It's hard to give advice without knowing your personal circumstances, industry, educational background and skill level. And I hate to be a naysayer, but this sounds like a classic trap to me.
At full-time, plus an hour each direction, you're looking at 10.5 hours every day (half an hour added for lunch). Throw in overtime and you could be committed to 12-hour days before you know it. While it's true that it's easier to find a job when you have a job, you won't have much energy to look if that's your schedule. And if you have to miss half a day in order to interview somewhere else, there goes your attendance bonus.
So, be sure to
do your math. Without the details, I can only estimate for you. But here goes: Since it's an hour's drive, let's say it's 60 miles each direction. That's 600 miles per week. Let's say that your car is average, meaning somewhere around 22 effective miles per gallon. That's about 27 gallons (two tank-fulls) per week. At $3.50 per gallon (I don't know how diesel differs, and regional prices vary), that's $95 per week, or $4750 over a 50-week year (assuming you get a couple of weeks off, and fuel prices remain more-or-less steady).
It's also important to remember that commuting costs a lot more than just gas. Driving that much each day, you have to expect your auto expenses to spike. Unless your car is less than two years old, budget at least a couple thousand dollars in routine maintenance and repairs per year. (You might do better than this, but you're safer to assume the worst and hope for the best.)
Suddenly $17,680 ($8.50 per hour annualized) looks more like $10,930 (or $5.25 per hour). Perfect attendance would add back $2500, and an average of 5 hours per week of overtime grosses $3188 (time-and-a-half being $12.75), making it $16,618 altogether ($7.98 per hour). But that is all BEFORE taxes. Your effective take-home after expenses
in the best possible circumstances would be around $250 per week. More realistically, it looks like $175 to $200. There are very few places where that represents a living wage (maybe your situation is one of those).
With all that in mind, here are some things to carefully consider before giving up your search and accepting this:
- Could you really live on that amount? (Be honest with yourself. Look at your actual expenses as they are right now.)
- Could you move closer to it? (Saves all those transportation costs.)
- How are the benefits? (Full medical is very valuable and changes the calculations substantially.)
- Do the benefits (if there are any) cover trans-related expenses? (You don't need to ask that question. Just find out who the provider is and do some online research.)
- Is there potential for promotion within the company?
- If it is to be a stop-gap, what is your exit strategy?
- How long are you willing to give it before moving on?
And maybe most importantly...
- Is the work fulfilling? (If you love it, and can live on the salary, the finances are not nearly as important.)
Having said all of that, if you are young and just starting out, and this is an entry-level position with a good company, and you can survive reasonably well on that salary, and it includes good benefits, then maybe it will work long-term. I started that way myself, taking a $3.75 per hour job in 1983, and working my way to a $75K management career over the course of a decade. Then I realized that I hated the work and bailed. But for many people, eventually making the best of it is easier than trying to make it better, and bailing is not an option. Inertia sets in, as does
loss aversion and the fallacy of sunk cost.
My experience has been that short-term turns to long-term before you know it. Suddenly you've been there for ten years and you have no prospects for other employment and are truly stuck for a long time making a very low wage with long hours. And unless the work is fulfilling and offers reasonable compensation, you might be better off to continue looking. Right now the economy is making more jobs than it has since 2008.
You may feel desperate, but try not to make this decision out of desperation. And if you do take it, be sure to aggressively be on the lookout for ways to improve it, either by moving up within that company, or by moving on.
Don't sell yourself short!
Lora
