crossXroads

[Magmar]

Hey guys,
Just need some quick advice. I'm in a pickle.

I'm finally up for a promotion at my job. I've been working here for over 3 years and am really dedicated to the company. I really do enjoy working for the brand I work for and my coworkers are, for the first time since I started working there, a team of absolutely amazing, trustworthy individuals who I can rely on. It's a very tough company to get a job for as they are very selective, so they compensate their gallery managers quite well.

Butttt...

My roommate is the grad assistant at the MBA office where I am starting grad school on the 6th. She is entering her 2nd year and just found a full-time job where she can vacate this position and still afford to pay her tuition. She is talking to her boss to try to see if I can take her spot because, well, if you are a Grad assistant, you don't have to pay tuition...

Being a grad assistant will make me $750 a month plus free tuition. Also the director of the MBA program is the professor with whom I will most likely be working with on my thesis in fall 2012. It would be great to get to know her and see how we can work together. This is definitely a long-term success path.

Being the manager of the gallery would be salaried and certainly compensate me quite well in the short-term. Also being the manager of a $3 million/yr (but I didn't tell you!) store looks quite good on a resume... But I would still have to take out the loans because I can't cover my tuition in the short-term.

I could take out a bit of loans and take on the GA job, being able to not only comfortably live with what my expenses actually amount to, but... I'd only be working Tuesday and Thursday 9-5 and every other Friday 9-5. I could have a much better lifestyle than the 40+ hours a week including nights and weekends I have at my current job.

I'd have more time to study and have dinner with my roommates (Who all have day jobs) and just relax and have fun.

Crossroads. Which way would you go?

[Heald]

The Grad assistant thing seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity. Never in your life will you ever have so much free time and at the same time be able to live comfortably. Once you begin a 9-5, 5 days a week job or similar, you're generally stuck there until you retire, win the lottery, get promoted to such a ridiculously high level that you can either retire early or work part-time, or die.

Plus you've had 3 years at the place you're working. Whose to say they or a similar company won't take you back after you've finished your MBA? Plus if money is tight you could try to find a job that does morning/evening shifts a couple of times a week (if that's readily available to you) if you need some extra dough.

Is there anyone at your current job you can talk to about this without seeming like a traitor? If you're close to a manager or someone in HR or similar, ask them whether doing the GA will make them more likely to hire you again in the future? If you're not planning on going back there though then don't bother.

I have a feeling if you pass up the GA thing you will constantly regret it. I say go for it.

[mattbcl]

I agree with Heald on this one. That time to yourself is rare and precious, and absolutely wasted on anyone of less than 22 years of age. If you can get it, take it with both hands.

[Oslo]

That time to yourself is rare and precious, and absolutely wasted on anyone of less than 22 years of age.

On behalf of those of us who are less than 22 years of age... *friendly bitch-slap* I kid, I kid.

I'm going to echo the above posts. Though continued work at your store might make for a stellar addition to your resume, just think of the glorious letters of reference you might be able to snag from this grad assistant position. Additionally, speaking from experience, I can say that debt is a rabid bitch and avoiding it places you in an enviable position. I'm up to my ears in bank/government loans from my undergrad, though I was fortunate enough to receive a very generous teaching assistantship that will cover the cost of my tuition for my Masters degree and then some. Phew.

Either way, fingers crossed it works out for you.

[Gavin Luper]

Yup, I agree with what Heald said. This is an awesome opportunity: if it were me, I would go for it. The kind of fulfilment you're looking for seems to be tied up in the GA job, while the manager position just seems to offer money (which can be returned to at any time) and experience (which you could build up again if you needed to).

What's your relationship like with your current employer/s? Can you discuss this with them? You never know, I had a great boss at the bank once who was totally supportive of me applying for jobs elsewhere if it was what I wanted to do with my career. And since I've left that particular role, he's asked me to come back and work for him a number of times, so I know that door is open for me. Maybe your boss will be similar? Conversely, the GA job sounds like a stroke of luck and won't be around forever.

I can't say what you should do, but if I were in your shoes, I know I would go for the grad assistant job. Fulfilment + the career and lifestyle you want, and you might still have a back-up job to return to one day at the gallery if you play your cards well. If not, there are still plenty of full-time jobs - and only one opportunity like this offered to you. I'd take it.

[mr_pikachu]

In my view, this is largely a decision you ought to make on your own, as you know your priorities far better than the rest of us. Before making a decision, though, I would suggest finding out more about the grad assistant position, especially in terms of how long it will last. Are you guaranteed funding for a certain number of semesters or years, or is it a semester-by-semester hiring setup? If job security is a potential concern (which it would be, in the latter scenario), you'll want to know that. If not, you ought to receive something in writing to that effect.

[Magmar]

Hey all, thanks for weighing in on this.

I was the 2nd person on the list for an interview, out of 40+ which is pretty exciting but unfortunately they just hired the first person they interviewed for the GA position.

Blah, but whatever, I did what I had to do and they hired someone who I think will be awesome.

[Gavin Luper]

Hey all, thanks for weighing in on this.

I was the 2nd person on the list for an interview, out of 40+ which is pretty exciting but unfortunately they just hired the first person they interviewed for the GA position.

Blah, but whatever, I did what I had to do and they hired someone who I think will be awesome.

