Something More Relevant
I’ve run into a bit of a dilemma today.
About a couple weeks ago, my friend Jorge asked me if I wanted a full time job making $10 an hour, working 40 hour weeks. That sounded good to me! One thing that is a little off setting is that it’s making saws…making saws for this company called Bad Axe something. Apparently they make really nice saws and he gets orders from all over the world. Anywho, I told him I couldn’t do anything like that until my summer classes were done. He just said nevermind because they needed someone asap and I still had a couple weeks to go.
Well, today he sends me a message saying the guy still needs someone really bad and I can basically have the job. I was out running errands in my work out clothes, as i had intended on working out right after class, and I had just picked up my lunch from Festival, when Jorge told me to come over asap and have an interview with this guy who apparently really wanted to meet me. Here we go. I love Jorge, but sometimes he oversells and then I just feel bad and inadequate. I told him I needed to eat and he says "don’t worry about it. Just eat when you get here. It’ll be fine" Wow, this is informal.
So I get there, and Jorge shows me around. This guy is running this business from his basement pretty much. Apparently next year they are finding a space outside of the home. Jorge showed me around and told me everything they did. To be honest, a lot of it was kind of going in one ear and out the other just because I was still sort of in shock of what was happening, and I wasn’t all that interested in the work. Afterwards, Jorge left, and the guy semi-interviewed me. He told me about the company, what they do, etc etc. It seemed like a great business…I mean he says they are very profitable, enough that his wife who is a higher manager in some big company is leaving her 6 figure job to keep running the company.
To be honest, what appealed to me most was the money. I’d basically be making $400 a week, minus some for taxes. I currently make maybe $150/week at Bamboo House. My struggle with whether or not to take this job is that of a few things…
1. I don’t want to have 2 jobs during the school year in fall. I tried this last year and it lasted a month before I couldn’t take it anymore, and I stuck with Bamboo because I liked it better AND the money was better than Shopko. He told me he doesn’t want just a summer thing..he wants a little longer term than that and he was asking if I could do 15-20 hours a week. To be honest, I want a max of 20 hours a week no matter what from BOTH jobs, combination wise. I do want to stay with Bamboo House because I like it there, and as much as I can’t stand the manager, I still feel bad leaving during a time where he’s already begging me to come in when I have school. I guess it’s just loyalty. I did however work it out so that I could have about 15 hours a week, all the hours being on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, allowing me to have Monday and Wednesday to still work at Bamboo as planned, and still get Friday night and Saturday night at Bamboo…but then I will not have very much time at all for studying…and even if I Do get some studying, I will have no time for me. This whole work out plan I’ve started will fall t hrough as soon as school starts..or even as soon as this job starts.
2. This is my last free summer, most likely. I have one more semester of school, and after that I should be finding a "big girl job." which means…no summer…work all the time like everybody else except paid vacations and whatnot. If I take this job, my last 6 weeks of summer will be completely gone because I’ll be working 60 hour weeks total – 40 hours of saw making and 20 hours of serving at the restaurant. Like I said it would be great money, and I know many college students work this way already…I guess I just have a hard time giving this up. I do know that I could pick up more hours easily at Bamboo House..and I’d still get 2 full days a week off if I wanted, and if I work a little more, I WOULD be making a little more money…just a little though.
It’s a really tough decision and I keep going back and forth on it.
One friend recommended that I just tell him that I can work the summer, but can’t work the school year…and let him decide whether or not he wants to have me. To be honest, he’s currently desparate. He only has Jorge, and they are already 5 months back logged. An extra hand even for 4 or 5 weeks could help him out even a little.
Thoughts?