Am I crazy? (job advice required)

In My Humble Opinion
1

Here’s the thing:

Any decent-sized country is heterogeneous. I imagine Luxembourg doesn’t manage much heterogeneity other than “Lux-town”, “Lux-villages” and “Lux-commutes from another country M-F”, but who knows, they might surprise me.

I’m from a part of Spain that’s kind of weird in that we have many special laws; it’s also a place without any real big cities. The town where my mother and brothers live is “a big village” by most Spaniards’ standards, not so much for its size (which goes more into “small town”) as because they insist in identifying it with asparagus, artichokes and a “country bumpkin accent” (the accent is there, the main sources of earnings has been industry for over 50 years and is now being replaced by services; we have more computer stores per head than Madrid).

For the last few years my resume has bounced all over the place. 2000-2004 I worked for a single company, but all over Europe and the Americas. 2004 myself and several others got fired because the company didn’t know what to do with “high level Europeans”: HR didn’t have a procedure in place :smack:

9 months unemployed.

6 months in Costa Rica. For the last 3 I was 3 months ahead of the calendar. This project was pretty much done on my part when I left it, I’ve spoken with them later and know my part wrapped up well and they’re happy.

2 months in a town close to mine, where the client saw the sky crack open and a dove descend, illuminated by a shaft of light and following the evolutions of a whole orchestra’s violin section, because unlike the Madrid consultants they’d had until then I, being a “local”, talked straight and didn’t let them run over me. At one point, while I was being courted by several other companies, I got sick, had to leave work (dizzy, vertigo, leg tremors, stomach troubles) and the boss had the cojones to tell me “if you leave don’t bother come back!” I looked him in the eye as much as I was able to locate the eye to look in, said “bye”, and left. As I was sitting in my car waiting for the dizzy to pass enough to be able to call a cab, I got a job offer :stuck_out_tongue:

in my province’s capital. For a boss who claimed she wanted “people expert in their own fields, with initiative, backbone and ideas.” And that’s what she got, but not what she actually wanted: she wanted yes-men. At this point I was being paid about as much as a factory’s junior engineer.

And I got an offer for 6 months in Switzerland, paying twice as much (only, due to the way the CHF and EUR have been moving, it’s now 3 times as much!). I took this job with the understanding that it was for 6 months - I never intended to move to the German-speaking part of Sitzerland permanently!
Turns out that the final client (all these jobs except the first are subcontracting) does want me permanently, but they will never, ever, say so. It’s a string of 6-month contracts which can last until I retire, getting paid a ton but well, that and not having a complete idiot of a direct manager are the only two good points of this job. Oh yes: and it’s away from home, which is both a blessing and a curse; I can file a lot of the drama under “nothing I can do” and don’t need to put up with stuff like my SiL trying to cozy me up by showing me the latest clothes she’s bought (speak of not knowing someone).
I’ve been here for 3 months. The company is so bent on not giving information that they didn’t even give me the names of local medical insurance companies, I had to get them elsewhere (and thanks God for “a friend of a friend”). They just never speak clearly.

And now I’m being courted by yet another company “back home”. Single-owner company, he tries to hire “local” because we understand each other much better, having the same cultural background. The company has offices in Bilbao (main, 3h from “home”), Barcelona (where my Grandparents From Hell live) and Madrid. Most of the jobs are in Barcelona and Madrid. Right now they have a job starting next month for which they need someone with my experience; I’d be in the project from the start (which is a size=28 difference), helping design it and all. While they’re offering a permanent position, we all know the only permanent thing is death. The salary is probably going to be less than the current one. I may be able to skip on going “home” every week, specially if I can get the company to pay for an apartment and not a hotel. I mean, seeing the family is nice and all… except when all I’m expected to do is a-hum and a-ha :stuck_out_tongue: if nobody is going to ask “so, how you doin’?” I’d rather be long-distance.

Am I crazy for considering this offer (assuming the salary is still higher than the one before this)? In this sector it’s become pretty normal to jump jobs like a whore jumps beds, but I’m starting to wonder if this is too much jumping.

My current client is a huge pharma company, which I’m sure you’d all know. The “new” one would be a huge aviation related company which I’m also sure you’d all know.

2

The question is which job offers more in terms of security, and which offers more in terms of benefits.

Do you want to be in Spain? How far do you want to be from family? Looking at it long-term, which job will help your career more?

3

First of all, you’ll need a European to answer the jumping-around question (I’m from the U.S.). But it sounds like the jumping hasn’t caused you any problems yet, and one more probably won’t change that.

