Two weeks' notice

Well, I did it. Last week I put in my two weeks' notice. It was bittersweet - my job has been insanely stressful (my blood pressure has been creeping up the last two years), but I really love (almost) all the people I've worked with. And as I mentioned in my last post, they had been very pleased with my performance (even though I personally don't think I was working up to my potential). I've been ready to move on, though, and hopefully to a position with less stress.

Where am I going? I got a job in an industry I'm very excited to be joining. It's a pre-IPO start-up doing some amazing things. They met my salary ask without negotiating me down (I had intentionally over-asked assuming they would), and I'm getting stock options. They also agreed to let me have a week off about one month in (vacation doesn't usually start until 90 days out) in exchange for me starting on the earlier of their two proposed starting dates.

However... I messed up a bit. I didn't negotiate to cover the bonus from my soon-to-be-former job, and when my old company mentioned a retention bonus, I didn't get a number from them to take to the new job. Live and learn! I was very ready to just get everything over with. Sadly, this means I won't be paying off my credit cards as soon as I wanted/expected, but the pay increase I'm getting will be going toward my credit cards. My current projection is that they will all be paid off by the end of June 2022, but I'm making a lot of guesses about my net pay and budget with the new job. 

Another minor bummer about the new job is that it's on the opposite side of town from me, which means I'll have a heck of a commute. Luckily, I love audiobooks, and once I get past downtown, it will be a reverse commute. My gym has a location on that side of town as well, so the tentative plan is that I'll go work out after work, which will give traffic time to die down. I had offhandedly mentioned an off-peak schedule to the hiring manager on my way out from my interview and he didn't immediately shut that idea down, so that could be a possibility as well.

I am considering moving to that side of town next year, if the commute really gets to me. My condo is enough of a disaster that I wouldn't be able to get it on the market in the next couple of months, and if I moved now, my housing expense would basically double, which would cut into my credit card repayments. A one-year delay, though, gives me plenty of time to declutter and make necessary updates (new flooring, for example) without having to stress too much. Even if the housing market cools off, I should still make a tidy profit on this place.

Job hunting update

As I mentioned last week, I've started applying for jobs. I'm trying to be a bit judicious in only applying for things that sound interesting to me and for which I'm qualified. (I am allowing myself to stretch some, since apparently it's much more common for women to only apply for jobs they definitely meet the criteria for, while men are more likely to apply for jobs they don't quite have the qualifications for.) 

So far I've had two phone interviews that have gone really well, and the salaries in the market are going to be such a boost to my debt payoff plan and future investing plans. I'm looking at a minimum 20% boost by moving from my current job.

One of the things I struggle with is imposter syndrome, which is wild because I absolutely have the experience that these job posters are looking for, and I'm very open about where I have drawbacks (but also that I love to learn new things).

I am a little bummed because the first job I applied to two weeks ago rejected me, but I was already ready for that to happen after I opened the cover letter last week and re-read it - good grief but it was terrible. It was a good start, but I definitely missed some critical language that would have better conveyed my enthusiasm and suitability for the job. I learned my lesson and have crafted better cover letters in the intervening time. 

It's interesting how different job hunting is this time around. A decade ago, when I was fresh out of undergrad with a liberal arts degree, I was not a top candidate for anything (and to be honest, I didn't know what I wanted to do). I enjoyed where I ended up, but it was not very well-paying in the grand scheme of things, which prompted my going to grad school. I took on debt in grad school, both student loans and credit cards (frivolous spending, sigh), but I'm so thrilled at the opportunities that my master's degree has presented me. I'm in a career that challenges me mentally and is decently necessary to the economy as a whole, so I have skills that are transferrable and in demand. That means that I can command more in salary and also find a job that suits me, rather than feeling pressured to take whatever was offered because it was the only thing on the table. I'm excited to see where this next step takes me!