Bad luck mate. At least you gave it a shot, you'd have regretted it otherwise.

[Ryoto]

I'm sure everything will work out, and I definately agree with the others.

[Oslo]

Blah, but whatever, I did what I had to do and they hired someone who I think will be awesome.

Stellar attitude.

[Magmar]

<3 You are all awesome.

I don't have a livejournal so I'm going to rant to ya'll again thanks for listening if you do and if not I get it, whining about business drivel can be tedious.

Here's an update on where I'm at today. I interviewed last Tuesday for the promotion at my job to a supervisor, which I really needed because I have to acquire "significant work experience" as part of my MBA program. I didn't get the job, but wasn't really given satisfactory reasons. This one complete bitty who interviewed me asked me what my goals in life were. So I told her the truth: "I want to be a business consultant and a part-time professor, conduct my own research, and maybe one day have my own reality TV show if that's still around." Turns out that since one of my life goals is not "running a (brand) store", that makes me not the right person to be a fucking keyholder for a couple of years to put myself through school while being able to avoid having to get another full-time job.

I knowwwww that Rhode Island has 11% unemployment and I knowwwwww that hardly any of my friends have found jobs with their degrees regardless of how brilliant they are,
But I put in my two weeks anyway yesterday.

I've decided I need to leave the world of retail. First off, the work is not challenging at all, and it's meaningless maintenance and customer service work to please some rich, entitled assholes who think they can honestly walk all over me because I work in retail. Sorry but if I'm going to get shat upon, I want to at least be doing so in a firm where I'm at least managing something. The work is meaningless because all I do is sell fancy furniture to the people who are trying to fight the horrible notion of being taxed adequately.

I really don't feel attached to the brand anymore. It used to be all about big things--"We're going to be the best in the world", "People first" and all those other good things. It changed, it got more arrogant, and well, truth be told, I actually can't really afford to dress to their dress code anymore because it's not business casual, it's designer jeans and vests and fancy scarves and I'm just not that gay nor would I ever spend that kind of money on looking like something I'm not Seriously, give me some solid button ups and ample (clearance) tie options, and a couple pairs of pants to rotate and I'm happy. The values changed from taking care of "our people" to only taking care of "the right people". These "right people" work long (12+) hour days without breaks for shit pay, and the company regularly breaks all sorts of OSHA laws for the sake of keeping its payroll down. It's cheaper to leave the stores severely understaffed. Our payroll has been slashed almost in half. Hell I got a friggin quarter for a raise in April, and I made the store nearly half of the money it saw for the entire year and I was one of several full-time associates. Clearly not a company that takes care of its people.

They also recently adopted some stupid policies like no school 4 cool, which I found offensive because yeah, I'll admit it, I got picked on for "not being cool" when I was a kid and I always swore that I would NEVER treat someone like that. But apparently, because the company won't pay its people and so I can't afford to dress in all J. Crew, I'm not "cool" and thus I'm not the right person Sorry but I dress nice for work because I want to and I would appreciate a little more autonomy in deciding what *brands* to wear.

So yeah, things at work have gone to shit, and most of the people I actually liked have quit now. They'd rather keep the leadership team understaffed than fill it with qualified people who would do the job with extra attention to details. They overwork people and underpay them; they force people to work 13-14 hour "stretches" at work where they do not get a break nor are they even allowed to leave the store for a coffee or a smoke break. And if you don't do it then you're not the right person. Real swift business model isn't it?

So I'm peacing OUT of retail, and my last day is October 6. I did something probably really stupid, and took out some student loans because a., I want to be able to seriously focus on my studies for a while until I adjust to the amount of work required of a grad student, and b., I really want to volunteer or do an unpaid internship for a marriage equality firm or some political movement that I feel is making an impact and actually helping others. I can get some experience that way, satisfy the internship requirement for my major, and feel fulfilled by my work.

Of course my boss at work says I'm burning bridges by putting in a three week notice (could've had September 29 as my last day and that would've been awesome, but the loans get disbursed this week and I want to make sure I have that money to live off before I quit). I told her that my reason for leaving is that I have to satisfy the significant work experience requirement and that as highly as the company thinks of itself, being a sales associate is not significant to my school so I need to find a job that will actually challenge me to manage. I also had to send a five-page email to my regional director detailing everything I have learned from working there. It felt good knowing I was being fake for the last time.

What bothered me the most about this situation is that I'd been literally doing the management tasks at my work because we had ZERO managers for a while and had to "Borrow" them from nearby stores (none of which are within reasonable driving distance of our store). They all had no idea how things worked so I had to teach different managers every day. In my interview, I was thanked for doing that and asked to continue doing what I'm doing because I'm a great asset to the store. We finally filled two of the four positions, and they had to get trained for a freakin' month. So for two months, we had zero managers, and I had to do this. When the two new managers started, they gave me this interview. I really do feel used.

...Wait. No raise for doing all the extra work? No bonus for making 40% of the store's sales? They want me to manage but not give me the title so I can put it on paper? Why so they can save a buck or two?? Their profits have SKYROCKETED in the last two years. They can afford it!

Eff you, I'm out.
...

Ah and this is what has been on my mind <3 I feel better writing it out, like a load is off my shoulders. I'm also barely awake so this might have all been completely incoherent, lol.