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Career and Work

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4 Important Tips for Graduates Beginning a First Real Full-Time Job

by Flexo on June 29, 2009

in Career and Work

The summer following graduation is an interesting time for recently-former students. The newly-commenced young men and women, those not opting to pursue an additional number of years in an institution of higher learning, spend their time amongst activities such as attending backyard barbecues in celebration of their achievements, traveling to distant lands with newfound free time, and possibly beginning the first real job on their career path.

Not every job is the same, but for the most part there are a number of things in common.

  • You need to make a positive impression on people you are meeting for the first time.
  • How you perform on your first job sets the stage for your work ethic.
  • If you stay in the same career throughout your life, your initial salary will be your most important negotiation.

Here are more specific tips for making the most of your first job.

1. Look the part. As much as it is superficial and stupid, people will judge you by your appearance. You need to dress and carry yourself in a manner that is expected and accepted by the people who work in your field. What is acceptable varies. If you work in banking in New York City, it’s almost guaranteed you will be expected to show up in a suit every day. If you work in the graphic arts, more liberal clothing might be acceptable. Find out what your manager or supervisor wears and emulate.

If you have not been accumulating attire during college, you may find the need to buy a variety of clothing at the last minute. This is one reason it may make sense to accept a controllable level of debt. Attire is a start-up cost associated with accepting a first job, and if you are required to dress well, your salary should cover these costs before long.

2. Negotiate. Graduates may be experiencing a “sellers’ market” while starting new careers this summer. With stories of the difficulty of finding a great job in the right field, it may be tempting to jump at the first offer. It is true that times like this call for adjusted expectations, but the dance of negotiation is an important and expected part of every job offer.

Not every job has this flexibility. For example, if you start as a teacher in New York City, your salary and benefits are determined by the union contract and you have no room for negotiation. If your first job is with a cash-strapped non-profit organization, you may face resistance. But the first salary offer you receive is almost always lower than the company’s true ability to pay.

The best suggestion is to be prepared to support your desire for a higher salary by researching your peers’ compensation and by explaining well the skills you can bring to the table above other candidates. As you may not have much experience in your field when you start your first job, you may not have a list of accomplishments, so be creative while being honest.

Here are tips for dealing with a low salary offer. Remember to look at the total compensation, not just the salary. You may have more wiggle room if you ask for more vacation days or for quicker establishment of your retirement benefits.

3. Enroll in your company’s retirement plan. When I started at the company where I currently work, I qualified for the company’s 401(k) on the day I began. Although a portion of my company’s matching contributions wouldn’t vest (become officially mine) until I had been working there for three years, my first paycheck included a deduction for my 401(k) and a matching contribution from the company. While enrollment is often automatic, some companies don’t start helping you put aside money for retirement until you tell them how much you want taken out of your paycheck.

Young adults with their first job often do not think about retirement, an event likely to be more than forty years in the future. Not enrolling in a 401(k) with matching contributions is the same as throwing away money. I understand that people who are just establishing themselves at work and in life have expenses, and retirement savings cuts into income. But putting aside two or four percent of your income — or up to the maximum matched by your employer — should not be a stretch.

4. Open an IRA. Your 401(k) contributions are taken right from your paycheck, so you might not even notice your money is being transferred to your future self. It may be more painful to your wallet to open an IRA, but if there is no pain, there is no gain. So open an IRA at a low-cost brokerage like Vanguard. When I started my IRA, I didn’t have the $3,000 minimum, so I jumped right in with TIAA Cref. I suggest saving money periodically in a special bank account until you have the $3,000 necessary to open an account at Vanguard because I have encountered some problems with TIAA-Cref.

If you already have a 401(k), open a Roth IRA. These two types of accounts have different tax treatment, and it’s good to diversify. If your company does not offer a 401(k) or its non-profit cousin the 403(b), split your money between a Traditional and Roth IRAs, if you can, to get the same tax diversification.