That being said, you should do whatever will make you happy. But why exactly are you considering moving at this time? Your current position doesn’t seem to have anything that’s a major drawback, except for your comment about their not giving you info about medical insurance. Whether or not they want to keep extending your contract should not be part of your decision, because it’s always going to be up to you whether you accept the extension. It sounds like they’re paying you quite well and you don’t mind being in Switzerland.

If it were my decision, I’d milk them for money until I really, really wanted to move and/or I got a much better offer. It sounds like you have no trouble getting offers.

4

If I were you, I’d be tired of all the jumping and want a position where I could put down some roots, get involved in the community, and not plan on jumping for a while. (What a co-incidence, while I otherwise have little in common with you, that does describe me. Too bad I don’t have all your lovely experience to get me hired where I want to be.)

Unless your work conditions are worse than your post generally makes it sound, I’d probably stay in Switzerland for at least 6 more months, probably a year or two.

Sure, that means you’d miss out on your present Spain-based opportunity. But you’d have more of a chance to settle in to Switzerland, and if you save enough of your pay, have more flexibility when the time comes to look for another opportunity closer to home.

And based on various other posts about your family, I think you deserve a bit of a sabbatical from them.

5

Personally I’d opt to hang out in Switzerland for a while more. Gaining distance from family is sometimes a good thing and you are already established out there. If you switch you’re going to have to go through the hassle of moving and settling in again. Not to mention hashing out the details of the new job and whether you get an apartment/hotel room/have to stay near the Grandparents from Hell.

Having said that, switching jobs around fast isn’t really a bad thing. It can just show that you are good at what you do and that different companies want you on board. And if you are not particularly fussed on being settled in one place then the Spanish job might suit given the three main locations.

Heck, just flip a coin. In the long run it will probably make no great difference cos you’ll end up content with whatever choice you make. :slight_smile:

6

Let’s see if I can clarify a point…

with my level of German, the only community I can get involved with here in German Switzerland is the local Spanish-expats’-club. The idea of spending years in a place where I’d have to learn language number four and it’s not a language that’s easy to learn (among other things, because not even local schools teach the local variety) has been making my stomach turn sommersaults since I was first told “oh, they actually want you for years.” Years? WHAT?

It’s actually more of a choice of staying 3 more months and going to places where people speak languages I understand, leaving now or biting the bullet and staying-staying. But this third I don’t fancy.

Heck, if it was FR-Switzerland or IT-Switzerland I probably would have said “thanks but no thanks” on the first call :frowning: We just need to all learn Mandarin…

7

Nava I may be reading more into this than you mean, but it looks to me as if you want encouragement to go back to Spain. I say if either Madrid or Barcelona are cities you want to live in, then go for it. Especially since they are both far enough way from family, except for the grandparents from hell in Barcelona, you’d still be able to maintain as little or as much contact with family as you want.

Also, I strongly suspect the idea of being in on a project from the beginning really excites you. I know it would excite me. So, I say accept the new position and see how it goes. From what I’ve already learned about you, if it turns out not to be so good, you’ll have no problem getting something else.

Go for it.

8

Ni hao?

No wait, I think that’s Cantonese.

From your OP, I think that you are sufficiently in demand that you can choose where to work. Therefore, perhaps you should choose the position that makes you and your immediate family (spouse, kids, etc) happiest. Maintaining distance from any “Relatives friom Hell” is a good thing: you need to save your own sanity first.

That being said, moving back to your native milieu would also be a Good Thing.

From your description, the company you are now working for sounds a bit too closemouthed to be healthy, and the “eternal temp/contractor” thing is also a red flag. In a lot of places, companies do that to weasel out of the obligations they have to full employees: minor things like pensions, health insurance, sick days, holiday time, etc.

Good luck!

9

OK, so staying in Switzerland longer than the 3 months you have left on your present contract is undesirable. (thus rendering my first attempt at advice worthless).

I guess the real question then becomes whether the job in Spain you are being offered now is a tremendous opportunity not to be missed, or a job that sounds better than it will turn out to be.

I’m not sure we can answer that question for you.

10

It sounds like you want to go back to Spain. If the position is a good fit and won’t hurt you professionally, go for it. Life’s too short to be miserable and lonely if you don’t need to be.

Can you get the job in Madrid. That might be enough distance from the family, so you can see them every so often but not be in each other’s pockets.

11

If you’re talking Airbus, aren’t they facing some serious problems? If so, I’d be hesitant to get involved in any company that had them as a major client.

