Submitted by JohnSwanson on
in
Forums
BLUF: I have been interviewing for an internal position, but will likely be taking an external one instead in several months.
I have been a manager at my current firm for about 3 years and things are going just fine. Now I'm ready for the next challenge and started conversations with another area about one year ago that would provide some great advancement for me within the company.
More recently an opportunity just came up with a startup which has been practically my dream job. They just removed their CTO so I could replace him and are currently working on a buy-out package for me to join them sooner rather than later. If they can't do that, then it'll probably be May once I've received my payouts when I would be joining that company.
Things had looked like they stalled out on the internal job, but of course within a day of the startup contacting me, the director called me to get things going and now they want to move very quickly. So now I feel like I'm pretty stuck. I would not take the internal job just to quit a few months later. However, what if things fall through with the startup for some reason? Then I've just killed my career at my current company. How can I stall the interview process internally without throwing up big red flags? I have an email from their VP sitting in my inbox that represents one of the final interviews and am not sure what to do.
Thanks!
Pros and Cons
Sit down with some paper and write out the pros and cons of both. Talk to your spouse, family, and friends. Talk to trusted co-workers. Personally I'd tend to stick with my current company if I thought my future could continue to be bright. Have you spoke to your boss about your future in your current company and what you could achieve long term? Are you just bored and ready for more responsibility? Can you achieve your dream in your currently company? Startup are cool, exciting, in vogue, and they are very risky. If it is truly your dream, the thing you have always wanted, the pinnacle of your professional career, then it should be seriously considered. Life is short. Just be realistic about the risks if you leave and what you're losing by leaving your current company. Good luck, I hope it works out.
Pursue both
As Mark would say you don't have anything until you have an offer. Continue on both paths and when one makes an offer then you can say yes or no. There are several podcasts on this.
Good luck,
Dawne