Your career and the skills and tools you use to thrive in that career are your biggest assets, even though you won’t see them measured on any balance sheet. Protect, refine, and showcase your self and your skills when you can. If your career is important to you, go above and beyond the call of duty.

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Ten Things You Should Do When You Get Laid Off

by Flexo on June 26, 2009

in Career and Work

Overall, the worst of the economic recession may be over in terms of unemployment. If it isn’t, or even if it is, many companies are still struggling as they find ways to cut costs. The next expense that might be cut could be your job. If you receive the pink slip after missing the signs pointing towards the loss of your job then you have some catching up to do.

There is nothing like an expected bout of unemployment to remind you of the benefits of a fully-funded emergency fund. With cash in the bank, you can sit back at the beginning of your time away from working and approach your situation without stress. Stress will cloud your perception and cause you to make choices based on your short-term circumstances rather than your long-term aspirations.

Speaking of long-term aspirations, I’ll start there in a short exploration of suggestions for using your newly found free time effectively.

1. Re-evaluate your life goals. And if you don’t have proper life goals, now it a good time to think about it. A real life goal is not the specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-based (SMART) goal that you hear about in corporate development retreats. Leave that to the MBAs. A life goal relates more to what the MBAs mean when they say “mission” and “vision.” (Disclaimer: I, too, am an MBA.)

So what is your mission? Here are a few things that it should not be:

  • acquire a net worth of x by the age of y
  • retire by the year z
  • own my own business

All of these examples are means to an end, not goals in and of themselves. Your goal should explain what you will do with your money, what you will do with your time in retirement, or what you will do with your business. They need not be lofty, but life goals should not focus on numbers.

After you determine your mission, you have the opportunity to make decisions about your career, money, and time that align with that mission. If you need some more motivation, here are 9 tips for choosing a purpose in life.

2. Determine the steps for reaching your goal. With your goal or goals in mind, brainstorm your next steps. The only materials you need here are pen and paper. If you think hierarchically, create an outline in which your main points are the major milestones you’ll need to cross to reach your goals and the next level contain the tasks you will need to accomplish to reach those milestones. If you do not operate in this organized manner, just write down everything that crosses your mind when you think about what you need to reach your goal.

Even if your thoughts aren’t organized, determine the next step for your career. Your emergency fund won’t last forever. And here is what you need to keep your emergency fund as long as possible.

3. Get financial assistance. When you worked, you paid unemployment insurance premiums. Now is the time to be on the receiving end of the financial relationship with the state. Apply for unemployment insurance right away. Don’t stop to think about whether you need unemployment insurance with your emergency fund ready to help you out and with thousands of other people in more need. Unemployment is there for you, to make sure you have more freedom to prepare yourself for your next move.

You may also be entitled to health benefits through your former employer and COBRA. This means that you can still pay group rates for coverage rather than finding individual coverage. Group coverage can often be much less expensive, but you may find that you will still have to pay more than you did as an employee. Most companies subsidize or partially subsidize benefit premiums, and that subsidy disappears once you have left the company.

4. Make smart financial decisions. Here is a short checklist of the most important financial moves you can make while not working in addition to receiving unemployment and carrying over your benefits.

  • If this is an emergency situation, don’t be afraid to tap your emergency fund. This is why you have it.
  • With less income temporarily, take the opportunity to cut back on some luxuries. Evaluate your spending to determine where your opportunities are for reducing your expenses.
  • If you have a 401(k) managed by your previous employer, consider moving it to a Rollover IRA. In many cases, you will find that your options for investing within an IRA are better than what you can find in most employer-sponsored 401(k)s.
  • Don’t withdraw money from your retirement funds if you can help it. If you do, you will be required to pay taxes and penalties. It is not worth risking your future.

5. Refine your self-marketing package. It’s your move. If you have a goal in mind and you’re passionate about it, you’ll want to get back on track right away. Even if your goal hasn’t changed in step one, you have a chance to refine how you present yourself. Resumes and cover letters are not enough.

