Werk rumblings

I haven’t really been hunting for work, but within the past month, three different people have contacted me with “Hey, I just heard about this position; might you be interested?” All three jobs are back within the belly of the beast. Aside from that little detail, the jobs couldn’t be less alike.

Position 1 sounds very nice. It’s an engineering manager for a team of engineers all working on one application. I know one of the engineers, and have heard good things (from multiple sources) about the team in general. It’s in a distant department, far from past frustrations. And it would be nice to work on a self-contained product. All sounds good, right? Except that the hiring manager has had my resume for weeks now and has thus far exhibited all of the enthusiasm and initiative of a teamster about 20 minutes from making time-and-a-half. Maybe I’m being pessimistic based on far too little data, but the slow progress thus far has given me a bad feeling about the job. Maybe he hates my resume, who knows?

Position 2 would be working for a manager I have heard good things about, and with whom I had a simply fabulous first meeting. We seemed to have a common understanding of a wide variety of issues, and I think she and I could work really well together. and it even feels like a job and department that might have room for growth in the future. But, I have much less enthusiasm about the job description itself. It’s managing a team of testers. And, well, I’ve done that before. I’ve been an individual tester, a test lead, a quality lead for an entire department, and acting manager for a team of 12 testers. I’ve done black box testing and white box, manual testing and automated, performance tests… I just don’t feel like I’ve left a lot of ground uncovered there. And I confess to having some apprehensions about the VP this department is under, despite hearing that he seems to be a real proponent of mine, even now.

Position 3 is the real wild card. It’s a position as a writer, doing user documentation. The job would pay far (far) less than my previous gig, and less than Pos 1 and 2 above. But, it would be considerably less stress as well. And it would give me a chance to try doing something professionally that I’ve enjoyed doing as a hobby for some time. It might even offer some opportunities for working remotely or telecommuting more than a management position could possibly offer. I’ve had one meeting with this team that went well I think. But, I’m sure they are cautious about this; I would be, in their shoes. As much as that team knows me, there’s no hiding the fact that I have little to no professional experience in that particular field. And how much does the money issue matter? I haven’t been able to decide yet.

There’s some portion of me that thinks I’m settling for too little; that I should be gunning for a higher position, a second-level manager or better. I’m not sure if that’s just raw ego speaking (or greed). Would I handle the stress better than I did in the past? And would I miss having the more day-to-day hands-on involvement with the individual engineers and projects? I don’t know.

One last note, and then I’ll quit rambling. A few of you who read this journal may have some level of involvement in some of the groups I have referred to (perhaps not so obliquely) above. Please use your discretion in sharing this post with others. Read it as my friend, moreso than as a potential co-worker. Thank you, I appreciate it.