Two irons in the fire

...and about to put in a third.

The job market locally is very different than it was six and a half years ago. At that time very few places were hiring, pay rates were low, and hours being offered were lousy. (I had two real job options back then: night shift quality control at a paper cup manufacturer thirty minutes from my house, or a shift somewhere between 8:00 AM and 12:15 PM at a travel agency ten minutes away. Both paid the same.) Most companies were sitting on their cash reserves or squirreling them away in secret overseas tax havens. But even before the current administration came into power, more businesses were opening and hiring, or at least on the drawing boards for construction. Today there are lots of jobs available - primarily in call centers and warehouses (or "fulfillment centers," places where the things that you've ordered are pulled from inventory and boxed up for delivery to you), and primarily at low wages.

In the end I was making fairly good money at my last job, after five and a half years of essentially working with a negative cashflow. Several opportunities exist that pay comparable amounts, like the two that I am proceeding with. This third would possibly pay a good deal less, and would be temporary and possibly only part-time, but it would be a chance to do something I've always wanted to do. Knowing that there are other opportunities out there means I won't be locked in with whatever I end up with.