Career Advice

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Ok, so those who have known me long enough know I am pretty much the luckiest SOB when it comes to my job. Great pay, great benefits, plenty of overtime, and it keeps me in touch with cops so I can get away with everything. Plus I have a lot of leeway with regards to hours and so on. Basically it's my dream job.

However, I recently got offered a job running a metallurgical lab. It's a pretty big dip in pay (from $31 an hour to $24). Health plan isn't as good either, and I almost certainly won't be able to get away with all the shit I pull at my current job. Absolutely won't be able to have liquid lunches or get paid to go to gun shows. But it IS a management position, in a field I love, and this is just the start.

The biggest reason I love my job is my boss. But he's in his 70's now, and while still in good shape, he's likely to die. If that happens, one of three things will happen. The company will just fold and all the assests sold off. Or it'll be bought up by one of the larger businesses in the area. Or, and this is the worst possible option for me, his dick face son will take over. We pretty much hate each other, so I'd either get fired, or lose all the perks about the job that I love.

Also, it's pretty physically exhausting. I mean, I'm 25 and in good shape, but I can feel my years catching up to me already. And watching my dad, who has done nothing but trades for 40 years, take 30 minutes to tie his shoes, is a pretty sobering experience. If I go to the lab, I won't be doing anything more physical than my current stretch as a mod.

Anyways, I was hoping some of the more seasoned workers here might offer me some advice.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

We were sent to this world by a cruel God to suffer and to die.

 

[BRUTALITOPS]

so basically this new job is all about hedging your bets.

It's all about long term vs. short term. I think this new job you are talking about might suck in the short term, suck for maybe 5 years or so, but in the long run it seems better suited for you (based on your description of not wanting to be physically worn down, or risk getting fucked by dickhead son).

Keep in mind, your current boss doesn't even have to die, he might just get sick or tired and want to finally step back from the business. That could come up sooner than you might predict, given he's 70. You never know.

Besides, given that you are still young, you can probably afford the hit. You don't have kids right now to put through college or anything like that. You've already talked about how you have a big chunk of disposable income. If you are going to be taking job risks in your life now is the time to be doing it.

 

[Dixie - In Memoriam]

Ok, so those who have known me long enough know I am pretty much the luckiest SOB when it comes to my job. Great pay, great benefits, plenty of overtime, and it keeps me in touch with cops so I can get away with everything. Plus I have a lot of leeway with regards to hours and so on. Basically it's my dream job.

However, I recently got offered a job running a metallurgical lab. It's a pretty big dip in pay (from $31 an hour to $24). Health plan isn't as good either, and I almost certainly won't be able to get away with all the shit I pull at my current job. Absolutely won't be able to have liquid lunches or get paid to go to gun shows. But it IS a management position, in a field I love, and this is just the start.

The biggest reason I love my job is my boss. But he's in his 70's now, and while still in good shape, he's likely to die. If that happens, one of three things will happen. The company will just fold and all the assests sold off. Or it'll be bought up by one of the larger businesses in the area. Or, and this is the worst possible option for me, his dick face son will take over. We pretty much hate each other, so I'd either get fired, or lose all the perks about the job that I love.

Also, it's pretty physically exhausting. I mean, I'm 25 and in good shape, but I can feel my years catching up to me already. And watching my dad, who has done nothing but trades for 40 years, take 30 minutes to tie his shoes, is a pretty sobering experience. If I go to the lab, I won't be doing anything more physical than my current stretch as a mod.

Anyways, I was hoping some of the more seasoned workers here might offer me some advice.

First let me say that your 70 year old boss is most definitely going to die, I can guarantee that will happen, it's not just 'likely' it will happen, it's a sure thing. Probably before he dies, he will retire, as most people do. In any event, he will not be your boss for much longer. As I read it, you have a pretty nice gig, and you like your boss, but you are concerned with your future because you realize this deal won't last forever.

So you now have this other opportunity, which is a significant cut in pay, but a better title. The thing is, you still don't know what your relationship will be with your new boss, anymore than you know what your relationship would be under a new boss at your current job, except for the son, who you don't get along with. But now... getting along with people and performing your job to the expectation of an employer are two different things. I don't know what value you bring to your company, or if you're a total fuck off. So I can't really determine how a new boss might view you as an employee, you should make that determination on your own. If you think you do a good job and provide an asset to the company, I wouldn't worry much about a new boss, they will realize the value you bring to the table, regardless of personal feelings. If you think you've been coasting or getting by on your likeability with the old boss, and you're pretty much 'dead weight' the company could do without, it might be time for you to jump ship. But then, you can't really expect to develop a good relationship with a new employer if you are a fuck off.... so there's that.

The biggest thing here, however, is that you were compelled to bring this to JPP. This means you probably already know what you should do, you are just looking for someone to talk you out of it. I have had only one experience like this, where I gave up a good job... dream job... for an opportunity which seemed better in the long run, but it never materialized, and I would have been MUCH better to have stayed with the old job. Within two years, I was unemployed, the company folded, and, of course, the old company had long-since replaced me and moved on, so.... I was screwed.

Sometimes the grass just LOOKS greener on the other side.

