New job offer - which would you pick?

Clydefrog

Hello everyone,

I'm looking for some career advice and would be grateful if you could express your own opinions on the matter.

Long story short, I have been contacted recently via LinkedIn and offered a new job. I attended interviews, negotiated a wage and essentially the offer is on the table, waiting for a go ahead.

Some background: I'm 33 years old. I work as a teacher, have got around 12 years of experience and a bunch of qualifications which are seen as valuable in the industry. I am a bit torn about accepting the offer, so here's a quick breakdown of advantages / disadvantages of my current job / new job. Both are teaching jobs, in the exact same subject.

Current (a further education college)
+ brilliant holiday allowance (37 days + BH)
+ great staff benefits such as a very generous pension scheme
+ good support with training
+ stable, predictable
+ quiet times during the year, like half terms and summer holidays
- 29k wage
- poorly managed due to its size, which has many implications: constant evaluation of staff, slow to embrace change, reluctance to implement new ideas
- due to a large number of staff, I'm a bit of an anonymous drone

New job (a private training provider)
+ 35k wage
+ great progression opportunities, performance related
+ the job should be much easier and less stressful
+ they appear to hold my qualifications and experience in high regard
+ potential exposure to new skills
- 23 days holiday + BH
- hardly any staff benefits and a standard pension
- it's a private training provider so future can be uncertain and much less predictable than with my current employer

What would you do in my situation, and why? Any opinions appreciated.

jranger

Do you enjoy teaching for the current money? Beauty with teaching is you can leave it and expand your knowledge elsewhere and come back again with a wider range of ideas in the classroom. I'd choose the opportunity, secretly you want a change otherwise you wouldn't have bothered with the interview I'm also a teacher btw

ssparks2003

What is your aspirations? where do you hope your career will head?

TELLIT01

Different people are looking for different things from a job, so it's really impossible to say which you should go for. I would say you really need to flesh out the pro's and con's of the two options, plus the less easily definable areas around what you actually want from a job by way of the challenge.

Daveahare99

What you are looking to get from the job aside - if it was me I would probably lean towards the private training provider.

In my job ( professional diver ) I know experience giving training can set you up quite nicely for contract work. Day rate.

I'm not sure what its like in teaching or what your circumstance are but when I have done if you play it smart it can work out quite nicely.

I have done work training for a professional provider for 6 months (£300PD) with only a couple of days off + weekends. Basically you work you work like mad then you can afford to take a couple of months off, so holidays aren't really an issue. It works out better.

I work permanent now but I know that working for a private provider is valued at least in contract work.

Hope it helps.

elsien

sandeshbukate wrote: »

Well i would go for your current job cause it provides you pension to secure your future and pay scale looks good too.


Thanks & Regards,
Sandesh Bukate
Career Advice

If you're charging people for your services, I hope they get a little more for their money than that!

(Post will be deleted when spammer is ejected from the forum.)

ReadingTim

It seems the current role offers certainty, while the other offers potential. Which may or may not turn out to be true. A gamble vs a dead cert.

Depending on other commitments, you're probably young enough to take the gamble as it might pay off. The real question is therefore whether you could return to the old role (or one similar) if the new one didn't work out?

dawyldthing

The other problem is will you need to be 'selling' the course, so could a lot of your time be involved in selling it to students and if there isn't the numbers then there won't be the staffing?

Planet_Switzerland

The obvious advantage the new job has over your current one is more money.


If the money was the same which one would you prefer?


If the new job then that's the one to take, if the current job then how likely are you to reach that salary level if you stay put?


One thing I like about my current workplace is that it's a large multinational company and a very noisy place to work, its a great environment. A few years ago I had an interview at a company with just four employees, sounded terrible but it paid 6k more. I didn't get the job, but just over a year later I was earning 7k more and that made me thankful I never got that job.

boliston

what about things like the location you would be working - are they both equally easy to get to - are the actual working environments similar?

Fireflyaway

If you were unemployed which one of the two would you apply for first? Is there a difference in location / travel time that would impact work life balance?
From what you say I'd be tempted to go for the second due to more money and being able to diversify your skills. Teachers are always in demand so if you don't like it, go back to a college environment. Add more strings to your bow and they say a change is as good as a rest and all that. If you dont try yoiu wont know and you could end up loving it. My opinion is that no job his secure these days so I wouldn't let that be a deciding factor.