job related question...part 2...B it is

[Aharami]

UPDATE: so i called company B. they wont go any higher. it stands at 45.5K. but i think im gonna take it still. i'll be challenged more there and pay is a lot better. to all those people who said go with company A, would your answer have been different if the commute to B was... say 30 mins?


ok first look at this thread for background

basically i got hired by company A (finance - operations position). had interview with company B (IT position) which i knew would be a higher paying position. just graduated college with comp engg degree. didnt know what to do.

fast forward to the present:

i just got offered the position by company B. here's how the 2 jobs match up

i like the atmosphere at company A....didnt get a good vibe when i went for interview with company B
company A pays 32K+OT and bonus.....company B pays 45K+bonus
company A is 5 mins from my house.....company B is around 1.5 hrs away from my house
company A is a large financial company where there are plenty of opportunities to move around to other positions....company B is the IT sector of a healthcare company, thus im suck in IT
i want to stick with company A....but feel bad letting go of a 13K salary increase
scraping by with pay from A......B would allow me to have some savings

now im stuck with the dillema....which way to go. if i stay with company A, i will have a career in the financial world...if i take the othe job, my career will be IT related. now im not too good at programming. so im afraid that they might fire me when they find out i cant program that well. IT job will definately challenge me mentally whereas the job im in now doesnt challenge me at all (everyday i think to myself that im overqualified for this job)

how is the IT market now? is there more to IT than just coding?

i want to ask for more money out of company B to make my decision easier. is that wise?

any help is appreciated

 

[Nocturnal]

How'd you get a degree in Computer Engineering and suck at programming? Ins't that at least half of what you learn in college?

 

[Saulbadguy]

Ask company A how much overtime will be available, and allowed. You could almost make up the difference by working overtime alot. Also, you will save $$$ on gas with A. If company b has a bad atmosphere, you won't be happy, and it won't matter how much $$ you are making.

 

[vi edit]

I know that I would easily trade $13,000 for a job 5 minutes away over a job that was 1.5 hours away. Money is nice...spending 3 hours a day in a car is not.

Would you move closer to job B?

 

[xSauronx]

eh

if you take job b are you gonna move? i wouldnt drive 1.5 hours for any job. if you arent gonna move, id take job a, youre talking about a short roadtrip every day for job b: it will suck.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
How'd you get a degree in Computer Engineering and suck at programming? Ins't that at least half of what you learn in college?

i was half decent in college. but last programming course i took was a year ago and havent programmed at all since. i guess i dont suck...but im not good

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: vi_edit
I know that I would easily trade $13,000 for a job 5 minutes away over a job that was 1.5 hours away. Money is nice...spending 3 hours a day in a car is not.

Would you move closer to job B?

if i move, im gonna spend that 13k + more on rent/util/food. so not gonna move. also B is in a place where cost of living is higher

 

[mandala]

Is there much OT at company A? Is the position with company B salaried (and would you be expected to regularly work extra time for no extra money)? In my opinion company A is the better choice. Atmosphere, opportunities for advancement, and a MUCH shorter commute (the idea of spending approx. 3 hours a day commuting makes my skin crawl, not to mention the cost of gas and vehicle maintenance to boot), I think, offset getting paid less.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: mandala
Is there much OT at company A? Is the position with company B salaried (and would you be expected to regularly work extra time for no extra money)? In my opinion company A is the better choice. Atmosphere, opportunities for advancement, and a MUCH shorter commute (the idea of spending approx. 3 hours a day commuting makes my skin crawl, not to mention the cost of gas and vehicle maintenance to boot), I think, offset getting paid less.

ive asked around. OT really varies...really depends on how many accounts come in. so far ive been doing less than 40hrs/week. but people say sometimes it gets to over 50 hrs

i dont want to cummute 3 hrs either. thats why i want to ask for more money. if they pay me around 50K then the commute is worthwhile, no?

 

[atom]

Programming you do in the real world is a LOT different than stuff you did in college. If you were decent in college you should be able to pick up what you need to know very easily. It's a lot more focused than college type programming.

