Off Topic: Stability vs. Money.

If you had the option, would you choose to stay with a stable company, or leave and work for a start-up company that is willing to pay you 30% more?

Assume similar benifits, similar work. The only difference being more stability or more money.

the new company if it's a challenge and you like doing it as much. IMHO

stable company

I vote stable, startups come and go, but the stable company business plan is working.. 64% of all new companys fail..


Danny..

How much will my good work impact the start-up's chances for success? Will the new job allow me to grow my skill set and increase my market value?

Depends. Right now in NZ there's a major shortage in our industry so getting work is not a problem. I'd follow the money, since I have a a/c to build. If I didn't have the RV project and/or employment was harder to come by, I'd stay put. My Wife is in a similar situation. Where she is she pretty much has a job for life, though few advancement prospects; since she is a woman in a man's world and finds it difficult to get a decent job, we've agreed she will stay put.

An "On Topic" Slant

Depends... If I were in the beginning stages of my RV build (which I am), I would stick with the stable company. If I were close to completing (i.e. having my RV paid off) I might consider the risk worth it

Job hopping is the norm these days. Most companies will offer higher salaries to new talent than they offer their loyal experienced workers . Take the cash for a few years, invest the difference into YOUR future, and then use the higher salary to bargin for something better. That said, it is next to impossible to build wealth working for someone else.

take the challenge

Chofrock said:

If you had the option, would you choose to stay with a stable company, or leave and work for a start-up company that is willing to pay you 30% more? ...

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Apologies if the following is all already totally obvious to you!

The Beaverton area has a lot of startups coming and going, so if this one does not succeed, there will be others down the road.

However, you need to ask yourself some questions, and give yourself some honest answers.

How will you feel if the other company becomes wildly successful, and you are still at your present job?

How will you feel if you are on the job market in 18 months, because the startup failed?

While I was working for a "big blue company", which I really loved, many people left for startups. I never heard a single one say that they regretted the decision.

You learn things in small, chaotic environments that you'll never imagine in larger companies. It's also possible that you'll bring an added measure of stability to this new company - something that they will need. Even if the company does not succeed, you'll learn another way not to run a startup.

Don't burn any bridges at your current company - they may become a customer, or you might want to recruit some of your current collegues.

Best of luck!

jeez bob, I can't see well enough to read a 500 word paragraph. how about some paragraph breaks every 8 to 10 lines?

Yeah Well

I wanted to help the fellow but I didn't want to study and compose it. I just started rambling - sorry. I went back and tried to edit it per Mark's request but it was so bad I deleted it instead. Basically you have to decide what is best for you and don't avoid all risks for the sake of security and never sell yourself into a job with no opportunity to develop your talent in an effective way. Money nor security are sufficient compensation for lost opportunity.

Bob Axsom

stability or the money?

I think it would depend on your skills and confidence. What can you bring to
a) this new company and/or b) what could you bring to the market (et al)?
Should this new company fail and you loose your job...could you find a new job of comparable pay quickly?

Is your current emloyer willing to offer you a raise in pay to stay? Competitve
markets as they are...you never know! Good employees are a real benifit.

decisions, decisions

Lorne
top of the food chain
(thank god)

Stability or Money?

For me, there's more info that needs to go into the decision.

Does the startup favor tailwheel aircraft or nosedraggers?

What's their primer preference?



John Erickson
RV-10 #40208 (falling behind... Still working on ailerons when I'm home...)

I just made such a move, have been there a month now and I love it.

Of course I checked out the industry, their position in the market place, the people involved, and was lucky enough to know one of their customers and one of their suppliers.

All looked positive and so far (again, it has only been a month) it has been great.

Setting priorities, policies, hiring new people, working on the future, it has all been outstanding and fun.

Keep in mind, I spent 11 years with a division of Hoechst Celanese that was spun off because they were supplying the textile industry and it got old cutting budgets every year, letting people go, and waiting until I was let go. All dark and gray stuff.

If you are good enough to land a new job now, you will be able to land another job in a year or two, if it goes south. Just keep putting money away for your retirement.

