouth was "I see you took advantage of my illness to make a move..." and "I hope this more than just a retention thing and you'll actually do something". 3 months in, and the whole thing does not feel legitimate. And, as it turns out, this week the other company came back to me saying they would love to have me, want me to reconsider, even pay me as a contractor, how much do I want?
So do I stay and slog it out, find happiness elsewhere, save my pennies or do I go for the money, do "real work", and take my chances in the market?
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