Anyone want to work through Job A vs. Job B with me?

[Pilsy]

PDQ all the specifics if you can help it. Bits and pieces are ok; I might ask to have this deleted anyway. 

This is going to get really long. I just need to get it out, and I welcome feedback if anything jumps out to you.

I'm anticipating a job offer and struggling with target comp, as well as whether this move even makes sense for me. I've had some BAD work experiences in the past and made a couple moves out of desperation, so now that I'm in a job/company I actually like and looking at what appears to be a great opportunity, my brain is going haywire. Part of me that can't make sense of leaving a job I don't hate, regardless of that role's limitations and the good things about my other option. Does that make sense? It's probably a weighty decision for anyone, but I feel like I can't reasonably assess a new opportunity without a heavy does of "what if it's awful there and I've given up a perfectly good job and screwed up my life???" mucking up the comparison. 

Current job (Job A)
1. Decent salary - While I'd love to be paid more (who wouldn't?), I feel fairly compensated for what I do and the flexibility I have. My starting salary in this role was a 20% bump from my last job, so I've felt valued since day one. 
2. Bonus is 15%, which is usually paid out in full, with 2020 being an exception. I have also received >100% with an exceptional performance review. 
3. 4 weeks PTO and 2 personal days in addition to standard holidays; half days on summer Fridays (which I don't usually take complete  advantage of for various reasons, but Fridays are super quiet, which is awesome)
4. 401k with generous match
5. I am currently WFH but will eventually need to return to work at least 3 days/week, and my commute is 45 minutes each way, which is a big drag. I love working from home.
**poof**

Prospective job (Job B)
1. Salary presented before interviews is an 18% base increase (see 401k note: 12% increase if adjusted for loss of 401k match). 
2. Bonus percentage not yet provided, but I anticipate it will be in line with current (15%). 
3. 4 weeks PTO - need to ask about personal days and holidays
4. No 401k (If I adjust the base for the loss of the 401k match, the increase is 12%, rather than 18%.)
5. 100% remote - There is a central office, but few people work there, so I wouldn't be the only remote person. 
**poof**

So, how hard should a job decision be? If I'm wringing my hands, does that mean there's too much doubt and I need to sit tight? Or am I caught up in my past mistakes and letting that cloud my decision? Ugh! 

And if the new job makes sense, would you bring equity into the comp discussion? If I make the move, I don't want to cut myself off at the knees on account of it being a tough decision, but I also don't want to be greedy or sound crazy. An old colleague of mine is telling me I'd be crazy not to request this, but I wonder if he's full of it. After my second interview, the recruiter told me the interviewers loved me and I'm the #1 candidate, so I should have some leverage, but I don't want to be absurd. 

If you read this far, I owe you a cookie. 

[niq]

(1) No 401k ... at all? Or just no match? nvm I saw the other post
(2) small companies can be much higher drama. Do you have any idea if this is true here? If it is do you feel like you can tolerate the higher drama?
(3) do you have any idea what your career growth might look like at either place. Does career growth look brighter at one or the other?

If you like remote work and are successful with it, *and* you're not worried about the drama situation, I would take job B.

I have no idea about compensation/equity, that probably depends a lot on the industry. If this is tech I would say value the equity at zero, unless it's straight up revenue sharing.

[Pilsy]

Thanks, niq! I know that was a tough wall of text to get through, and I appreciate the feedback.

The drama question is a good question I haven't considered and will now. I've worked for a couple smaller companies, one of which definitely had a lot of drama, coming right from the top. Blech! The other was fine, I just didn't enjoy my work there. Anyway, thanks for raising the point.

PDQ

And yes, this is tech. They've been on a Fast Company list of top innovators, and they're both profitable and have Series A funding, but this is all new to me.

[ellipses84]

That is a tough choice. What you should keep in mind is that no decision has to be forever. If you don’t like it, you could find something new in a year or two or go back to your past company. If you like it, you could stay for a decade and then move to the role you really want at your old company or somewhere else. If you’ve been at your current company for a few years and don’t know if you’d be happy there for the rest of your career, I would definitely consider the new job to add some skills to your resume.

I think you’ll find as much or more flexibility with a 100% WFH position. If you have concerns about support, networking, flexibility, etc. think of some specific questions to ask to address those worries and that may help guide your decision. I’d ask questions about company culture and workload. I’d want to make sure they didn’t expect people to be on call 24/7 wfh.

In situations like this I’m always a little gutsier with my counteroffer because you don’t have much to lose. You either stay where you’re at or you move and get paid even more. If the job isn’t everything you hope for, having better compensation is a nice consolation until you find a better fit.

[juliej]

Yeah, I concur about equity value. My husband just took a job with a big chunk of equity as part of his compensation, but they also went public five days after he started, so there was actual value there (his equity was a stock grant vs. options). His company also doesn't currently have a 401k match, although they've hired a benefits person whose entire job is to build their compensation packages to be competitive with other public tech companies, so we're guessing it's coming back. We were able to negotiate a signing bonus to make up for the missing match and the fact that the equity has a four-year vesting period and a one-year cliff (the equity grant is spread out over four years, but we won't see the first fourth until his first anniversary). In your case, since it's sounds like any equity would be in the form of options, I wouldn't turn down equity if they offered it, but I also wouldn't include it in my compensation total.

I'd probably take option B, but:
- I like the flexibility of remote work and have done it for a long time, and I'm at a place where if I even consider a job with any in-office time, my commute must be 15 minutes or less (which makes sense for us geographically; there's lots of places that's just not an option). And if it's a remote-first company, which it sounds like it is, they're better situated to deal with the challenges of a remote workforce than companies who may have just recently pivoted or are more hybrid in their approach.
- I like new challenges, both in the work I'm doing and the environment I'm in. In my corner of tech, things change rapidly, but those changes take a while to trickle down at a practical level, so when there's a chance to transition to a role that lets me experiment with the new stuff, it's very appealing.
- I like the idea of obvious advancement opportunity. And on some level, I see companies that have those obvious pathways as potentially better nurturers of an individual's career path (vs. hiring someone to plug a hole).

[origami]

Do you have any sense of what hours you’d have to work with Job B? I’m in tech and when I see “tech startup” I think “crazy long work hours” but maybe that’s not the case here.

[Pilsy]

Sept 16, 2021 7:51:52 GMT -5 origami said:

Do you have any sense of what hours you’d have to work with Job B? I’m in tech and when I see “tech startup” I think “crazy long work hours” but maybe that’s not the case here.

9 - 5 with the occasional meeting outside those times, which is what I do now, too. I occasionally have to work late when it's busy or I've had to do something personal on work time and am catching up, and it's not uncommon for me to have meetings at 6 or 7 a.m. with Europe. 

I asked very directly, because I was concerned. I always put in my time and stay on top of my work, so I know I can do the job, but for me, there's more to life than work, and I don't want to work somewhere that expects me to be tied to my laptop or phone all hours of the night. It felt strange to raise the point, as I've always feared bringing up that kind of thing is a red flag and will make people not want me, but I have nothing to lose this time around.