Job Opportunities

As many of you know from some of my previous postings, Friday was the day that I would find out the fate of my current job situation. The merger between Siebel and Oracle became official on Jan 31st and today Oracle distributed either term packages, offer letters, or transitions to all US Siebel employees. It was a very difficult day for us in HR, because of all the termination/offer questions that we had to refer to all day long. We also had to see many of our colleagues pack up their things, as it was their last day. I have been through several merger/acquisition and layoff situations in the past and this was by far the most difficult.

Ever since I learned that my job was in jeopardy a months ago, I immediately started job hunting. One of the complications that I found out early on that could happen was the loss of my health benefits. If I was to be laid off due to the merger I would be eligible for COBRA, however due to my eligibility for Medicare, COBRA would most likely decline me and I would be in the same situation that I was a few months back when COBRA suddenly terminated my health coverage. This gave me the incentive to look for a new job as soon as possible. Not to mention that we were in the process of buying my dad’s house and I knew that I couldn't be without a job in order to make the monthly mortgage payments.

One of my biggest fears in starting to job hunt and going to interviews was what people's reaction of me would be. I wanted to be as honest as possible with all the companies I interviewed with in regards to my health issues and the special accommodations I might need. Fortunately I've been able to able to continue working 40+ hours/week, but there's no guarantee that this could continue on forever. There are definitely days when I can barely make it through a work day due to fatigue and fevers.

I can honestly say I was shocked at the opportunities that I received and how nice and understanding people were during my interviews. The past few weeks have been a great experience and I’ve been so lucky to interview with such great companies…Symantec, Google, Oracle, and Yahoo.

Early on I received an offer from Symantec and accepted, but later on turned it down due to it being a contractor position. It was a tough decision, since I connected so well with the people, the position appeared exciting, and the pay was great. This weekend I have to make an even tougher decision…I’ve received both an offer from Google and Oracle. For those of you who don’t know, the hiring process at Google is quite a long process. You go through a phone interview, several in-person interviews, a hiring committee, and then an executive review. I’ve been told by many that it would be an honor to work for them and a great opportunity. Indeed, I found it to be a great place. The people were beyond nice, the environment was so neat, and the pay offered is about $20K more than what I make now (and would make at Oracle). The one downside – it’s a contractor position with no benefits. I could go on Chris’ benefits now that we’re married, however his coverage is terrible and we would easily have to pay the $15K out-of-pocket maximum. There’s also the risk that if I had to go on leave for some reason, I wouldn’t have disability to fall back on.

At Oracle on the other hand, I would be a regular employee with full benefits. The drawback is that I don’t exactly know what I would be doing (although it is an HR Ops position) and the pay is terrible. Many people that I’ve talked to think I’m crazy for not taking the Google opportunity, however they don’t realize that my situation is a little different then the average person’s. In my head I keep going back/forth as to what to do…a decision has to be made by Monday since I need to give Google an answer by then. So what would you do if you were in this situation? I would love to hear from any of you as to what you would do!! I need as much input as possible!!