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New Job!!! (Kinda)

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If you’ve been reading my posts lately, you know that I’ve been hinting at some job changes coming up. For the past year and a half, I’ve had two jobs.  Job A: My full-time (in person) academic job. Job B: Adjunct teaching part-time online for a different place. It sounds reasonable, but my “part-time” job was like working the hours of another full-time job and I knew the schedule was unsustainable long-term.

I want to tell you all the crazy details (I swear there was about a 48-hour-period where I was absolutely freaking out) but it’s probably in my own best interest to be vague.

Long story short…I guess I kind of experienced a “bidding war”???? That makes me sound like a prostitute – like I’m selling myself to the highest bidder. And I hate for it to come across that way, when I know that’s not who I am. But…that’s what happened.

I was offered a job for significantly more than my current salary. But when I went to resign, I was offered significantly more than the other offer to stay. I’m talking, my salary increased by about $40k in a 48-hour period. On paper, anyway (the contract has been signed, but the salary doesn’t go into effect until this summer, after my current contract ends).

I can’t even believe it! I’ve known there were going to be some changes, but I had fully expected to be reporting to you about having an entirely NEW job. There are some aspects of my full-time job that will be changing (more responsibility, etc.), but I’m staying in my CURRENT job and will be saying goodbye to my part-time job, effective this summer. One of the conditions of my new salary was that I had to sign an agreement not to seek outside employment in my area for 3 years so I cannot legally stay at my part-time place. Overall, it was a great deal and I was happy to sign it (there was a lot more than just the increase in salary, too; The package was quite generous compared to comparable positions in different departments and universities).

Our household income will still be a little less this year than last year (this raise doesn’t fully make-up for what I’m losing in terms of my part-time income, though it’s close. But additionally, hubs’ business continues to ramp down so his income is way down). Even so, it is an exciting thing to have secured such a huge raise after only being in my current position for a year and a half! Frankly, this type of thing is unheard of in academia! But I feel like this is also the culmination of a significant amount of hard work coupled with a bit of dumb luck/being in the right place at the right time and having a specific skillset and expertise that is highly valued. I love my full-time job and couldn’t be more thrilled that I get to stay!

Have you had any good news on the job-front lately?


20 Comments

    • Reply Ashley |

      Thanks for the sweet compliment! I do believe I am good at what I do but I also think a big factor is just that my specific skill set/expertise is valuable. So “fit” was a factor because they need something (which I can do) that may be hard to find in others.

  • Reply T'pol |

    How wonderful! Congratulations! Even though you may not be compensating for your second job totally, I am sure you will be saving some time for yourself and your family. That is a big plus too!

    • Reply Ashley |

      It will be a HUGE savings in time (and stress!!) and I’m excited to be able to dedicate myself more fully to my full-time position, too. : )

  • Reply Megan |

    My favorite thought about things like this is:
    “I believe luck is preparation meeting opportunity. If you hadn’t been prepared when the opportunity came along, you wouldn’t have been lucky.”

    All of the grinding and stressful work you did with those two jobs is what helped get you to this place. Congratulations!

  • Reply AY |

    Whoohooooo!!!!!!! ??? I am seriously celebrating with you! My husband is in academia and I know how unheard of this is!!! How amazing and such a great reward for all your hard work professionally and in paying off debt. I cannot wait to see your debt all paid back and you saving some serious cash. I’m guess it will happen by two years from now!! Good luck and we ar cheering you on!

    • Reply Ashley |

      I sure hope so! We were planning 2.5 years, but if we continue paying $3,000/debt each month we’ll actually have it fully paid in just at 2 years. That’s $36,000/year (when I’ve only planned/budgeted for $30k/year), but we’ve been making larger (3k-ish) sized debt payments so far this year anyway. With this big raise coupled with some cutting back and reducing savings, it might actually be possible to shave a full 6-months from our estimated time-schedule!

  • Reply AY |

    The question marks were firework emojis that didn’t translate! Oops! I’m not at all questioning why they would reward all your hard work 🙂

  • Reply Nicole |

    Congratulations!!! I am so happy for you!!! It’s obvious you’ve worked incredibly hard to get to this point, and now you are being rewarded for it. Yay!

    • Reply Ashley |

      Oh it was wild! I wish I could say I enjoyed it but I had so much stress and anxiety over the situation that I was just a mess! I literally went to my boss for the purpose of resigning (not to try to negotiate), so the whole situation caught me completely off-guard. It’s still a shock!
      The day I signed the contract was a serious celebration!!!! (but don’t worry, nothing too $$$. Went to Cheesecake Factory using a gift card we’ve had since Christmas) : )

  • Reply dh |

    I’m dying to know what that skill set is, but I’m certainly not expecting you to tell us lol.

    Can I ask you this though? Did you happen to develop that particular skill set because you knew it would be valuable in your field, or what it a “happy accident” along the way?

    I understand if you prefer not to answer my question.

    • Reply Ashley |

      More of a “happy accident.” If I’d really had some forethought I probably could have seen the value of my skill ahead of time, but the truth is that I just stumbled across it as a happy accident in grad school. Realized I had a natural talent and just kept honing and refining it across time.

  • Reply Alexandria |

    Congrats! What GREAT news and great timing. I know you have been working very hard. It’s nice when thing pay off and fall into place!

  • Reply Jasmine |

    Ashley, this is the second time recently where we’ve experienced similar happenings. We both bought homes around the same time.

    And I also just had a similar job situation. I had an offer for a job offering significantly more. I took it back to my company with the hope that they could get close to matching it, but fully ready to leave if they couldn’t. They came pretty close and given that this is the company I started my career with, and my future track within it, I decided to stay with them. My 25% raise went into effect this week and I’m very happy with the way it worked out.

    • Reply Ashley |

      Hi Jasmine! That is so crazy! It’s weird how life works sometimes, right? Congrats on the huge raise! I cannot wait until mine goes into effect!!! : )

So, what do you think ?