 

[Mott the Hoople]

Ok, so those who have known me long enough know I am pretty much the luckiest SOB when it comes to my job. Great pay, great benefits, plenty of overtime, and it keeps me in touch with cops so I can get away with everything. Plus I have a lot of leeway with regards to hours and so on. Basically it's my dream job.

However, I recently got offered a job running a metallurgical lab. It's a pretty big dip in pay (from $31 an hour to $24). Health plan isn't as good either, and I almost certainly won't be able to get away with all the shit I pull at my current job. Absolutely won't be able to have liquid lunches or get paid to go to gun shows. But it IS a management position, in a field I love, and this is just the start.

The biggest reason I love my job is my boss. But he's in his 70's now, and while still in good shape, he's likely to die. If that happens, one of three things will happen. The company will just fold and all the assests sold off. Or it'll be bought up by one of the larger businesses in the area. Or, and this is the worst possible option for me, his dick face son will take over. We pretty much hate each other, so I'd either get fired, or lose all the perks about the job that I love.

Also, it's pretty physically exhausting. I mean, I'm 25 and in good shape, but I can feel my years catching up to me already. And watching my dad, who has done nothing but trades for 40 years, take 30 minutes to tie his shoes, is a pretty sobering experience. If I go to the lab, I won't be doing anything more physical than my current stretch as a mod.

Anyways, I was hoping some of the more seasoned workers here might offer me some advice.

Well your thinking is right that you can't do hard labor forever and that money isn't the be all.

My advice is to go where you're going to get the best combination of experience and mentoring. If the metalurgical lab job, even a manager or supervisors position, is doing QC sample and analysis work it would be good experience but get the hell out after no more than two years. It's a dead end career path but you can learn a lot of value. At this stage of your career mentoring is as important, if not more so, than the quality of experience you're getting. I'd advise looking carefully at the Lab Job. If there is opportunity for mentoring under a top notch engineer or production manager in that position that will lead to your going back into operations in an engineering or management capacity than go for it. You'll get a lot of opportunities to learn many skills and move up the food chain. If the lab job lacks that opportunity then the lab work will boil down to learning 20 or 50 or 100 test methods and then doing them over and over and over and over again till you have developed very refined technique and that's probably what you'd be doing for the rest of your career. That kind of experience is good....but you don't want to make a career out of it. If it dovetails in with your current academic studies then it's a good move. As a career in itself I wouldn't advise it. You'll be making less money and you'll be bored to death inside of two years.

 

[Cancel 2016.2]

I hate to say these words, but I agree with Mutt. Make sure there are other opportunities attached to the new job before taking it.

 

[Rationalist]

How quickly would you be able to climb up to your current pay? Last year I took a pay cut to take another job (for similar reasons - it was a more well-rounded position), but I had an understanding with the new boss that I would be increased to above my old job's pay after a year, depending on performance. They kept their promise.

For what it's worth, my cousin worked in a metallurgical lab and really liked it (before he became a drug addict and lost everything, but I digress).

 

[Mott the Hoople]

How quickly would you be able to climb up to your current pay? Last year I took a pay cut to take another job (for similar reasons - it was a more well-rounded position), but I had an understanding with the new boss that I would be increased to above my old job's pay after a year, depending on performance. They kept their promise.

For what it's worth, my cousin worked in a metallurgical lab and really liked it (before he became a drug addict and lost everything, but I digress).

I've done lab work a number of times in my carreer. It's excellent experience, you learn a lot of problem solving skills and you'll learn how to evaluate and analyize data. Good experience that will serve you well down the road but I wouldn't do analytical or QC lab work for more than a couple of years. Now if the lab work is production related, that is you're developing products in the lab and engineering them to meet production requirements and commercial product specifications then that's a good career path. Particularly if you're doing patentable work.

In my career I started out as a QC lab tech for a pharmacuetical company. They were so paranoid about their intelectual property that we weren't allowed to work in production operations. The only hope for advancement was to become the lab manager and it was a dead end from there. Still I learned how to do wet bench chemistry, I checked off on an assortment of high level instrumentation (UV/Vis spectroscopy, HPLC, Electrophoresis, Densitometry). After two years of that with no opportunity for advancement I left and entered the environmental field.

I spent two years as a production operator then was transfered to our corporate office where I mentored under some top notch guys. I became an assistant project manager and to help generate revenue I set up an instrumental lab to to waste related environmental testing. There I learned GC/MS, XRF & Atomic Abosrbtion. I also did a lot of work assisting our engineers in product and process development. From there I was promoted to a project managers position which I filled for a couple of years.

My next bout in a lab was at Ohio State as a research assistant. There I learned a ton but the pay sucked but it was worth it. After 2.5 years of that I was promoted to QC Manager and transfered to our production facility. What I had learned in the lab gave me an ability to analyze data, draw conclusion based on the data and test those conclusion in the production environment.

I haven't worked in a lab for almost 15 years now but it was great training and experience....it's just not where the money is.....but you can use what you learn there to go out and make pretty good money. I can't express strongly enough how important mentoring is. If they're going to toss you to the wolves in a swim or drown environment don't do it. I'm sure you'd do fine at the job but it's a strong indicator that you won't recieve mentoring and that there's limited opportunity. At this stage of your career where you've all ready established some valuable skills my advise is tie your little red wagon to a very succesful person in your field to be your mentor for the next 4 or 5 years.