Today Sarah and I devote the bulk of the Best of Both Worlds podcast to my new book, Juliet’s School of Possibilities. We talk through how I came to write this book and her reaction to reading it. We talk through some of the major plot points (without giving too much away!) and how we can learn to “choose well” in our own lives. We hit on whether Riley is a quintessential Millennial, whether she’s an “obliger” (and that’s part of the problem…) and the obligation to push back against impossible expectations.
Then, in the question section, we handle a dilemma from a listener who is jumping back into the traditional workforce after a period of self-employment. She has two job offers (itself a very good thing!) One is her old company, which wanted her back on the same terms and seniority she left. It’s flexible, she has a lot of vacation days, etc. The other company is more unknown, and she’d be new in the ranks, but seems like it has a lot more potential for growth (and excitement). So…what should she do?
We note that job offers are seldom take-it-or-leave-it things. Her responsibility is now to negotiate with each of these organizations to make sure that either job she takes has all of what she wants. Is the unknown offering more money? Time to go back to her old job and mention that she’s going to need to be paid more than she was before. Is the old job offering more vacation? Time to go to the new company and say listen, you need to match this. You are never in a better position than when a company has made you an offer, so be sure to ask for whatever would make it hard for you to say no!
Please let us know what you’d tell our listener. And please do check out Juliet!
It was a pleasant surprise to see your book “magically” appear on my Kindle this morning after pre-ordering it a while back. Looking forward to reading it! Hope you get to do something fun and celebratory today 🙂
I’m reading All the Money in the World right now and am really enjoying it. I like reading about personal finance, but am guilty of the “scarcity mentality” (my Mom was the SAHM coupon cutter type and it rubbed off on me, probably not in a good way!). Even though I’m in a salaried position in a corporate job, I like the shift in mindset that I likely do have the ability to earn more, which seems harder than simply cutting the dining out budget, but in reality, it’s probably easier than I think – and a lot more fun.
@Sara- so glad you’re enjoying All the Money in the World! I keep hoping that will start to sell a few more copies 🙂 Even if you are salaried, there are ways to make more money. One is just through advancement and getting raises — moving up a promotion by a year by putting more concerted effort into it could certainly top the amount you’d save that year from coupons. Or there are always side hustles — they can be time pits but can be done wisely too.
Sarah’s idea about a Netflix series is great! I would definitely watch it or read a book of case studies where you addressed the time management needs of specific families.
@Nancy – well, maybe the right person will hear the podcast!
I was in a similar situation about 2 years ago, but without the second (new) job offer. I had an offer to go back to a company I had previously worked for, after a period of consulting. I negotiated HARD to get a significant increase in pay from when I left that company 4 years earlier. I wasn’t able to negotiate a higher level, despite having additional work experience, which was a bummer, and was offered my seniority which came with a set amount of vacation (and a window office!), but knew that the pay/signing bonus/stock was where there was some “give”. I used my consulting pay rate to justify the increase (I was taking a significant pay cut looking at just salary alone) and also negotiated one day a week working from home at the same time 🙂 I was happy with the new salary and got an even bigger surprise when a few months in, they reclassified my role from “business” to “engineering” and I got an additional increase without asking for it. Given that all future raises/bonuses etc are calculated on salary, I try to get as much of an increase as I can going in. I honestly don’t really care about my title/level that much in comparison, as long as the work is interesting.