Even if you are not in a creative field, consider what examples of your work you might include in a portfolio. Just like a graphic designer won’t enter an interview without examples, don’t speak to anyone who has the ability to hire you without preparing some kind of presentation to showcase what you do, what you have achieved, and why you have what it takes.

6. Fashion yourself as an expert. This is part of your marketing package. A great way to establish yourself as an expert in your field is to publish articles in journals or magazines related to your profession. That’s the twentieth-century approach; today every writer is a publisher and every goal-seeker has the opportunity to show the world his expertise.

Start a blog, write frequently, and don’t stop. This works best if you possess writing skills, but you would be amazed at how many mediocre writers manage to find success. Find a community of bloggers who focus on your area of expertise and get to know the leaders of the group. Participate in discussions on their blogs, ask them for their advice, and give back to the community. Once you establish your online writing, look for opportunities to write for others, sharing your expertise to a wider audience. Don’t blog to earn money, blog to perfect your writing and give yourself public evidence of your passions.

7. Start networking with the right people without being obnoxious. Like Penelope Trunk from Brazen Careerist mentioned in last Sunday’s Consumerism Commentary Podcast (listen and subscribe if you haven’t already), sending a resume through an online job service is not enough. To get an advantage you need an “in.”

When someone I know is trying to “network” with me, I know it right away. They ask questions to determine my decision-making authority and anything else they feel I can do for them. Serial networkers tend to think only about themselves their needs; show more class by considering the larger picture, being empathetic, and showing your personal side.

8. Sharpen your skills. Your life goals may require you to establish new qualifications or credentials. There is nothing like time off to inspire you to enroll in a class, earn a new degree, or qualify for new certification. Above, while you were listing the steps for reaching your goal, education should have been at least one of the ideas you prescribed for yourself.

The great thing about pursuing additional educational opportunities, in addition to the knowledge you acquire, is it provides you with an answer to the question, “What were you doing between jobs?”

9. Start consulting. The steps for approaching your goals may lead you to working for yourself. But even if they don’t, start consulting in your field. With your blog established earlier, make it clear to the public that your expertise is available for a fee. You will have to do more than putting a billboard on your website, of course. Contact people, particularly the people with whom you networked in step seven, and ensure they are aware of your business.

Erica Douglass who writes at Erica.biz has a number of thoughts about creating a business identity for yourself online. In this upcoming weekend’s podcast, Erica has a number of suggestions for establishing your business as a self-employed individual. Her thoughts are destined for those permanently leaving the corporate world behind in favor of the make-your-own-rules lifestyle of an entrepreneur, but her suggestions will apply to those establishing themselves as a consultant as a means to advance their career and reach their ultimate goals.

10. Don’t lose confidence. Unemployment can be a financial and emotional strain on an individual and on a family. The good news is that all of these tips should keep you busy, and if you are busy, there is less opportunity to get drawn into negative feelings about your situation. Keep working, keep improving, and keep your ultimate goals in mind.

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Citigroup Employees to Receive 50% Pay Raise

by Flexo on June 24, 2009

in Career and Work

After receive bailouts from the government on two separate occasions, Citigroup has announced that it will be increasing its expense for the salaries of the company’s rank-and-file employees, not upper management, by 50 percent. This will be a nice benefit, designed to compensate employees for smaller bonuses and raises last year.

The government’s new “pay czar,” Kenneth Feinberg, has the authority to only oversee the compensation of the top 100 employees of companies on government assistance.

Of all the wackiness involved with Wall Street compensation, this is not a big deal. I don’t see any valid reason to start breaking out the pitch forks and marching on Citigroup headquarters. The rank-and-file employees who stayed with the failing company deserve recognition. The executives who oversaw the bank as it buried itself and made the decision that led to the demise should be thankful these employees stayed with the company (even if the reason for doing so was the lack of a job market).

Unfortunately, it seems the employees will also receive a company stock benefit. There’s a chance that could pay off nicely, but it seems like a risky proposition right now, considering the ambiguity of Citigroup’s future.

