Which job offer to accept?

[Cerpin Taxt]

Job 1.) - Field Service Engineer for a major manufacturer of clinical laboratory instruments. Hourly pay with plenty of overtime opportunity, expense compensation, some on-call time, company car & gas card, laptop & phone, great benefits, local to my current area, requires extensive local travel, probably very demanding on my time. Likely less pay than Job 2 in the short run with lots of advancement opportunity.

Job 2.) - Regional Sales Representative for a major manufacturer of microscopes and microscopy equipment. Salary plus commission, expense compensation, company car plus mileage reimbursement, laptop & phone, great benefits (but not as great as Job 1), requires relocation across the state, make my own schedule, requires extensive travel out-of-town. Likely more pay than Job 1 in the short run with very little advancement opportunity.

Right now I'm leaning towards Job 1. While almost all of my work experience has been in sales, I'm feeling like a change from that mode of work is a welcome one. The pressures and uncertainties of sales quotas and sales cycles will not be missed. While Job 2 will offer more pay, I think I'm willing to trade that for advancement opportunities in the future, with even the possibility of moving to sales in Job 1's organization after maybe 5-7 years experience in service.

The relocation required by Job 2 is a bit of a plus and a minus, also. I would be moving back to my hometown where I have lots of family and friends, and cost of living will be substantially lower than in my current area. So not only will Job 2 likely pay more, but my dollars will go farther.

 

[Gothgar]

Advancement opportunity is great and all, but job 2 you get to make your own hours and more pay? The best advancement in the long run is always taking your resume somewhere else after you have more experience.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Job 2, and as Gothgar said once you hit a wall with that company move to a new one that will give you advancement. Job 2 you get more money, less expenses in your home town, make your own schedule, and (for me at least) travel are all huge reasons I would go with job offer 2 personally.

 

[Red]

I've got a sales background myself and I've been trying to break into pharma/medical device sales so Job #2 sounds better IMO.

If you're a good salesperson, you can work in several industries and your income doesn't really have a cap. If you choose Job #1, your sales documentation will stop, and you may be forced to only grow vertically with that company or that specific industry. If you continue to grow in sales, you can cross industries and work wherever you want and for whoever you want.

 

[Q]

For me, I'd rather do Job 1. Mostly b/c I wouldn't like to travel out of state a lot.

 

[MetalMat]

I currently am a sales rep for a company like what you describe in job #2. One of our divisions is microscopes, but I am in a different division.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: Gothgar
Advancement opportunity is great and all, but job 2 you get to make your own hours and more pay? The best advancement in the long run is always taking your resume somewhere else after you have more experience.

Well, I get to make my own schedule, which means on any given day I will decide what I want to do, but to properly do the job I'd still probably put in 50 hours a week or so. If I want to spend the whole day as an "office day" (meaning I'm not out visiting customers) I can decide to do that, but too much of that and sales will suffer. The job requires getting out and calling on customers in-person, doing product demonstrations and installs.

 

[spidey07]

Sales.

Anything you can do to get into sales. Tons of money.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Job 2, and as Gothgar said once you hit a wall with that company move to a new one that will give you advancement. Job 2 you get more money, less expenses in your home town, make your own schedule, and (for me at least) travel are all huge reasons I would go with job offer 2 personally.

Yeah, and when I say "out-of-town" travel, most of that will be an 1.5 hour commute to the largest university in the area. It will be a lot of time on the road, but not overnight all the time.

I will still have accounts farther away from home that will require several days out of town before returning home.

 

[DisgruntledVirus]

Originally posted by: Cerpin Taxt

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Job 2, and as Gothgar said once you hit a wall with that company move to a new one that will give you advancement. Job 2 you get more money, less expenses in your home town, make your own schedule, and (for me at least) travel are all huge reasons I would go with job offer 2 personally.

Yeah, and when I say "out-of-town" travel, most of that will be an 1.5 hour commute to the largest university in the area. It will be a lot of time on the road, but not overnight all the time.

I will still have accounts farther away from home that will require several days out of town before returning home.

That would be a negative for me then. I enjoy driving, but only some cars and even then driving numerous hours/day is not my idea of fun. I would still most likely go with #2 for more in my pocket money and the ability to make my own schedule (to an extent).

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Ok consider this: Sales in Job 1's organization pays significantly more than Sales with Job 2. With my sales background and several years experience in servicing the equipment (thus learning all about the technical side of things), moving to sales in Job 1 could be a very easy transition. I don't see it being as easy to move from Sales with Job 2 to Sales in Job 1's company.

 

[MetalMat]

Originally posted by: Cerpin Taxt

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Job 2, and as Gothgar said once you hit a wall with that company move to a new one that will give you advancement. Job 2 you get more money, less expenses in your home town, make your own schedule, and (for me at least) travel are all huge reasons I would go with job offer 2 personally.

Yeah, and when I say "out-of-town" travel, most of that will be an 1.5 hour commute to the largest university in the area. It will be a lot of time on the road, but not overnight all the time.

I will still have accounts farther away from home that will require several days out of town before returning home.

Traveling out of town gets old after a while. Many of our microscope guys cover multiple states.

 

[Gothgar]

Originally posted by: Cerpin Taxt

Originally posted by: DisgruntledVirus
Job 2, and as Gothgar said once you hit a wall with that company move to a new one that will give you advancement. Job 2 you get more money, less expenses in your home town, make your own schedule, and (for me at least) travel are all huge reasons I would go with job offer 2 personally.

Yeah, and when I say "out-of-town" travel, most of that will be an 1.5 hour commute to the largest university in the area. It will be a lot of time on the road, but not overnight all the time.

I will still have accounts farther away from home that will require several days out of town before returning home.

still... working your own time, even if you need to work at least 50 hours a week is priceless, do you have a family that'd you'd be leaving in the out of town travel?

 

[Red]

In this economy, 1 in the hand is better than 2 in the bush. You cannot predict when or even if you could transition into sales for Job #1. If you're a successful field engineer, they may never want to transfer you to sales. Or, they may want a 2 to 3 year commitment from you prior to exploring and sales opportunities.

If you take job #2 now, you will continue to get more sales experience and quality for a sales job @ company #1 whenever that position opens.

IMO, also check your PMs.

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: Red
I've got a sales background myself and I've been trying to break into pharma/medical device sales so Job #2 sounds better IMO.

If you're a good salesperson, you can work in several industries and your income doesn't really have a cap. If you choose Job #1, your sales documentation will stop, and you may be forced to only grow vertically with that company or that specific industry. If you continue to grow in sales, you can cross industries and work wherever you want and for whoever you want.

See, I was a bit afraid of this too, and yet another of my industry friends suggested that the diversity on my resume could be an asset instead of a liability.

Also, as I just posted above, it would be very possible that I could get back into sales with Job 1's company. I have the luxury of a very successful legacy preceding me in the sales organization with Job 1 (family member).

 

[Cerpin Taxt]

Originally posted by: MetalMat

Traveling out of town gets old after a while. Many of our microscope guys cover multiple states.

I'm currently covering 3 states and I decided to make this change when I realized how much more travel it was going to require of me to farm the business properly. Job 2 would be significantly less area than I currently have though.