Job dilemma

[flea]

I am about to go meet a former intern from my work who now works at UGA, for lunch and to talk about prospects. There's a job posted on the UGA web site that is a lot of what I do now (all the public service stuff, no financial admin, no collection management since it is in a "library" without a collection). It was posted last Friday and Intern tells me the supervisor is planning to start reviewing applications tomorrow since they are so short-staffed.

The kicker is, the job is posted at $26K, and I am currently paid $35K. When I started 6 years ago I made $28K, and that was 2 job levels below where I am now (the posted job is at the same level I am now - as high as you can go without an MLS.)

I guess I am applying, 'cause damn I could do that work, but if she's reviewing applications tomorrow she probably won't want to hire me, because I would not be able to start until August. But $26K. Damn. The cost of living is lower here, but not that much lower. I also sort of feel I ought to work, even though there is a logic to me taking time off to finish this degree is a reasonable time, and looking for a professional job in a year. I just (unlike, it seems, a good 75% of my blood relatives) that if I am able to work I ought to. It seems strange to be able to decide not to work (even for school) at this point in my life.

Relatedly, as we started looking at houses this AM, we looked at things outside our price range (defined as what we could put 20% down for. And we liked some of them. A new house with ugly (but paintable) doors and no yard, but gorgeous bathrooms and prime location, listed at $289 but room to come down. A beautiful gracious old house in livable shape now that with some well-planned renovations could be resold for $500K in a few years (huge beautiful lot, great location) but listed at $279K and while we could stretch to but it, we wouldn't be able to put much money into it soon... But if I worked...

Comments

[gchick.livejournal.com]

Assuming you're able to get into a place on mr. flea's salary, I'd think really hard about taking the time to finish the MLS quickly -- as I know you know, there's a damned solid ceiling for non-MLS positions, so it'll be a completely different job search afterwards.

And starting serious work on a house can wait a year. It usually does whether you mean it to or not.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Interestingly, after lunch with Intern, she notes that UGA has a strong preference to hire MLS positions from their ranks of known-quantity paraprofessionals. So that's different!

[serrana.livejournal.com]

I was making about 26K (part time) when I left the corp, and part of why I left was that I did the math and figured that after childcare and the second car and taxes and all the other job-related expenses, I was making under $3 per hour. Which was really not worth the stress.

I guess what I'm saying is, keep an eye on the math. Once I realized I was netting under $25 per workday, I felt a lot less like my work was worthwhile.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

I think we will probably do child care - at least part-time - for the baby even if do school full-time. But we would def. save afterschool care for Casper. A lot depends on whether this job would be a foot in the door towards more or not - and now that I've lunched with Intern, it sounds like it would.

[serrana.livejournal.com]

*nods* The foot in the door thing is important.

Fortunately, we ended up going to church with all the lefty Christian university librarians (they're Episcopalians! Who would have guessed? *GRIN*) so C. got in good with everyone that way.

[mightyurchin.livejournal.com]

At $26K, you may not even be able to cover child care with your take-home pay. Even if you can cover child care, your net gain will be negligible. I would also lean towards taking some time off from working to finish the MLS.

[casperflea.livejournal.com]

Shockingly, child care here is cheap! Seriously, $550 a month for good full-time care for Dillo at the EPA. Then Casper depends on what we do - public school would mean after-school, but that's really cheap ($6 a day I think?). She could go to the "day care" with Dillo (it goes up to age 6) or to the sister Montessori school, which for a full day would be about $700 a month. Seriously, it's like Xmas around here! Anyway, I was planning on paying for child care for Dillo even if I don't work, because otherwise when would I get the school work done?

[mightyurchin.livejournal.com]

Yowza! Though I realized after I replied that a) I am thinking of child care unsubsidized by an employer; b) I know nanny prices but not day care, and c) my point of reference is DC, not Athens. But still - our nanny receives more in one week for caring for two kids than you would pay for the whole month for Dillo at the EPA! (Which explains why I don't clear much money after child care.) Again, yowza!

[mearagrrl.livejournal.com]

Eh. I figure, apply, talk to them about it, about the salary, the process of getting your masters, the possbilities for career advancement...see where they are and suchlike. Maybe they'll go "Hey, you're awesome and we like you and love people who are getting their degree, how about you tkae this job as a 75% time position at the same salary and get your MLS in 18 months and then we'll plan to work you into a new position" and life will be hunky dory? :)

I will think optomistically. :)