How do you feel about Citigroup’s employees, as a group, receiving a 50% pay raise? Some will earn more, some less, but it looks like the bank is investing in their employees here.

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British Airways Wants Staff to Work for Free

by Flexo on June 18, 2009

in Career and Work

Would you work for free? I used to work for a non-profit organization whose business model was not exactly built around the concept of making money. Before I joined the organization, there were times of low or negative cash flow during which the staff were asked to accept a delay in paychecks for a month or two while the company managed to bring in some income.

The management of British Airways is now asking its staff to go without pay for a period of time between a week and a month. Rather than a delayed paycheck, these employees would not be paid for the time they work or they could take an unpaid leave of absence. The executives would join the employees

Is this a better option for employees than asking them to take a pay cut? A salary reduction might negatively affect future salary growth, while a break in pay might cause household cash flow problems. This is the danger of the employers’ market when compared to an employees’ market. Companies can get away with asking employees to make sacrifices they might not normally take if they believed it would not be difficult to find a job elsewhere.

Have you ever been asked to make a significant sacrifice in pay like the employees of British Airways, other benefits, or your sanity for the good of your company? If you have been asked, did you agree to make the sacrifice? And why?

British Airways

Photo credit: lrargerich
British Airways asks staff to work for nothing, Reuters, June 16, 2009

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Five Jobs For People Who Like Money and Five Jobs For People Who Don’t

by Flexo on May 12, 2009

in Career and Work

There are many people who believe that the when choosing a career path and life direction, one should steer towards the highest paying career for which they could possibly qualify after several years of education, training, and 80-hour work weeks. To demonstrate, there is never a shortage of investment bankers looking for work. I have an alternate point of view: self-fulfillment usually has little to do with career choice or money earned, but having money (that is, not spending money) opens doors for more choices (for spending money among other things).

Did potential earning power play a role in your decision to pursue a career path? Let us know in the comments.

While I cite investment banking as a high-earning job, it’s not the highest according to data compiled by the government’s Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates from 2008 and published recently. If you are in search of the almighty dollar, it pays to go to medical school.

Surgeons top the list with an average annual salary of $206,770, up 8% since last year. Following surgeons, the next highest earners on average are anesthesiologists with $197,570 each year. Third on the list are orthodontists, who earn an annual $194,930 on average. Obstetrician and gynecologists earn $192,780. Oral and maxillofacial surgeons round out the list with an average annual income of $190,420.

I would have expected higher salaries for these jobs on the coasts, as many cost-of-living calculators adjust for high salaries in New York and Los Angeles. According to the survey, however, if you want to earn more money in these jobs it pays to move to the mid-west. Surgeons and obstetrician and gynecologists earn more in Wisconsin than in any other state. New Hampshire, the lone east coast representative, is lucrative for orthodontists, and oral surgeons do best in Michigan.

On the other side of the spectrum are the jobs that do not command high salaries. In fact, these jobs usually feature hourly wages and are often not full-time. They probably should not be compared with the other careers since they are in a class of their own.

The lowest earning job is the combination of food preparer and server, including the fast food industry. A worker in this job will expect to earn on average $17,400. Fast food cooks do slightly better with $17,620. The next rung on the income ladder contains dishwashers (of the human, not machine, sort) who earn an annual $17,750. If you are a dining room or cafeteria attendant or a bartender helper, your income averages $18,140. Shampooers deserve bragging rights among the low-paid with their annual pay of $18,300.

Of these top worst-paying jobs, you’ll do better by moving to Washington, D.C. Shampooers, fast food workers, and food preparers and servers earn the most there. Dishwashers earn more in Nevada, and dining room or cafeteria attendants, or bartender helpers maximize their income in Hawaii.

Did potential earning power play a role in your decision to pursue a career path?

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Smithee’s Best Advice for Graduating Seniors

by Smithee on May 1, 2009

in Career and Work

I’m not a financial planner, adviser, guru or anything of the sort. The reason I’m writing here today is because I screwed up big time. Fortunately for you, I think I’ve figured out where the mistake began.

