Hello fellow redditors,
I (28M, renting, living with my girlfriend, no kids) am looking for guidance on an extremely tough decision.
I work for a large non-profit organization at the Departmental Director level. Of course, it has it's good and bad days, but overall, I love my job. I'm part of a great team, my supervisor and I respect each other, and I am generally well-known and liked by everyone I work with. Over the past two years, I have quite literally built my department from the ground up. I live walking distance from work and still live in my hometown, so I also have deep roots in the community that my work serves.
My department has performed extremely well compared to other branches and my name is well-known by upper management, so I've been offered a similar position at our flagship branch. In short, here are the details:
Current job:
- $60k base salary, 15k annual commission
- 3 minute drive
- Overseeing 30 direct reports (welcome to the non-profit space!)
- Great work environment
- Day-to-day mainly consists of maintaining what I've already built
Potential job:
- $68k base salary (already negotiated) with the same potential for $15k commission, but it will take me about 6 months to build that back up
- 50 minute drive (in a fuel-efficient sedan)
- Overseeing 45 direct reports
- Unknown work environment (though I do know and respect my potential supervisor)
- Day-to-day would be drastically different. Not only is it significantly busier, there is a ton of work to be done in building up their people and processes. My work-life balance would be significantly impacted, at least for the first 6-12 months.
Seems like an easy decision, right? I have it pretty great right now and no way a slightly higher base salary is worth all of that extra work and drive time.
Here's the thing: I'm ambitious, and I love a challenge. That's not to say my current role bores me. Quite the contrary. But, I know I want to move up in my organization, and I've been told by multiple people (including my mentor at the VP level) that taking this role is the best way to fast-track my growth. Also, frankly, the challenge of repeating what I've already accomplished at triple the scale is exciting!
Still....it's tough. Admittedly, I know my emotions are in this. My team and co-workers rely on me. My current supervisor knows I'm considering taking this leap and it breaks my heart to see him anxiously talking about how appreciated I am here and how much he'd hate to see me go. He's flat-out told me that he wants me to take his job when he retires in 5-ish years, which is great, but I know that decision will ultimately be made by upper management and not him.
So, what do you think I should do?
Thank you all in advance for your input!