Crossroads...

You approach a fork in the road, with both directions looking like a good way to go. Which path do you take?

Left.

Right.

(USA)

I was in this situation a coupe of years ago with my career. This was the analogy used by the senior manager I was talking to at the time in fact.

Despite what people said at the time, time and experience has shown me that I am able to turn around and give the other direction a try if my chosen path becomes a little too bumpy for my liking!

So I would say pick the direction that feels right for you at the time you get to the junction. Life does have a reverse gear of you need to use it.

Cheers

Cris.

3 point turn, nearest bar, buy a bottle of beer, roll the bottle, if it veers to the left, take it, likewise right, finish drink and go....
What was that thing about the tribe that always tells the truth and the tribe that always lies?

Which one looks less like the road behind you?

What is the nature of the roads you have to choose from?

I took the road less traveled, and that has made all the difference.

"I took the road less traveled, now where the hell am I?"

The road that is the most fun of course! I really hate straight boring roads.

Best response ever.

Now I'm curious what you like about it...

FWIW- my response was purely driving related- not political.

Consider more factors. It's extremely unlikely that they are really equal.

Here's one extra factor you can consider: which will require you to grow and develop more?

Possible answers to the question:

Which road looks like it has more traffic on it...
Does your tom-tom say there are more speed cameras left or right
Are you the Dice-man

Ror

Two out of three coin tosses! Tails -> left, heads -> right.

If you are a teenager with a newly minted drivers license. You go both ways. First one then the other. After that, you try to find another completely different route.

I ended up picking the path I feel will offer me the most challenges in an environment where I can also tackle them with minimal hinderance, and this meant going down the newer road.

Now to see how it goes. Day 3 and counting.

Good luck with your choice Tom

I'm now 6 months in to my new direction and the only person who has any regrets is my bank manager! I am learning money is not everything.

Cheers

Cris.

In my case, the one that offers the best health benefits

I lucked out. I went down the road with the worse health benefits (i.e. none), but kept the health plan from my previous employer via COBRA. With the government stimulus subsidies, it was the best option.

How good are the government subsidies? I know they just took effect in the past couple of months with the stimulus package, but I wasn't sure how much they really brought down the cost.

My fiancee got laid off back in January, and at that time, it would have cost her $500+ to continue coverage on COBRA. Fortunately, my employer allowed me to add her to my benefits as a "domestic partner" until we're married, bringing the cost down to $150 or so. If that weren't an option, I don't think we could have afforded COBRA for more than a couple of months.

Really, COBRA subsidy isn't the answer -- universal healthcare (not tied to employment) is. I wish Congress would just accept that fact and do what needs to be done.

I can't guarantee it's the same everywhere, but for us, it brought the cost down where it was equivalent (and possibly even slightly cheaper) than what was being deducted from my monthly paycheck for health insurance. I think the government is paying about 65%, but I can't remember for sure.


Preaching to the choir, my friend. I know universal health care systems have their problems too, but having now lived with both (Canada and US), I have to say I prefer the problems in Canada's universal health care system, to the ones in the current US system.

Not only that, but companies are only required to provide COBRA for a finite period of time. I want to say that it's like 18 months. Now, hopefully, you'd have a new job in that time, but there are a variety of reasons that you might not, like if you decided to become a homemaker, for example. If you didn't meet your partner's company's criteria for getting onto their insurance plan, you're still screwed after that period of time.

So what have you done then Tom? Assuming you can/want to tell us....

I left my previous job working on the build system for this, and for now I am doing similar for this.

The possibility for growth is higher with my new employer, as it will be their first MMO. I'm hoping to blend my build knowledge with my previous work on servers/storage. A definite advantage is that I worked with the producer before, so he already knows what I can do and trusts my decisions. It helped in my choice when other companies were also in the running. I get to hit the ground running here for the most part, without having to completely start from scratch on trust relationships.

What made the decision difficult is company stability. My previous employer was probably more stable then where I am at now. In the end, I felt it was worth the risk though. And I'm hoping my new environment will be a bit more receptive to change, as there isn't a legacy here like there was in my past job.

That sounds like a great move, Tom! I'm pretty sure I would have gone that direction, too. There's nothing better than having some room to flex your muscles.

Everything I know, and really everything I need to know, about working in gaming at Sony comes from witnessing someone's leaving do from Sony in a pub in Cambridge some years ago. The departee had a huge cardboard-and-tinfoil key hung round his neck, his coworkers all had balloon-and-paper-chain balls and chains tied to their feet, and they kept buying 30-person rounds of tequila shots and knocking them back to the cry of "Freedom!".

Peter

Agreed, sounds like you've made the right move Tom.

That is very awesome, congratulations.