12

Nava, I’d just go through and make as long a set of pro and con lists as I could come up with and then see how much I care about all the pros and cons.

On the pro side, so far you have: [ul]
[li]In on project from the beginning[/li][li]Closer to home[/li][li]In a place where language and culture are more familiar[/li][/ul]
On the con side, I can see:[ul]
[li]might be less stable than current job[/li][li]might be too close to grandparents [/li][/ul]
I’m sure you can add lots more. Seems like you’ve been getting lots of offers lately, even before you started the current job, so if the new possibility doesn’t feel right, I’d just stick to the current job a bit longer. But it sounds like you’d be comfortable in the new job and have a potentially cool opportunity. How much time do you have to decide?

Tell us more about what you’re thinking… Maybe that will help make it clearer.

Good luck.

GT

13

As someone who is currently experiencing the long-term down effects of living in a country where he can’t socialise easily, my advise would be:

“Family” isnt really socialising either.

Being in a country where you can speak freely and interact with people in a way you understand is, though.

So while I would recommend trying to get back to Spain (or France or somewhere where you speak the language better), I don’t know that I would recommend going back to having your after-work work being babysitting your mom and brothers, SILs, etc.

And also don’t forget that you’ll have no idea how your manager will be at the company scouting you out. From what I gather from what you’ve said elsewhere, Spain is still not all that big on top-shot technical women–so there’s a higher chance of encountering bigotry of some sort (again, assuming my gatherings are right.)

I would say that if you’re still enjoying the Switzerland experience (or at least not hating it), that you shouldn’t rush to get out. Definitely keep looking for something that looks good for a long-term span. And if the aviation company looks like it could be it, then go for it. If it just looks like a quickie fix for de-Germanization, I don’t know that you should be that quick.

Overall, I think you’ll be happiest living in an society you like, and with a boss you like. Making more money gives you security, but not happiness.

14

Thanks, y’all…

I still don’t know what will it be, but my main reason for posting was actually writing it down for my own clarification, that worked and you’re all helluva nice too.

One thing I’ve decided is that I’m not going to take a job again in a place where I don’t understand the language unless it’s very, very, very clear that I’m NOT staying. There was an email yesterday with an out-of-the-blue offer to move to Sweden (a startup that wants to hire people from southern and eastern europe and move them up there)… argh, that’s even further north! They don’t see the sun for months up there! And they speak Swedish! And it’s COLD! I’m not going to Sweden, no I’m not :eek:

If I don’t take this offer I’ll say “thanks but no thanks give me your email and I’ll drop you my updated CV when I’m next available” to anybody else who calls me from now on - and who is not in Sweden. Or Korea. Or Og-knows-where. Gee, I hope none of those letters in cyrilic I mark as spam are Russian job offers :stuck_out_tongue:

I’ll let you know.

15

I’m actually considering moving to Sweden, based on the idea that even if I lived in a country where English was the native language, my social life will still be mostly online. And in my online social life, most of everyone I get along with is Swedish (and speaks fluent English.)

But, of course, it may just mean that I end up stranded in a foreign culture again… goes back and forth from day to day…

16

I can appreciate the language problem, it can be pretty unpleasant.

I would not want to live anywhere where I can’t get by easily, quality of life is more important than a fat salary - unless one is paid real hardship money.

I’m a bit surprized that you aren’t mixing with English speakers, your English appears fluent and I would have expected it to be the common language in a pharma.

17

The coworkers can speak English. But they only do when speaking directly to myself and the other “foreigners”. I’ve been in the situation of people happily yapping away in German, then turning to me, saying “what do you think, Nava?” and having to say “what do I think about what?” “Sorry?” “You were speaking German, verstende es nicht.” “Oh. OH!” The French (all of whom are from right across the border and speak at least decent German) always get a kick out of it.

18

Maybe I’m reading more into this (and your other posting history…) than I should be, but ISTM you’re very ambivalent about going “back home”; but you’re tempted because you don’t really like it where you are right now. Am I on track so far?
So… my own personal impression (and I’m not you, so only you can say if this makes sense) is that, on the whole, you’re probably better off at least slightly distant from home and family. If you agree that this is the case, maybe you should stay up in CH for a bit more, but be on the lookout for job offers in other places.
Just MVeryHO, but I don’t think going back to Spain, especially near “home”, will be very good for you in the long run – as tempting as it may look. Again, just what I’ve gotten from reading the Message Board posts of an Internet Persona… I could well be (and probably am) way off!

FWIW.

19

I see what you mean.

Why don’t you think about a job in the USA ?