It's been a while since I posted, but I read often. Here is my scenario - I really appreciate any advice you have.
I was laid off from my job effective mid-May as they got rid of our entire department at my company. I was very aggressive in my job search and was fortunate to have a couple of offers within three weeks. Of all the companies that I interviewed with, two stood out more than the others. I was lucky to get an offer from one of those two and it was a very attractive offer. I accepted it and started it two weeks ago.
At the same time, the other job that stood out as much as the one I accepted was a week or two behind in the interviewing process. Part of me views the second one a bit more positively and am probably a tad more excited about it. I was fortunate to get an offer from this second company today. The salary is modestly more per year at this second job(not enough to make a difference) but some of the other benefits make this pretty much equal on a benefit vs. benefit comparison.
The second job is with a company that I would be more excited to work for and there are some quality of life benefits that definitely side with the second job - the commute is 10 minutes vs. 25 minutes, we have two young kids and my potential boss has two young kids and she told me how she totally understands what it takes to raise kids and that if one is sick that I don't need to count that as vacation; my current boss at my new company is in her late 40s, has no kids and said that if you are home sick with a child that it counts as a vacation day (not a huge deal for vacation but it does show a difference in mentality).
If I would have received both offers on the same day I probably would have chosen job #2, but here I am two weeks into job #1 and am left with a difficult decision. Do I risk leaving job #1 knowing that I may be burning a bridge and take a job that I will probably be happier at; or do I stick with job #1 and not burn any bridges?
Also, has anyone pre-negotiated a severance package or ever heard of that? One of my concerns is that job #2 that the company could get bought out at some point or I could be a victim of corporate downsizing like I was at my previous job. I was fortunate to get 4 months severance at my previous job and if I were to take job #2, I would like to have a guaranteed severance should one of those two scenarios happen. With a young family, knowing that I would have a healthy severance lets me sleep at night better (yes, we do have six months savings as well) - but I would like to ask job #2 for 4-6 months severance should that happen. It's something that I would negotiate that is not salary and if they are confident in their business it's a benefit they would never have to pay out, but it would be something that I would highly value. I'd take this guaranteed severance over more money.
Any thougts on any of this is much appreciated.
I was laid off from my job effective mid-May as they got rid of our entire department at my company. I was very aggressive in my job search and was fortunate to have a couple of offers within three weeks. Of all the companies that I interviewed with, two stood out more than the others. I was lucky to get an offer from one of those two and it was a very attractive offer. I accepted it and started it two weeks ago.
At the same time, the other job that stood out as much as the one I accepted was a week or two behind in the interviewing process. Part of me views the second one a bit more positively and am probably a tad more excited about it. I was fortunate to get an offer from this second company today. The salary is modestly more per year at this second job(not enough to make a difference) but some of the other benefits make this pretty much equal on a benefit vs. benefit comparison.
The second job is with a company that I would be more excited to work for and there are some quality of life benefits that definitely side with the second job - the commute is 10 minutes vs. 25 minutes, we have two young kids and my potential boss has two young kids and she told me how she totally understands what it takes to raise kids and that if one is sick that I don't need to count that as vacation; my current boss at my new company is in her late 40s, has no kids and said that if you are home sick with a child that it counts as a vacation day (not a huge deal for vacation but it does show a difference in mentality).
If I would have received both offers on the same day I probably would have chosen job #2, but here I am two weeks into job #1 and am left with a difficult decision. Do I risk leaving job #1 knowing that I may be burning a bridge and take a job that I will probably be happier at; or do I stick with job #1 and not burn any bridges?
Also, has anyone pre-negotiated a severance package or ever heard of that? One of my concerns is that job #2 that the company could get bought out at some point or I could be a victim of corporate downsizing like I was at my previous job. I was fortunate to get 4 months severance at my previous job and if I were to take job #2, I would like to have a guaranteed severance should one of those two scenarios happen. With a young family, knowing that I would have a healthy severance lets me sleep at night better (yes, we do have six months savings as well) - but I would like to ask job #2 for 4-6 months severance should that happen. It's something that I would negotiate that is not salary and if they are confident in their business it's a benefit they would never have to pay out, but it would be something that I would highly value. I'd take this guaranteed severance over more money.
Any thougts on any of this is much appreciated.