Here are my vital stats:
- 35 years old, single, no kids, no ex, other dependents, etc. No plans to change any time soon.
- Earn 135k/year plus about 5k in bonus for about 140k from my job. Will top out around 170k in about 15 years. Another 4k tax-free from the VA per year, 10k in taxable dividends.
- Low cost of living area, very uninterested in moving away! Rather visit urban areas than live there.
- Generally work 40 hours a week. Compensated for any time over 40. High quality of life in my opinion.
- Eligible for the FERS Federal pension, can retire and draw pension at 57 at around 65k/year in today's dollars. I calculated the present value being about $2M.
- Annual expenses around 50k
- 1.3M Vanguard portfolio with about 80-90% equity, the rest primarily in bond funds and REITs
- Debt: About 150k on home loan for a house worth about $230k after recent appreciation
- Truck is paid off, 2005 Nissan Frontier, good mechanical condition, no desire to upgrade
Regarding my values in life...I'm not flashy. I prefer value to ostentation. I would say food is my one financial vice (restaurants and I eat a lot of meat) but I food prep every week. I really don't ever want to stop working either, I just want the option to curtail my hours and/or the option to do consulting work in the next 15-20 years. I currently spend a lot of time working on my house, doing martial arts, doing photography, duck hunting during the season, socializing, etc. So I have a full "schedule" of hobbies that I enjoy.
On to the development. Last night, an old friend (who I helped get a job about 3 years ago but has since moved on) asked me if I wanted to apply to a management position at the local federal contractor he now works for. The office is just down the road from my current location. The position is in a related area to my current specialty. I have some solid experience in this related area, but I have never been an actual practitioner in this area. I went ahead & filled in my resume for the last 5 years, emailed him a 2-pager at 11pm last night. He couldn't guarantee consideration because the posting had technically expired.
In an interesting turn of events, I went to school with the guy he sent it in to. We were both top 5 in our class, and he put in a very generous word with the hiring manager. Long story short, I have an interview next week.
Here are the stats that I know of at this job:
- Roughly 155-230k pay band
- No pension, but a 401k with a match that seems about twice as generous as my current TSP match (roughly 9% match vs 5%)
- Approximately 20 direct reports who write and maintain safety documentation. I currently have 0 direct reports, I am in more of a position of strong "soft influence" with my contractor counterparts. However, I spent 5 years as a naval officer, and I do exercise leadership within my circle of influence at the current job, including a very strong relationship with my supervisor.
- My 2 contacts say it has a solid culture. I would be working with these 2 guys, they are currently managers there, they are high integrity and I don't think they're BSing me. I am told I will be busy during the week, but they maintain that they only work infrequently on the weekends. However, I am getting the vibe that I might not be able to claim as much comp time for hours over 40, need to get more detail.
- Better opportunity to gain experience and connections leading to possibly lucrative ($200/hr) consulting work down the road on the 10-20 year horizon, or join senior management (not sure if the later is for me though personally).
- Intangibles... in my current position, I am stuck in an old high security building without my cell phone. Feels like daycare sometimes. I'd be more in the "real world" again in the new role.
I would say my overall goal for employment is getting my "best bang for the buck" while making progress on becoming financially independent (say 2.5M portfolio). I am unwilling to work 80 hours a work, period, and I can't do 60 hours a week routinely (Navy burned me out). However, a higher salary could help me become financially independent sooner than my current trajectory. This weekend, I intend to complete a spreadsheet helping me to project and compare net worth apples to oranges (higher salary vs no pension).
The main intangibles I bring to the table are a knack for getting the right people involved with at the right times to solve problems (understanding of organizational fault lines as well as who is talented at what). I'm above average in proactive communication. I'm also reasonably adept at politics for an engineer, not my favorite though.
I'm an HBS reject - when I left the Navy, I interviewed at a number of great MBA schools with the intention of getting into management consulting. I guess I really didn't know what to say at the time because I didn't get into any of these schools! But what drew me to this field initially is that I really like the idea of showing organizations an outside perspective, helping them improve their operations, and getting to take on work in project-size chunks at my own pace. Obviously this job opportunity is not that, but I can't help but think it could bring me closer to a position of being able to freelance consult at some point.
I like my current job, but this is an opportunity I am taking seriously. Unfortunately my current group is resource-challenged right now (many new folks and I am training all of them) so it would be a rough blow for them if I left now. This could easily blacklist me from employment there for the next 5-10 years, and potentially damage my personal relationship with my supervisor. I will say I wouldn't be the first guy to leave them high & dry lately, however. But I certainly wouldn't relish this aspect of the opportunity.
Anyway, that's probably more than adequate... any thoughts?! Just looking for an outside perspective, I'm a little bit in shock right now.