STYLETHREAD -- LET'S TALK SHOP!

Farrah · Marc Jacobs

What would you do?

Hermes

first, I would try to step outside of the situation and ask yourself what would you want to do if you could design your job. what do you love? growth and money are all great, but doing something that is enriching and enjoyable is what matters in the long run (I've been going through a lot of this thinking myself - I'm having a hard time straying from the career track I've been on - I've invested so much time and energy toward it and to ditch it now is scary)

I would continue to talk to the other company. When they extend an offer, approach the current employer, and see what they offer. When you have those two offers on the table, I would list out pros and cons. determine a value of importance for you for each factor, like if money is most important to you, give it a ten -- for example:

income potential - 10
co-workers - 10
advancement - 9
company growth - 6
travel - 7
enjoyment of tasks - 6

at this time, pros and cons could be:

current position pros:

co-workers - 10
travel - 7
enjoyment of tasks - 6

total: 23

potential position pros:

income potential - 10
advancement - 9
company growth - 6

total: 25

you can get really elaborate with your value grading, like some factors having negative points. There are also additional factors such as benefits, vacation time, commute time/costs, etc. I hope it makes sense!

You are young and the position you are currently in sounds enriching and fun - it sounds like it would expand your horizons and give you greater diversification of work experience enabling you to be qualified for all kinds of positions. But, again, you are young and digital is the is the place to be, especially in a company with strong growth potential which can be good in the long run, especially if your heart is set on HR. Then again, you may get pigeonholed in HR and have a hard time breaking out of that profession later.

ETA: this is as link to how to do a decision matrix - it is explained much better here:

http://www.rfp-templates.com/What-is-a-Decision-Matrix.html

-- Edited by D at 11:41, 2006-10-12

atlgirl · Gucci

Just on initial reading of your post, my gut says go with the first one. It's nice to have another skillset (event planning) in your bag of tricks, the travel sounds wonderful - do you have the chance to take some personal days before/during/after those trips to really see the places you'll be visiting? Or is it strictly business?

It sounds like your enthusiasm is high for this current work - maybe it's the novelty, or maybe it's really suited to you. Just remember that companies change; people leave or get promoted or whatever, so I wouldn't wholly base your choice on the "cool people". Would you still enjoy what you are doing - the actual job - if you were working with different people?

I don't know how easy is is to leave / re-enter the HR field, but I'd think that with four years of experience, you'd be able to get another HR job in the future if you wanted. And sometimes it's good to do something that's "better for you" in the short run. At least then you won't regret not having given it a shot.

Best of luck, whatever you decide.