There are many reasons that can play a part on whether an employee should stay with the company or move on to his or her next role in another company. Based on Davenport, having the right career is important as we tend to spend at least one-third of our entire lives in the workforce (precisely why I guess I'm seeking financial freedom?). In his book, he mentions that the right career is a positive, productive and natural extension to your value system and your natural talents.
Readers of my blog would probably know that I was recently contemplating a move for a new role in one of the REITS industry which I was offered. There were intially some terms in the contract which I was not very comfortable at the beginning but after a few rounds of negotiation, we managed to come up to reach a consensus. Bottomline - I decided to take up the role.
Just like many others, I weighed in both the advantages and disadvantages when considering the option both qualitatively and quantitatively. I used a few metrics which I thought was crucial to me at the point of consideration - Salary, Learning, Career Growth, Change and Bosses.
1.) Salary
At this stage of my career, the salary factor still plays an important factor in my consideration for a change as I continue to need them to fund my family's increasing expenses. The fact that I have yet to attain a financial freedom status means that the money could also be used to fund my portfolio or anything else for that matters.
The new job offered was a 10% increase to what I currently earned at my current company. That looks like a good start.
2.) Learning
There were probably little learning curve I had left with my current role in my current company. To be fair, this was a typical scope an accountant would face in any company - reporting, closing, accruals, budgeting, forecasting...repeat.repeat.repeat. So I wouldn't point finger on anything on anyone for this.
The new job can perhaps offered a different set of learning something new at this point. Being a Reits investor myself, it will be interesting to learn about the "inside" of how a Reits company actually operates and how the management makes certain decision. Also, since the company is listed in Singapore, there will be regulations that the company had to comply. These will all be new things for me.
3.) Career Growth
To be fair, this is the part that I struggled most with when making the consideration.
If I look over the horizon of 5-10 years, I feel it would be more beneficial for me to stay put and slogged for that 5 to 10 years horizon. The progression by then would be immensely critical. On the other hand, Reits is more of a niche industry and they are set up such that their structure within a team is small and simple. Remember, the bigger the team is, the higher the overhead and this leads to a lower DPU for the unitholders (Ouch!!!). That leaves room for upward progression really scarce.
However, if I were to think of just working for the next 6 years (until I'm 35 as planned), then I guess it doesn't really matter to climb the top. I would have reached my version of "peak" one day.
4.) Change/Environment
The working hours (9 to 5.30 Mon to Thurs and 9-5 for Fri) and environment in my current company are good. For one, I can leave mostly on time.
I would be the first to admit that "Change" is uncomfortable for the most part of the first few months almost for everyone. New role, new friends, new seats, new lunch partners, etc can be a detering experience for some but one which we had to deal with.
5.) Bosses
Last but not least, how bosses treat their employees will be an important aspect of employee happiness in a company.
At my current company, the bosses are good to me and for the past 2 years they have been my lunch partners so I guess I can fit with them.
I won't say about the new bosses but hopefully they will not be hard to deal with either.
There has been many moments like this when we say perhaps let's wait another year to see the situation how things are progressing before making the dive and I guess we are all guilty of that (I blogged about ways to overcome the "One More..." syndrome recently). Since life is short, I think we should try not to overthink and let the heart runs its course. After all, with these 2 choices, how bad can it goes even if things go wrong?
Have you experienced of such situation where you have thought very hard about choices and finally came up to a decision? How do you feel?
