Living the Dream (An Advice Thread)

[Vince, Pt. II]

Hey all, been a while since I posted one of these. I have an opportunity coming up, and I am not at all sure what to make of it. The rundown:

I am currently "living the dream." I'm a business analyst for a large company.

• I am paid well. Per basic Google searches I am comfortably above the median pay for my role.
• I have great benefits. A pension and 401k matching, not to mention complete medical benefits.
• An incredible schedule: four 10 hour shifts, Monday through Thursday.
• I generally enjoy the work I do.

The cons:

• Leadership is...not great here. I get very little support, and the team that I built and designed around having 6 people has been cut down to...just me. With the same workload.
• We are currently going through some budget cuts; I am confident enough that I am safely employed that I wouldn't even consider it a "worry." You can't completely get rid of the thought, but it would be a tremendous surprise if I were let go.
• My commute is pretty terrible. I live 45 miles away from the office, and while I can mostly avoid traffic...2 hours of driving per day when you're already working 10-13 hours on a workday gets old fast.

I am 36, engaged (wedding date not set yet, but most likely late next year), and live in a townhome five minutes from the house I grew up in that my fiance owns outright. We are not pregnant, have no children, and while we definitely want kids, we are hoping to wait a year or so after marriage (she's 30 right now).

But what if I could actually live the dream? My favorite sports team in the world is currently hiring a statistical analyst for their front office. I check literally every single box they are asking for, am a huge fan, and basically already do the work they would need in my spare time for fun - clearly not to the degree that they would be looking for, but any of you who have been in online leagues with me know that I can be a little silly when it comes to stuff like this. I have to imagine the pay and benefits they will offer will come in below (possibly significantly below) what I currently enjoy. The position clearly states must be available to work nights and weekends per the season schedule...but honestly, I am in about as good a place in my life as any to make that kind of schedule work. I have submitted an application just as a matter of course - obviously I am way ahead of myself even considering these questions yet, but I cannot think of a better place to chat about the possibilities of this situation than here.

So what think ye, FOFC? How close (in terms of compensation/benefits) would an offer have to be to get you to consider giving up your current situation for a chance to get into a front office?

[JonInMiddleGA]

This 50 y/o still regrets not running off to be a roadie about 30 years ago AND passing up a west coast radio gig around the same time. Neither seem likely to have led to the same life, nor probably to the same total earnings, that I have now.

I don't know what else I can tell ya.

[Edward64]

I'm a conservative guy so I probably would not make the move.

Doing what you love is great, but doing what you are okay with and good at is also pretty good. TBH, a 2 hour commute isn't that bad, in Atlanta I would budget 50 min each way without traffic. You will have a family soon and stability is important.

I guess if your fiance is making pretty good money and is okay with you pursuing your dream then sure. But my guess is likely no, lukewarm and/or concern.

My suggestion is to plan for this after you retire. Save a ton of money, don't overspend, retire at 50 and then do what you want.

It sounds as if the current job has you stressed and you need more work-life balance. You have options. Go look for same (or +1) job at another place?

[Butter]

How close it would have to be depends on my debt situation and what the fiancee is making and could you count on that to be dependable. Plus, are they ok with you taking the pay cut.

For me, the answer would probably something like 60% of my current base pay, with some benefits and some 401k match, with there being flexibility around any of these metrics, should any of them be significantly worse or better than the others.

I mean, it's a freaking front office. Of course you go for it. The other consideration would be, what is the job market like for your career? If it is good for seekers now, it would be even more of a draw to do it, because if you do it for a year and it is significantly worse than you thought, you just go find another job.

After having worked at a job that I like but don't love for 15 years, there really is something to be said for "if you do what you love, you won't work a day in your life".

[PilotMan]

That was my dream job too. As much fun as being an airline pilot is, being a statistician for a baseball team was always #1. I say that it's an awesome opportunity. One thing to consider is what is the expected turnover for that position? Is that a "lifetime" job, or is it something that people generally move in and out of? Does it change depending on who is in the front office? Because if you're giving up security, or think that you might be back on the street in a few years it's probably not worth the move. At your age, and stage of life, if you can get locked into a career that you know you'll never have to leave, you'd be about a block over from easy street. That's my advice.