Best of luck!

Life is short... take some chances... build an RV! Oh, and go with the start-up, you can always get another job with a more stable company if it doesn't work out.

Start-ups... closed my business on the East Coast a several years ago to take a job with a tech start-up in Denver. Three months after moving to Denver, a big tech start-up (dot-com) in Silicon Valley bought us and moved me to CA. That firm was then bought by a big stable company. I really miss the chaos of strart-up mode.

All the prior post have valid information. I would go one step further in checking out the new company. The high rate of failure in new companies is due to a lot of factors, but not the least of which are, marketing, managing and being under funded. I could go on about poor management of funds etc.

Obviously, I wouldn't just go and ask how much they are funded, or what they expect in profits, but you can ask other questions that may give you insights into how well they have thought out such things. You should be able to check out who their managers are and what their backgrounds are and even touch on what their marketing ideas are.

Too many companies think they can do it for less than the next company. They only see the income side and don't see or control the cost side. When it comes tax time they realize that they've been doing it for less than it cost them.

I won't go into what you can bring the company because you've already been offered. They apparently already know that.

Assuming all of the above (including advice of other posts) is positive - go for it! The next step is owning it. Good luck.

Depends on a lot of things. Your family status. And your age.

I think it becomes similar to your portfolio. At a younger age, you take more risks because if it doesn't work out, you still have time to make it pay off.

As you grow older, one might play it more conservatively because, frankly, it can be hard to start over again when you're in your, say, mid-50s; there simply aren't the same opportunities and your requirements are different.

In the end, only you can evaluate the risk and decide your tolerance for it.

But good luck in whatever you decide.

High risk, high return, low risk low return. Depending on your age determines how much risk you should be willing to accept.

Mid 50's

Bob Collins said:

Depends on a lot of things. Your family status. And your age.

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OK Bob, you are hitting a little close to home now. I am in my early fifties and just left my IT job of 25 years. The IT industry was great 25 years ago but it has changed significantly over the years and my opinion is that the changes have not been for the good. And I know these changes are not unique to the IT field. I decided I had had enough of 60-70 hour work weeks and 3-4 nights on the road. Although I was making decent money, I didn't have time to even think about building a plane or doing the numerous honey-do's around the house or even taking my wife out to dinner. I decided enough is enough.

So I left and am now unemployed. And I am happier than I have been the last 10 years. My BP is down and I am loosing some weight. We cut out satellite TV and many other fluffities and we will be OK. I just completed my teaching certification and am looking forward to teaching middle or high school math/science. More importantly I have completed many of the honey-do's on my list, am finishing up a 10x14 shed so I will have room in the garage to build an RV, and I have my RV empennage sitting under the spare room bed.

Was this the smart thing to do? Probably not by a lot of standards! The classroom will be stressful in its own ways but I figure if I can deal with corporate CEOs and CIOs I can deal with a classroom of 8th graders and their parents. Obviously I will make a whole lot less money, but the nice thing is that I will have every weekend, holiday, and summer off and don't have to worry about my job being outsources to India or China (no offense to our Indian and Chinese friends). If I have to I can get a summer job at HD and at least get an employee discount on my building supplies.

So here I am at age 52, unemployed and I just spent $1500 on a tail kit and about $2500 on tools including a pneumatic squeezer and DRDT-2 dimpling tool and that really cool Smart Tool digital level/protractor. I am having a blast working around the house and going to bed physically exhausted instead of mentally exhausted each day. I feel great!

I do agree that family status has a great deal to do with these decisions. I am fortunate in that my kids are both through college and have jobs and are doing well. I have no debt so I don't care. I am going to do what makes me happy now. The money thing is certainly a concern but I am now convinced that money is only part of the equation. I am convinced of that cliche that life is too short to go through it unhappy and working all of the time.

