Job Situation - 10/30/07

Just over a month ago I was approached by my employer previous to getting sick. I was actually ready to try again and go back after being off for almost two years on disability and ended up being laid off. Coincidence, I don't know. I guess perhaps not since there were some others let go as well. Anyways, I digressed, I was approached by HR to possibly come back in a full time capacity, working out of the Markham office. For those that don't know, Markham is just north of Toronto. So I was dealing with HR, filled out their forms and then just about 1 1/2 weeks ago, I received a call from a director in Montreal. He was the hiring manager for a division of this new group and wanted to have an interview with me. However, he felt I was also a good fit for another division within the same group so he wanted me to hold off on coming for an interview until this other director had an opportunity to review my resume. I was told that I could expect a call very soon to schedule an interview with both directors - kill two birds with one stone. This way I could potentially have a pick at which division I wanted to work for. I still haven't heard anything.

The reason I'm writing this is not so much to tell you what I just said rather it's to solicit opinions, serious ones on what you think I should do. See my predicament is this; on one hand I'd love to work for them again as they were an excellent company to work for - they pay well, have good benefits, all the people, well most are very nice and good to deal with, I always worked on interesting and challenging projects, and I'd be comfortable going back into a familiar setting. On the other hand, I don't know if I'm ready to go back to any job full time. I tried working full time for another company (the same company I do part time work for now) but after a day and a half, it didn't work out and I had to resign. However, it wasn't totally the job that was the problem but I'll get into that in another post. Given the instability I've been through for the past four days, I'm just not sure that I want to move back to Toronto with my son just yet. I wouldn't have any support network other than mental health professionals so if I had a crisis, my son and I would be screwed. The other factor that I must consider, and I consider this very seriously, is that my son has been bounced from place to place and school to school so much over the past four years that I don't think it's in his best interest to move him in the middle of the school year. It would also require switching hockey clubs and Scouts Canada cub groups which isn't a huge deal but a pain nonetheless. While you may say, just leave your son here with Grandma, Grandpa and his aunt but that's a big responsibility on their part and I don't think it would work out. Besides that, my son and I have become VERY attached to each other, I think in large part due to how much I've been away in hospitals and the like so I think it would be very hard on both of us to be separated for such a long time. Yes, I would come down every weekend but I don't think that it would work.

Oh, and there's one other factor that I must consider and it's another big one - I'm completely broke. I just bought a used car and it took all of the financial resources I had and more (had to borrow off my sister and brother-in-law). To move, I would require at least $3000 to pay for things like first and last on rent, first groceries, clothes, etc.

So having said all that and now that I have it down and out of my head, I think it's pretty obvious that I can't go back to Toronto just yet. What I'm considering is staying in the area I'm presently in until the end of June and plan from there. That way, my son would be out of school and finished hockey and cubs. I would also have had the opportunity to save some cash to help cover the costs I mentioned above and I would hopefully be much more stable by then. I could start looking for a job in the beginning of June, hopefully back at my old company but perhaps somewhere else with plans to move back to the big city and start my new job in July.

I've also considered saying fuck the information security industry altogether and go back to school for something like Business Management. My plan then would be to own my own business, perhaps in something like real estate and remain in this area.

What do you think?