[MrBug708]

Why not apply for it and see what happens? Seems like you haven't even applied for it and these positions are pretty highly sought after. If imagine the weekends and nights are in-season right? Didn't realize you wanted to work with Andrew Friedman that badly

[albionmoonlight]

I've heard that jobs in "dream" industries like sports and movies can be tough because they always have so many people who want to live that dream and do that work that they don't have to treat the current employees as well as they otherwise would.

That said, it seems like there's no downside in applying. If you don't get it, then at least you tried. If you do get it, then maybe you can negotiate for higher pay/benefits, etc. You are coming in from a position of strength because you don't need the job. You want the job if and only if they can make it worth your while. So apply and hold them to that standard.

[digamma]

Good luck with the process. As an aside, I bet someone who turned down a higher paying job to work in a lower paying job in baseball stats and operations might be really good at FOF. I mean, if that's how you wanted to apply yourself.

[Easy Mac]

You only have one life, just do it.

It wasn't a dream job, but I got offered a job in a field completely unrelated to what I'm still in/was in back then. I had been doing temp work for 8 months after about 2 months of unemployment and had accepted a job in the field I fell into after college. For some reason the head of an insurance company really liked the work I did in the short time I was temping there and offered me a full job, training, everything. I literally had only the slightest idea what they actually did and was terrified I'd fail. I had only been married 10 months, was in a new city and decided to just stick with what I was comfortable with. I mean, if I take the job, life works out differently, I don't have the child I have, so I have no actual regrets, but it still nags me sometimes to wonder where I'd be if I took that chance on the job.

The worst that happens is they say no, or they say yes and you hate it and come crawling back into your current field.

[Logan]

It's definitely worth pursuing, and then make the decision once it gets a little further down the road if necessary, as was said above.

The only question/concern in my mind would be, after the initial excitement wears off, is it just another job? I probably wouldn't want to deal with much more than a 10% hit to my current comp to guard against that.

Unless you were very comfortable that if/when you get burnt out/turned off by the job, the experience you are getting along with the name recognition will allow you to make up for that with your next step.

Good luck. And remember to change your password if you leave.

[Drake]

My personality is generally pretty risk-averse...which was okay when I was younger, but I'm 46 now. I've worked in a "pays well but the work doesn't excite me" environment for the last 20 years.

My advice as a guy ten years older than you is this: I wish that I'd have done something interesting rather than "comfortable" all those years ago. I had my excuses (young family, sole income, blah, blah, blah). I'm good at what I do and my office considers me to be an essential employee...and I don't give a shit about it. I don't feel like I'm contributing anything of value. It's like Useless Talent #67, only they pay me enough for it to for it to not feel completely useless.

Look, I'm not a "men are defined by what they do professionally" kind of guy...but fuck, we sort of are. We can't help it. You spend 50 hours a week doing anything, and it sort of becomes a default lens through which you view the world.

Do the cool thing. Do the sexy thing. Do the thing that makes you want to brag to people at parties about what you do.

[Vince, Pt. II]

Thanks for all the responses so far everyone. I have definitely already applied (had done so before even posting this); I figure there is literally zero harm in seeing what is possibly out there and worst case scenario saying "thanks, but no thanks" if I even get so lucky as to have a decision to make.

My fiancée is crazy supportive of the idea of me working for the team. She's a huge fan too, and knows exactly what it would mean to me to get the gig. One of the other caveats for me is that she is currently on a leave of absence from work because she suffers from debilitating migraines nearly every day. She left work last September, and while we got her back in there this past May, the migraines came back and she has been out ever since. She has run out of paid leave, so I currently am the sole income. That being said, the townhome is paid off and we have minimal debt (a few thousand left on her car is all), so we are not at all uncomfortable. Assuming she can kick the migraines eventually, she will get back to nursing and have a solid income to pair with mine.

The main reason I am reluctant in any way (outside of the pay/benefits) is that my current job IS easy street. I have 9 years with them in various roles, and most of my co-workers are longer tenured than I am. I enjoy the work, and although upper management likes me where I am, there is the potential for upward mobility over time. What albion said above rings very true - stability in the world of sports seems to be a fleeting thing at best, and trading in a higher paying, better benefit package job for one that is also less stable is pretty scary.

[bhlloy]

Assuming you are financially comfortable enough to absorb the lower pay, I'd totally go for it. I'd kill to do something I loved rather than punching a clock for the next 20 years.