Recently I’ve been taking an informal poll of some of the people I would consider to be relatively young and successful. I had a theory about how they were able to create financial security before liver spots started appearing, and while it’s completely unscientific, the results confirmed my hypothesis: almost none of them started their careers while relying on credit cards.

Before I go on: there are naturally going to be exceptions among those of you who’ve already been through this. In general, I’m talking about the average American who graduates a four-year college after High School and is living away from home within a month, and who is earning just enough to get by. Most of us, naturally, can’t wait to be out on our own, enjoying that delightful freedom. Your own experience may not match this, and that’s fine.

Usually what’s happens is this:

You pack up your meager belongings and you move into an apartment by yourself, or one you’re sharing with friends. You pay a deposit for the rent, which is much higher in some states than in others. You get someone to turn on the water, electricity, television, phone (or maybe you already have a mobile phone), Internet, etc., some of which may also have a deposit attached, because you have little or no credit record. Then you go grocery shopping. If you’re working in any kind of metropolitan area, you’ll also need your own transportation or a bus or train pass to get to the office.

Then, if you’ve timed things perfectly, you start work the day after you get settled in. Assuming you’re a young professional with a salary right out the gate, in another two or three or four weeks you’ll get your first paycheck. So, here’s my question: how did you pay for the rent and the utilities and the groceries? These are the options I’ve thought of:

  1. You had some money saved up
  2. You got some free money as a gift for graduating
  3. You used a credit card

For me, options 1 and 2 were not the case. I had exactly 20 cents. I consider myself lucky that I had no student loans, but at the same time, I only had that 20 cents to work with. Nobody was giving me any gifts of cash to start my grand life adventure. So, I got a credit card with a $2,000 limit and immediately started charging. I had to, otherwise I’d have no electricity or a place to sleep. It was a tool of necessity.

And it wouldn’t have been a problem if the money I charged to the credit card were just a temporary loan from the bank that issued the card (it was a Yahoo! Visa, but I don’t remember which bank). A temporary loan is exactly what it should’ve been, but by the time I’d been paid about one month’s worth of wages, the days had already come and gone when I was expected again to pay my share of the rent, utilities and groceries. So I didn’t have the money to pay my entire credit card bill. And interest started to accrue.

And I worked some more, then paid my bills, and paid what I could to the credit card company, and more interest started to accrue, etc., etc. The first few months were the worst. And the second few months, those were the worst, too. Before I knew it, I was close to the credit limit, so I got a second credit card. After that, things went into a bit of a decline. (Apologies to Douglas Adams.)

That was twelve years ago. I was on track this year to finally pay off that old credit card debt once and for all, when my employer announced 10% salary cuts so we can survive the recession. And that’s a perfect example of why it still hasn’t been paid off: crap happens. But I do have a good job, and a sensible mortgage, and the pets are well cared-for and things are generally okay. The problem is that I know people who managed to be in this same position just a few years after college. They’re steadily saving for retirement and that word still causes me to feel extremely nervous.

So here is the best advice I can give to graduating Seniors: find out how much you will need to live on your own for the first two months, and don’t move out on your own until you have that money in the bank. (That is, unless you snag a job that pays you at least double what you need to survive every month. My first salary was $22,100 before taxes. In New York City.) And don’t focus only on the rent. Include all the utilities, groceries, a little bit of extra for entertainment, and you should be much better off than I was.

And if you’re planning to take the train to New York City, living in New Brunswick, NJ is a reasonable option, but make sure you find out first how much the monthly train pass is. Twelve years ago, it was $336. These days, it’s probably the same as the payments on two brand new Hyundais.

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Resume Dos and Don’ts (Plus Resume Makeovers)

by Flexo on April 17, 2009

in Career and Work

This is a guest article by Ginger from Girls Just Wanna Have Funds. Ginger teaches women how to break financial ceilings one stiletto at a time! Join the social network, Girls Just Wanna Have Funds on Ning to connect with other financially savvy women.

