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

[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!