[corbes]

What stood out to me about this scenario is that (1) you are about to get married and (2) plan on having children and (3) the job calls for working evenings and weekends.

What does your fiancée think about the relationship between those three facts?
Have you discussed your expectations and hopes for how life will work after children?
Do you expect each other to be home every night?
Do you expect each other to share in the parenting of the children?

[tarcone]

Easy choice. Go for the dream job. Working for a pro sports team is about as cool a thing I can imagine.
Make less money? What expenses do you have? No mortgage. Shoot, that is huge.

To me, money is not a big factor. If I love what Im doing, I do it for the love not the money. If this job with the team is something you would love to do, its a no brainer.

But, and this is a big but, would making your hobby your job ruin your love for it? And leave you with regrets. and Hate for your hobby and thus your job?

That is the big question. But I vote do what you love.

[CraigSca]

My nephew got a job with the Dodgers last year as an analyst in R&D and then got promoted to an analyst for their baseball operations. My understanding is the pay isn't very good, and it's by the hour. He and his wife decided to move to LA to see if it works out (like all of us, he would like to be a GM someday). No kids for now, so it's the right time for them to do it.

Looking forward to hearing how it works out for you.

[Izulde]

If you get the job offer, take it. The professional sports industry is very much a closed society. Once you get in, it becomes incredibly easy to get a job and a promotion, provided you have networking skills and can build relationships. That's the biggest takeaway I got when I was in the Sports Business Classroom at the NBA Summer League.

As for your original question, I would literally have to pay to have a job since I'm unemployed right now, so obviously I'd jump at a dream job employment opportunity. Of course, my life situation is such that I can go anywhere in the US (overseas is problematic for more than a year due to my parents' health issues - I need to be a domestic flight away in case of an emergency situation).

[JeeberD]

A couple months ago I decided to start actively looking at HR positions with sports franchises as a way of combining my two passions. The more I looked, though, the more I realized that the hours are long and irregular (nights and weekends), and the pay not that great. Didn't I get into HR and leave the restaurant biz in order to get away from those hours? That's when I decided it was OK to leave my two passions separate.

[cody8200]

I'd do it and have a couple of times (moved from one comfortable position to another that was a better fit/more interesting). The last time I did it 3 years ago, we had 2 kids, the previous time I moved I was a week from us having out 2nd, and the time before that, it was a week before we got married. I told my wife that as long as we don't have another kid, I won't randomly quit my career again.

These days I would never be willing to drive more than 10 minutes or more to work. I use to drive 30 minutes each way and then realized that it was an hour per day, 5 hours per week, 50 weeks per years and that I was basically working nearly 6 weeks for free for the pleasure of working for that company. Now I do my own thing and work at home most days. When I go to meetings, I do them around 10 or 2 so traffic is way less. Since I made the move 3 years ago, I have never and could never go back (and I'll be honest, every time I made one of these 'risky' moves, it has opened up opportunities that made the move much better financially so I have lucked out). Good luck!

[Vince, Pt. II]

Thread necromancy for an update:

The San Francisco Giants never responded to my application, and I've gotta say that as exciting as it would have been, I'm pretty happy with the way everything turned out.

I've been married now for four years - shortly after the initial post in this thread, we found out my wife Jenn was going to lose her insurance and be put on Cobra. Rather than spend ~$1,000 per month for that coverage, we spent $50 and went down to the courthouse to get hitched so she could be put on my insurance. She never did make it back into the working world, but has been a tremendous stay-at-home mom. Our daughter Brooklynn is 18 months old, and in a few hours we will be welcoming our second child to the world (we don't know the gender yet).

If I had taken a large pay cut, it may have forced Jenn back into the working world, and who knows whether or not that would have adversely affected her health. We almost certainly wouldn't be two kids deep at this point.

I'm still at the same company, and on the cusp of my third promotion since the initial post in this thread. Life is pretty damned good, and I'm very thankful for all that I have. It's crazy to think that 21 years ago I found out about some game called The College Years and stumbled across this forum. When I first joined, I could barely drink legally; now I'm twice as old, half as clever, and maybe a little wider. I mean, wiser.

Thanks for always being a great place to share a story, ask for advice, and lend an ear, FOFC.

[albionmoonlight]

Life sometimes has a way of working out. Glad that things are rocking and rolling.