Rick Maher’s Professional Notes

Rewarding Continuous Improvement Internship vs Fun Easy and Interesting Web Developer Position
Starring Rick Maher in a Dilemma Role
With a good half dozen interviews behind me and a good half dozen more (at least) coming up regarding job positions for post graduation in May I am suddenly being confronted with a more immediate job decision.

I have been offered an internship position with Goodrich (www.goodrich.com) where I would work as a Continuous Improvement Leader. Basically this position would focus on what I learned I loved last summer in my internship with Honeywell (www.honeywell.com), six sigma, lean enterprise, Toyota production system, 5s, kaizen, etc.

Sounds great right? They even pay pretty decently.

Unfortunately (who didn’t see this sentence coming?), leaving my current position as the Web Minister Developer is not an easy decision to act upon.

I have whipped up a little bit of a pro/con chart for each position though I don’t think it tells the whole story.

Yeah, that chart definitely does not tell the whole story. Let me see if I can explain in words my thought process when I try to make a decision on this.

The opportunity to work in a continuous improvement role is exactly what I want (which is why I applied and interviewed for it and expressed so much excitement about it to friends and family). Now that I have the offer I am excited at the opportunity and even more excited at what it may lead in to or qualify me for elsewhere. But is it too late? I am interviewing for post graduation jobs now. I will obviously not be able to use experience in this position in interviews in the next few weeks or even months. Furthermore, I love my job right now. The pay was decent until today when I got a raise bringing it to great, the people including my boss are awesome, the hours are invaluably flexible (which comes in very handy when you are taking somwhere between 15-24 credit hrs, also still working for Dell, involved with BSC, have friends worth spending some time with-ie lunches with zeek smack in the middle of my “hours”, have a gf that seems to believe she deserves some attention, like to keep it real with my parents who have gotten me here, and am interviewing like crazy), the work is fun, I am constantly learning new stuff, and on and on. Oh, and it is on campus, which I dreamt of having for the last three years. But then again, how can I pass up the opportunity to build real world experience in the exact area where I want to start my career? In fact even after my raise and the lack of tax liability with on campus jobs I can make more money with Goodrich in the short term and the long term (long term meaning through next semester - til graduation). But then again, should money play any factor in this decision process? Also, even in just my five minute tour of the Goodrich facility it was very apparent that there is lots of opportunity to make an impact by cashing in on “low hanging fruit” but then again, why haven’t the obvious issues already been handled? Is there a work culture issue there? Why would I leave such a great culture at ASASU for a six month position that I might not even like? Then again, in three months I will be punching myself for not jumping at the opportunity.

Okay, I can see that this is not getting me anywhere, did it help you come to any kind of conclusion as to what I should do? The outsiders whom I have asked thus far are only The Girl and The Girl’s Mom. The Girl’s Mom dismissed all arguments either way saying that the answer is clear as day. She said that if I were to even consider not taking the Goodrich position I would be acting immaturely and short-sighted. Yup, true, I would, afterall, in case I haven’t already mentioned it, continuous improvement is what I want to do for my career. Debbie was less convinced recognizing the costs/benefits of each position. Wait, that’s an idea, what about working both jobs?

Hmm, what about working both jobs?

This is my gut yearning, but coming in to this year I promised that I would be honest with myself and constantly review my situation. At this point, I am on track and planning to graduate in May and start a full time position shortly thereafter. To accomplish that though, there are some intermediate steps.

1. Complete this semester.
2. Complete 25 credit hours before May
3. Get a job… and a decent one meeting my criterion at that.

Wow, that list certainly doesn’t seem like something I would want to take on with a part time internship half way across town (in Chandler). Then again, it doesn’t really seem like all that fun of a list to tackle with a part time job on campus either.

Wow. This is absurd. I can go on and on. I think that it comes down to the fact that I want to do both but I am going to need to cut fat elsewhere (sorry BSC, sorry second tier “fall back” job opportunity interviews). I am also going to need to be open and honest with both sides, especially ASASU. I cannot pass up this opportunity. Meanwhile, I do not want to ditch the website, but I may need to actually only work the 12 hours that I can clock as opposed to the 25ish per week, and those 12 hours will probably be more early mornings and late afternoon/early evenings. Further I am going to need to continually readdress this issue. In one month if I have locked down a good job, I may need to ditch Goodrich and/or ASASU to focus on getting the ‘ole degree. In one month if I have no job, I may need to re-evaluate my longer term plans. Is graduating in the summer or next December a reallistic option?

/it never ends.