This week I’ve been helping out my company’s HR department by reviewing resumes and conducting interviews. The experience levels range from those who are new graduates to people with years of experience. Sadly, I was disappointed with how many people didn’t have the basics down when it came to writing their cover letters and resumes.

Now isn’t the time to slack in this area if you’re looking for a job, you’re competing with literally hundreds to maybe thousands for one position. If you’re looking for work, take a second look at your resume and make sure your resume and cover letter at least falls within the following guidelines:

Do not:

… ask how much the position pays within the cover letter until you’re on the interview and/or sure that you will be offered the position. I personally don’t have a problem with someone asking but I think it rude to ask in an informally written cover letter without a resume, then telling me that you’ll send the resume after I tell you how much the job is paying. Seriously? HR managers and recruiters don’t have time for that, it’s rude and unprofessional. Needless to say I didn’t respond to said applicant.

… use an email user name that isn’t related to your government name. I can’t tell you how many times I saw email addresses like starzaligned@yourdomain.com, bustitbaby@yourdomain.com etc. I moved on to the next person because I’m a firm believer that if you don’t know these basic principles of resume writing then it will be questionable on whether or not you’ll conduct yourself professionally. Your email address should be some combination of your first and/or last name.

… use different fonts throughout your resume. Using different fonts makes your resume hard to read and it shows that you’re not as detail oriented as you need to be. Set the view on your resume to 70% and make sure everything is uniform and in line, especially bullets and indentation.

… extend your resume beyond one page. Unless you have 5-10+ years of relevant experience, you don’t need a 2-3-4-5 page resume, especially if some of your experience has nothing to do with the position. Try to keep the positions listed relevant to the job.

Do:

List your achievements throughout your resume. Time and time again applicants literally copy and paste their job description without any consideration to how their actual work contributed to the organization’s goals. You need to ask yourself: how does this description convey my worth to the organization? Does “putting files away at the end of the day” really convey my value? How about: “Systematically reorganized files to increase organizational productivity and efficiency.” Sounds highfalutin but it works!

Apply for jobs that are best suited for your skills and experience. Skip the long shot positions where your experience can’t possibly match with the requirements. Look at your resume and scan the job post, how can you honestly and ethically marry up what they are looking for and what you have to offer.

Maintain a consistent theme. If you’re a jack of all trades then it’s now time to settle down on one career area. Here’s a comment from a friend who works at Homeland Security: “When you have too many degrees and you’re not working in your field of study then most likely you are a risk to hire. Why? We are looking for people that are career driven and not job driven. Just some insight from looking over countless resumes.” How’s that for sage advice? Pick an area and stick with it or create different resumes for each area. Employers want to know that once hired, you’ll be committed to the job and organization, not planning for your the next jump 3 months in.

Have a friend, preferably someone in a managerial position, review your resume for errors. Sometimes having another set of eyes review your resume helps because they might see things you won’t after looking at it day in day out. Everything starts to look the same after a while.

Make your resume skimmable. Recruiters and HR Managers spend 3-5 seconds tops skimming resumes. If your resume is hard to read or the important information is lost in the layout then you put yourself at a disadvantage. Here’s an example of a resume makeover which resulted in the resume being easier to skim:

Before

Resume Before

After

Resume After

Take a second look at your resume and make a few edits if needed or revamp it for a bold and fresh look. Focus on your strengths and make them apparent throughout your resume. Recruiters are bogged down with countless resumes, make sure yours makes the first cut.

If you enjoyed this article, please visit Ginger’s blog Girls Just Wanna Have Funds and subscribe to the blog’s RSS feed. If you’re in the DC area, join the Girls Just Wanna Have Funds Meetup group here and for the Atlanta, GA area join here. We would appreciate your comments and reactions, so if you would like to contribute to the discussion, add your comment below.

