Should I Take This Job?

I interviewed for a job this week. It was with a smaller company doing great things. I enjoyed learning about the business and the industry. For the first time since January, I opened...

2 min read

Haley Stomp

I interviewed for a job this week. It was with a smaller company doing great things. I enjoyed learning about the business and the industry. For the first time since January, I opened my laptop and made a PowerPoint presentation. It felt good to do the research and present my ideas. I put on a jacket, my backpack and got into work mode. But this work mode looked just slightly different, a little more confident, a little more relaxed.

Although the opportunity was good, and I know it would have given me a chance to make a difference with good chance of work/life balance, it just didn’t feel like the next thing.

How was I going to decide for sure?

Some possible choices:

Go to a vineyard, drink a decent amount of wine, sing too many karaoke songs and write drunk poetry while eating a Dairy Queen blizzard
Talk to my coach
Make a report card and give it a grade
Talk to friends and family
Go back to my “Ideal Career Profile” I had completed earlier this year to compare

Well, I did all of these. I concluded I would take myself out of the running for the role. It felt a bit like breaking up with a really nice company I’d just started dating. Luckily, we left it in a very good place. Afterward I felt some sadness and a bit of doubt. But not long after that, I was feeling motivated to keep doing the work I’ve been doing. Keep sending out missives and waiting for things to come — more online webinars, more writing, more researching and meeting with people, more thinking about starting my own business.

What is most clear right now is that I’m not 100% clear on what I want the next move to look like and that’s OK. It doesn’t have to be 100%, and the experience I gained from the interview process reminded me what I like about business:

Brainstorming strategies
Finding competitive advantage
Aggressive business growth
Leading a team
Being part of a great leadership team
Creating new stuff
Competitive detective work
Learning the latest marketing tools
Having a good time with good people

Now to figure out how to do those things in the context of designing a life that is both personally and professionally fulfilling while building financial freedom, avoiding burnout and incorporating all the enriching things I’ve been doing these last five months, like slightly pitchy, wine-inspired karaoke. That should be easy, right?

Back to the drawing board this week. So many questions, but a lot of new information, too. Maybe I’ll send my poetry to Nashville and become a song writer. In the meantime, lots of discovery work and people to meet. I’m excited to see what next week brings!