job offer

i wrote about having a few options previously. well, here's the situation i am in now.

i went for 3 interviews this week.

the interview for job 1 happened on wednesday. it was the second interview and it was for the role for something i was familiar with. the company is an mnc and had been in the red for a while. the top management team had just changed and the latest quarter results is in the black. the company is expected to be in the black possibly next year or two. as far as the role is concerned, it is a (near) individual contributor role, and the people are ok, not fantastic and so-so environment. 

the interview (i chose to call it an interview) for job 2 came kinda out of the blue. what happened was that i got a call from an ex-colleague from the saf who had left the service and started his own start-up early this year. we met up on thursday. he wanted me to join him and be a project director for one major project that he is hoping to win from mindef. ok, shan't go into details except that the offer was very good, profit sharing and all... but i already knew before he went into details that regardless of package, i will reject him. no more dealings with government people, especially mindef. pwee!

the interview for job 3 was on friday. this was for a school and the role is a newly created one. for this role, i will be overseeing the whole management team of the school and there seemed to be an urgency to get things in place. in short, tons of work and responsibilities. compared to the first interview, this one would possibly pay a lot more money too. also, although i wasn't too impressed after reading the details in the web, my sensing after the interview was that the environment/ people factor was actually very good. nonetheless, the vibes after the interview was very good.

this was where i ended up with huge dilemma by the end of friday. you see, i knew from the start that i didn't and would never take up job 2. as for job 1, the boss came back with an offer just before i went for job 3 interview. the offer was reasonable and i actually thought of not going for the third interview, but in the end, i went for it cos everything had been arranged. through the interview, my initial discomfort with job 3 totally disappeared and i walked out of the interview feeling good about it. and so, all things being equal, job 3 would actually be a more favorable choice. so... i was totally torn between job 1 and job 3. 

i did a quite facebook poll and asked quite a few of my friends. almost all said i should go for job 3. there factors were mostly to my advantage. potential, pay, people factor, workplace environment, etc. but here's the decision-making factor. job 3 has not made any offer. and if i know the system of the school, it would probably take some time before they can get back. feel good factor is afterall, just a feel good factor. nothing is guaranteed until an offer is made. just look at my previous 4 rounds of interviews... so, the fact remains that only job 1 has made an offer, and want an answer very quickly. so, all things being equal, i would go for job 1. but of cos, i would have to first negotiate for better terms first...

and if all goes smooth, i start work 1 april. let's hope it does not become an april fool's joke.

:-)