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Why I Am Not Blogging Full Time

by Flexo on April 6, 2009

in Career and Work

I do not normally write about blogging here. For me, writing about blogging is like singing a song about the songs one sings rather than singing a song about something inspiring in itself. Nevertheless, this is a blog in which I write about my experiences with money, and blogging has played an increasing role in my finances over the past few years.

After blogging or adding chronological updates to websites since 1994, it wasn’t until January 2005 I received my first check as a result of this writing. Granted I didn’t start Consumerism Commentary until July 2003 and I didn’t add advertising until November 2004, that’s a long time to have a hobby without any consideration of income. In fact, I could stretch my history back to 1989 with my first experience building on-line communities.

Even after that first check in January 2005, income from blogging was slow. I gradually added new projects like the Carnival of Personal Finance, helped form the MoneyBlogNetwork, created pfblogs.org, and offered to host a number of personal finance blogs by other offers for free. January 2007 was the first month in which my income from these activities surpassed my income from my “real” job.

Invariably, one of the most common questions I receive from friends and readers is about leaving my day job. When will I take the plunge by quitting my nine-to-five obligations and dedicating that time to an endeavor that seems to be providing a better payoff? The idea first crossed my mind as a remote possibility in January 2007 and as a serious option in January 2008 when my income from this “hobby” was consistently twice my salary.

The benefits are numerous.

  • I would not be tied to any particular location. Without having to report to an office every day, I would have the freedom to work from home, my girlfriend’s house, a public library, or a hotel in Arizona. Additionally, I could live anywhere in the world with a reliable connection to the internet, saving money on living expenses. If I so desired, I could even take the extreme route and live out of my car.
  • I would be my own boss. Rather than being subject to the whim of a large multinational corporations and the seemingly endless levels of authority between the CEO and myself (currently at six or so), I make the decisions about which projects to pursue and how much time and effort to devote. I’ll still need to answer to the government when it is time to pay taxes, however.
  • I could devote more time to my projects. By leaving my primary job I would have more time on my hands to work with. With more time, I would be able to focus on improving the quality of everything I do now as well as working on new projects.

If those were the only points to consider, I would have quit my job to focus on my writing months ago. Here is the other side to the story.

  • There’s not much of a business plan. A good portion of income from this side business is from advertising. It’s rather short on products that consumers can use other than information. I don’t see this as a sound strategy for the long term. People who study this particular industry believe even in the short term, such as this year, on-line advertising could experience a decline.
  • Income is too reliant upon Google. Even though only a small portion of income comes directly from Google, most other income sources rely on Google indirectly. The search engine delivers visitors who search for certain topics to Consumerism Commentary or other websites I manage. As I experienced first-hand about a year ago, one small change in Google’s algorithms or opinions could ruin the business model. If only regular readers visit Consumerism Commentary, advertising mostly fails.
  • It’s not wise to voluntarily give up five figures of annual income. It’s hard to turn away from a consistent, relatively stable check every two weeks, including low-cost health and disability benefits, a 401(k) matching contribution and discounted stock purchase plan. I also work with interesting people, and it’s nice to spend my time in an environment that is friendly and not too saturated with a sense of urgency. But if even 25% of my total income is stable as long as I perform as expected, I have a foundation to rely on when the other 75% could be inconsistent.

There are straightforward arguments against most of these drawbacks. With more time to devote to my projects after quitting my day job, I could come up with a more diversified business plan. That might include the typical “financial guru” fare like presenting speeches and writing a book. Neither of these excite me for a variety of reasons, the least of which is that I am quite critical of people who are “gurus.” I am more interested in building communities and would like to find more way to accomplish that.

I could also argue that the time I would receive back from my employer could be used to earn more income than I would be giving up by leaving that job, but that’s not a foregone conclusion.

If I am going to take a risk by leaving the corporate world and possibly revealing my identity, it’s better to do so now before I have more obligations and people other than myself who rely on my income. And it is true that I could reenter the traditional workforce if necessary if my plans for self-sufficiency fail. With all this to consider, I will stick with indecision until I decide to make a decision or until my company decides to make that decision for me.

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