So anyway, I am rambling, I recommend looking at which job is going to make you happier for whatever situation you are in. You will find a way to make ends meet no matter how little money you make and you will find a way to spend it no matter how much money you make. Take the job that makes you happiest, all things considered. If you like to take risks, go for it! If it doesn't work out you WILL find something else to do. Don't go to your grave regretting you didn't take your kids fishing, you didn't take your spouse to that musical, and you didn't get to do what makes you happy because you didn't have the cahoonas (sp) to take risks. This is a whole nother discussion but I think we Americans have become so risk adverse that we have given up living for the sake of "security," whatever that is.

So I say if the new job appeals to your sense of adventure and it looks like a good ground floor opportunity, GO FOR IT and NEVER LOOK BACK! If it doesn't work out, hey you learned a lot and can say you tried.

When you reach my age and start losing parents and siblings you tend to take a quick a look at your own mortality. It is a fact that life is just too dang short. Damn the torpedos, full speed ahead.

I'm right there with you, tom. I'm 52 now and I've been doing what I've been doing for 31 years. You know, about the time you reealize it's time for a change, you also realize you're too old to be desirable to many employers. So, yeah, that's when you start thinking about things you can do, and I also agree that you should obviously do whatever it is that makes you happy. In my personal case, part of what makes me happy is also what is the best intersts of my family.

One of the things my job allows me to do is free up my wife not to have to make more money. So she works helping people with mental illnesses navigate the bureacracy to get help and shelter. Being that it actually is a service to humanity, of course, it pays squat. But I get a lot of joy out of being able to provide enough to the family budget to allow her to do that and regale me each night with stories about how she's actually made a difference in people's lives while I slapped up html copy that day. But since we're a team, everythign has an end purpose and we all have particular jobs to do toward that purpose. So for me, work isn't really about slapping up html copy, it's about how that contributes to the higher purpose.

When our kids were small, the purpose of my work was allowing my wife to stay home with young children so they could have a full-time parent. But they grow older and the family dynamic changes.

But if I could do anything I wanted right now, I'd go fly Lifeflights. Or I'd build Habitat for Humanity houses -- flying from city to city in my RV -- of I'd volunteer at Special Olympics. I could do all of those things and I'd be pretty happy at it.... but it would come at the expense of some people who need help and need me to do what I do to so they can get it.

This is a direct result of my New England upbringing and is known as the curse of the Puritan work ethic. It can suck. But it also offers constant opportunity for fulfillment. I like to write an occasional article to sell, or put together some freelance work (sample) to satisfy the creative juices and to a large degree, the purpose of building an RV (in my case) is exactly that of the experimental category....education and recreation (in which there's a plane a tthe end of the process). How cool is that?

We all have to decide for ourselves what defines our happiness...whether it's building an RV and taking kids fishing or being in some sort of service in the short time we're allowed on the planet, or managing our resources in such a way that we can offer an opportunity to our heirs to continue a service philosophy.

As I head into my senior years, I find myself less concerned about the trappings this life can provide and more concerned about having it matter that I was here at all in the first place.

Figuring out where that meaning comes from is all part of the journey and one we have to assess individually for we will not know the correct answer until much later.

Congratulations to your for your approach, Tom. Many good wishes to you, yoru family and your future students whose lives you'll change for the better.

This thread struck a little close to home for me. I'm only 20, so I'm probably the youngest guy on this board. I'm just starting my RV, so I'm spending more money than I ever have before in my life (my cars have all cost less than 3K). I have worked part time at an aircraft maintainence shop for the last 3.5 years, I got my A&P 2.5 years ago. The money I make now is OK by Socal standards, although definitely not enough to build an RV if I wasn't living with my parents. I am tenitively planning to set up my own shop come this summer sometime. It is a big step for me, but my biggest fear is that I won't make enough to continue the RV. I go to school full-time right now, and will for the next two years to finish up my BS degree. I figure it is possible to make the same money I make now, if I can get some regular customers, which I'm already working on doing. I don't have nearly as much at stake as Tom, but still scares the heck out of me if I think about it too long .

20? Travel. See the world. Build. If you can learn to support yourself at 20....the rest is easy.

Work hard. Do good. Have fun.