Job questionFollow

Ok, I am in a rare situation right now. Given my skillset and the fact that a number of tech jobs are starting to flow back into the US, I've been getting a rather large number of potential job offers. I threw my resume on Monster.com about a week ago, and since have been contacted by about 7 companies, 3 of which I actually applied to.

Now, here's the question - I've never been in a situation like this. I feel like I have the flexibility to pick and choose. All of the jobs seem somewhat interesting for their respective reasons - for instance, one is a modeling agency startup looking for a technician. Another is a medical imaging company that needs site technicians. One is a telecommunications company. They're all pretty cool, so I really can't value one over the other until I go through the interviews. Is it wrong for me to show interest in all of them? Is it better to just show interest in one, follow through to the end, and see if it works out or not? Or is it better to interview at all of them, see what they offer, and then choose the one that I think suits me best?

Like I said.. its kind of a rare situation. I come from a family of factory workers who had to beg for work at times... so having corporate recruiters call me for a change is kind of... cool. I feel like a free agent. I just don't know how to procede. So can anyone share some wisdom with me?

edit: Imaging is a noun, imagining is a verb. Somehow I confused them.

Edited, Nov 27th 2006 9:35pm by scubamage

I speak from experience when I say that working for a start-up company can be pretty rough. I worked for Hoku Scientific a few years ago and even though I was the Executive Assistant I got some seriously *** pay (20k/yr) and was expected to work in excess of 55 hours per week. Work which included painting walls, ripping out carpeting, and pouring cement. Add in that I was sent on beer runs and was expected to hang out with stuffy Phds AFTER work and during holidays and I just couldn't take it.

Depending on the size of the company, you'll probably see the bare minimum benefits and expect to put your lifeblood into the company in order to help it succeed. While it can of course pay off, you have to ask yourself if you're ready for that kind of stress.

Well heck it's different if it's an at home job, at least go in and see what the pay is!

dude! you can take the modeling job and another one and draw 2 salaries.

Hah! I was thinking the same thing (that and what the hell am I still doing at work!?).

Second point: Let me take a moment to say "told ya...". Too bad the economy is a mess I suppose. ;)

Final point: /agree Pikko. Startups are very very tricky. If you're young and looking for something that might turn into a huge opportunity, go ahead. If you're a bit older and need/want more stability, I wouldn't recommend it. In some cases (heck in *most* cases) you should be more interested in a company that is going to keep you around for the next 10-20 years, that you'll want to work at for the next 10-20 years, and that will itself still be around in 10-20 years. Even if the starting pay is a bit lower, job security is worth a hell of a lot.


I'll also agree with the "interview everywhere" suggestion. Companies are not going to dislike you because you interview at multiple places. Be discrete, but it's not a dealbreaker. I've never once chucked a potential hire because I got the feeling he was interviewing at multiple places. That's the kind of silliness that maybe happens in some fields, but not ours. Heck. I *expect* that if I'm interviewing someone for a position that the person probably has resumes at a half dozen other places and is interviewing at at least some of them. If anything the fact that several other companies are looking at you seriously is a positive for me because it means that I didn't misread your resume or get it handed to me because somebody made a mistake in the HR department.

You don't want to brag about it, but don't feel worried that you're doing it. No one's going to ask you about it. It will give the interviewers a bit of a question mark if you go out of your way to mention it though (comes off like you're trying to artificially inflate your own worth). Just interview at as many places as you can. There's nothing wrong with looking at offers either. No one should expect you to accept a job without knowing how much you're getting paid. Typically, you have a couple weeks to respond to an offer, so you should be able to get enough in that time frame to get a feel for whether any particular company is trying to ***** you over.


Most of all. Relax. Be yourself. Let them do the work. Just show them what you can do, and then make a decision as to which job to take based on pay and comfort.