I’ll tell you what I did. I was in final interviews for a job that paid $150K base plus commission, but it’d require me working 70-80 hour weeks and waking up every morning around 4:00 AM. I knew this job was going to suck and had to live in Atlanta for the gig (lived there previously for a year and did not enjoy it), but the pay was excellent and it was in my dad’s industry and I wanted to make him proud and be what he was. I tried doing that for a decade but always hated my job. I asked directly for the position that I was pretty fricking confident I was going to get since it was an all day interview and spent as much time selling their company to me as I was selling myself to them. He said he’d talk it over with the CEO and give me an answer by tomorrow.

As I was leaving the interview in the van, I get a call from an interview I did 3 months before and didn’t think I got the job, that they wanted to bring me on board. The job was fun, I really liked this guy (my current boss), and hell they interviewed me at a Major League Baseball game for the preliminary interview. The base was less than half of the job I just interviewed for, but I had way more flexibility, better work/life balance, could live anywhere I wanted (and they’d pay for the move), and got to travel a lot for work and see the country. With the mutual joy of being a natural nomad myself and getting to retain that and live where I wanted, I knew this job would make me happier, so tough shite to the people that just interviewed me, but I thought it through over the night and accepted the less paying position. I was right that I was going to get the job from that big interview, but if you snooze you lose.

And I am happier. I love my job, the company I work for actually cares about their employees, and don’t see myself leaving unless someone can give me the same quality of life I have and a huge pay raise (built up my customer base and received a raise since then). I say go with your heart even if you burn a bridge in the short term. It worked out for me. The guys who offered me the bigger jobs were apparently pissed, so not going back in that industry again.

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Just completely ghost them?

Unless your boss is a total fricking a-hole, don’t do this. You owe them an explanation if you’ve been brought on and they’ve given you cash and especially benefits. Thank them for the position unless your boss was anything like in Horrible Bosses.

This post was edited on 2/26/21 at 6:09 pm