As to your situation, I dunno. I guess it depends on how much you like programming. Personally I'd take job B since 13k is a lot, but honestly working in IT at an entry level position is not all that great. Being a code monkey kinda sucks, but you gotta start somewhere.

 

[Saulbadguy]

Originally posted by: Aharami

Originally posted by: mandala
Is there much OT at company A? Is the position with company B salaried (and would you be expected to regularly work extra time for no extra money)? In my opinion company A is the better choice. Atmosphere, opportunities for advancement, and a MUCH shorter commute (the idea of spending approx. 3 hours a day commuting makes my skin crawl, not to mention the cost of gas and vehicle maintenance to boot), I think, offset getting paid less.

ive asked around. OT really varies...really depends on how many accounts come in. so far ive been doing less than 40hrs/week. but people say sometimes it gets to over 50 hrs

i dont want to cummute 3 hrs either. thats why i want to ask for more money. if they pay me around 50K then the commute is worthwhile, no?

ask for a signing bonus. 😀

..so you can get XM radio and a DVD player in your car. It would be nice for those long commutes.

 

[vi edit]

i dont want to cummute 3 hrs either. thats why i want to ask for more money. if they pay me around 50K then the commute is worthwhile, no?

$50k isn't going to keep you happy long. $150,000 maybe...but really...$50k isn't *a lot* of money. Especially if you have to work 40% longer to attain it.

You basically went from making $25 an hour to $18.00 an hour. And you have to subtract gas & wear and tear on your car lowering it even more.

Traveling long distances grows very tiresome after a while. For the first few months it's not so bad. But after a while it starts to get very, very old.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: atom
Programming you do in the real world is a LOT different than stuff you did in college. If you were decent in college you should be able to pick up what you need to know very easily. It's a lot more focused than college type programming.

As to your situation, I dunno. I guess it depends on how much you like programming. Personally I'd take job B since 13k is a lot, but honestly working in IT at an entry level position is not all that great. Being a code monkey kinda sucks, but you gotta start somewhere.

yea, im sure i will pick up the coding aspect. but i dreaded coding in college. i dont think id like to do that all day long. arent there more to IT than just coding? position with company B is a 18 month rotational program where u get to be a part of the diff aspects of IT...testing, coding, analysis, etc. after 18 months, if they like u, they ask u back

 

[PanzerIV]

Definitely given your circumstances I would choose company A. Remember, money is not EVERYTHING. It may take you longer to reach your financial goals but review the advantages you listed for A over B and it should be obvious which to go for. As someone who drives 80 miles round trip M-F having a job 5 minutes alone would be worth it for me, not to mention the more comfortable atmosphere you stated. Either way you go, good luck! 🙂

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: vi_edit

i dont want to cummute 3 hrs either. thats why i want to ask for more money. if they pay me around 50K then the commute is worthwhile, no?

Traveling long distances grows very tiresome after a while. For the first few months it's not so bad. But after a while it starts to get very, very old.

yea ive heard that a lot! and i believe you. ok maybe i was exxagrating a little bit. truthfully, it might be 1.5 hrs, it might be less, or it might be more. when i went for my interview, it took around 50 mins w/o traffic (after morning rush hour) mapquest says its a 56 mins drive. i have a coworker right now who come down from near that place and he said it takes about an hour....but he's goin southbound where the traffic is lighter...id have to go northbound..goin from central NJ to north NJ (if anyone cares)

 

[Beattie]

Wow, it's wierd that you posted this. I am in almost the exact same position. One company is like 10 mins from my house and pays like $45,000. I would be working in the IT position with little/no chance for adancement. The other is a software company making considerably more... but it's 45 mins away from my house and I pray for death every day so that I dont have to go there (I work as an intern there now). Trying to decide what to do.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: Beattie
Wow, it's wierd that you posted this. I am in almost the exact same position. One company is like 10 mins from my house and pays like $45,000. I would be working in the IT position with little/no chance for adancement. The other is a software company making considerably more... but it's 45 mins away from my house and I pray for death every day so that I dont have to go there (I work as an intern there now). Trying to decide what to do.

how much is significantly more? 45 mins drive isnt all that bad

 

[atom]

Originally posted by: Aharami

Originally posted by: atom
Programming you do in the real world is a LOT different than stuff you did in college. If you were decent in college you should be able to pick up what you need to know very easily. It's a lot more focused than college type programming.

