Two jobs, one offer -- what do you do?

I appreciate all the advice, but I do feel a bit like my head is going to explode.

I tried stalling with the PR job but they took that as the green light and left me a voicemail asking for my start date. !!!

The journalism job called all of my references yesterday, which I think is a good sign. Is it time to throw down with them? The PR job is at a non-profit, so I think the odds of them sweetening the deal is slim to none -- they just don't have the finances to throw around.

I guess I'll be flying by the seat of my pants on this one.

 

Is it just me, or is there something wrong with leaving a) a job offer, and b) a starting date on a voice mail message. That seems really, really unprofessional to me and that might be reason enough not to take the PR job.

Thoughts?

 

If the PR firm really wants you, they'll wait. If you're a so-so candidate, then they'll move on. I'd ask them to give you another week to consult family members, SO and so forth.

 

gold, i think you're right. unless, of course, the guy didn't clearly communicate with the person he talked to at the PR place. if he was all coy and vague and confused the heck out of the person on the other end of the phone, that person was probably just too busy to bother sorting through the bizarre conversation.

 

You can't really string the PR firm along for a week. Especially now that theythink you've accepted. Call them back and say you need three days to mull this over with family.

If you string the PR firm along too long, then you take the risk of the job offer being withdrawn. And then if the newspaper doesn't offer, you're stuck.


It's a good position to be in to have two potential job offers. Sometimes you just have to go with your gut instinct and hope its the right decision (rather than screw up and not get either).

 

Hank, I think you're right about not stringing anyone along extensively. I've talked to the PR folks and I have through the weekend to consider the offer, which is what I was hoping for. Now I just need the other job to make me an offer and all this ridiculousness will be worth it.

And leo, this coy, vague "guy" is a gal.

 

Oh, then the guy you were talking to shouldn't have had a problem. Most men are used to not understanding what women are trying to tell us.

 

hey vf, don't shoot the messenger. i'm just saying that unless you were coy and vague, it's a huge red flag for someone to 'misunderstand' what you said and ask about a start date when the reason you called was to try and delay the decision a couple days. how can anyone misunderstand that? my guess would be that you were vague or coy. if not, then the employer must have problems and that's not a good sign if the person somehow didn't get it.

 

God, I wonder how this turned out.

 

I was all set to ask why the heck would someone want to work in newspapers instead of a PR gig nowadays and then I realized this thread is almost old enough to vote.

 

Watch the OP (Anders) end up being the person who's running Gannett into the ground and it's all SJ.com's fault that we didn't save journalism by pushing him to go into non-profit PR work.

 

I wholeheartedly agree with this, and was going to tell you to just accept the PR offer. You don't actually know you're going to get an offer from the newspaper and you shouldn't assume that you will. If it does come through and make an offer, whatever the timetable, you can always quit the PR job if you want to do so. Employers know about people getting/taking other offers; it happens sometimes, and the PR folks will deal with it if they have to, even if your stay turns out to be very short-lived.