One Reason to NOT Take a Job

One Reason to NOT Take a Job One Reason to NOT Take a Job 2 What was the readers reason to NOT take a job? The job has all the hallmarks of one that might not last. Our reader, Tom W., a senior energy engineer from Oregon, isnt speaking off the cuff- he actually has some experience in this area. Heres what Tom had to say. On taking two jobs that both fizzled quickly: In my case, Ive encountered this situation twice in the last two years. I signed on for two jobs in a row that paid great salaries, but didnt endure. The first job lasted 13 months before the company tanked and I got laid off. I was unemployed and looking for work for five months before taking the second job, which paid in the six figures but required a helluva weekly commute (back and forth 550 miles each way between Portland and the Bay Area). The second job lasted only 11 months, and it’s been followed by a long period of unemployment, currently cresting (hopefully) now at nine months. Why a high salary may not always be a good thing: The lesson learned (for me anyway) is that for every job offer you tendered, you have to add ALL the months of employment together with the subsequent months of unemployment to come up with an equivalent average monthly salary. So, 12 months of employment at $90k per year, followed by six months of unemployment at $0 per month (18 months total) is actually equivalent to an annual salary of only $60k (calculated as   = ($90k / 18 months) x 12]. How to gauge the risks of taking a job that might not last: My point being that you can’t know in advance whether a job will last, but you can gauge the risks and estimate accordingly what your true salary is likely to be. Of course, foregoing a job offer assumes you have other alternatives in the hopper. Either way, you have to assess carefully the pros of taking a job against the cons of giving it a miss. Our big thanks to Tom for sharing his story and advice with us and our job seekers! Readers, whats your one reason to not take a job? Let us know in the comments below!