As to your situation, I dunno. I guess it depends on how much you like programming. Personally I'd take job B since 13k is a lot, but honestly working in IT at an entry level position is not all that great. Being a code monkey kinda sucks, but you gotta start somewhere.

yea, im sure i will pick up the coding aspect. but i dreaded coding in college. i dont think id like to do that all day long. arent there more to IT than just coding? position with company B is a 18 month rotational program where u get to be a part of the diff aspects of IT...testing, coding, analysis, etc. after 18 months, if they like u, they ask u back

Many entry level jobs deal with code, whether you're the one doing the coding, analyzing other people's code, testing other people's code, etc. So yeah, if you don't like code, I wouldn't take the job.

 

[Aharami]

plus ive already been recognized by my boss, his boss, and his bosses boss as a hard worker at A (been workin there for abt a month). just that its sooo hard to say no to more money when you are living paycheck to paycheck

 

[beyonddc]

I'll take the IT related job over the finance related job. It sounds like you'll be doing programming at CompanyB, am I correct? That's sort-of related with your field, but you're computer engineer, aren't you more toward the hardware side which is like designing hardware and assembly language?

I don't know, whatever.... I'll still take the IT job just because even though the IT industry is going down hill with all these jobs going offshore and economy market is tight, but in a longer run, I personally think it worths it.

I don't think you can move up that much in a finance position, but with an IT position, you can go up faster. That's what I think...

oh, I'm a recent grad too. I have CS degree, and now I'm an entry level software engineer. My pay is a little more than the pay you got offered from company B.

Your decision, your choice

That's just my 2 cents.

 

[Aharami]

Originally posted by: beyonddc


I don't know, whatever.... I'll still take the IT job just because even though the IT industry is going down hill with all these jobs going offshore and economy market is tight, but in a longer run, I personally think it worths it.

I don't think you can move up that much in a finance position, but with an IT position, you can go up faster. That's what I think...

please explain. why do u think one can move up faster in IT than finance. im not attacking you, im just curious as to why u think that. maybe u know something i dont...?

 

[Vic]

Company A.

Long commutes suck and typically add (non-tax deductible) thousands to your work expenses. The only justifiable reason to have that long a commute is if you're driving from your dream home to your dream job. It doesn't sound like that applies here.

 

[beyonddc]

Originally posted by: Aharami

Originally posted by: beyonddc


I don't know, whatever.... I'll still take the IT job just because even though the IT industry is going down hill with all these jobs going offshore and economy market is tight, but in a longer run, I personally think it worths it.

I don't think you can move up that much in a finance position, but with an IT position, you can go up faster. That's what I think...

please explain. why do u think one can move up faster in IT than finance. im not attacking you, im just curious as to why u think that. maybe u know something i dont...?

Maybe I should rephrase it, because I don't think I was making sense either. LOL!

What I mean is when you get a promotion from one level to another level, I personally think that the raise you get from an IT position is much more than a raise you get from a finance position. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believed that I'm correct.

Let me ask you one question. You rather do finance or IT for rest of the life?
I personally think finance is boring.
Programming is the type of job I would pick. You get to do problem solving and it's more challenging.
Forget about the requirement analysis part, that's the most boring part in the development cycle. eh!
But I think OO design and implementation is very interesting and challenging.

 

[Aharami]

update

 

[Vic]

Nope, my answer wouldn't have changed even if the commute was less. I've worked in financial services (mortgage lending) for about 10 years and know from personal experience that there is great upward income and career potential in this field.