Wow, thanks for all the really useful advice. It’s really helping me put things into a different perspective, and consider things I haven’t yet.
A professional dealing with them would look into their business plan for the next 2-3 years. How do they
think they could reach the shift. How much money are they willing to allocate to Design?
It’s a clear case of money talks. If the are willing to fund the new strategy seriously it might be a good chance.
It’s likely so, that they won’t and that all senior talent they approached signed off.
mo-i
Those are really great points, and I hope I can elaborate: I asked similar questions during my interview, and the opportunity to rebrand and restructure their product offerings contributed to why I was interested in the position. I spent some time doing branding, and I loved the strategy and design implementation aspects of it. They brought in the CEO, and we talked about the company’s plans, and where I can contribute. The company is a few decades old, but so far has been very function, business, and engineering-oriented, and they wanted to “sexify” their products and start taking some risks and innovate (they’ve already lined up a branding agency to help, and wanted me to get involved w/ that too). With the understanding that we both knew I was a bit “green” but ambitious, he reassured me that if I wanted to consult for example, a plastics specialist, I could do that, and he would allocate budget to do so, as well as give me some wiggle room for failure.
With that being said, it sounded like a dream job to me. And I got so pumped! But with the advice I’m getting, I’m wondering if I’ve bitten off a lot more than I can chew, even with the bumpers up.
I just talked to some friends who had worked at the NYC company, one of them who had the exact position I was vying for, and the reviews weren’t too good and they were pretty miserable (aka quit). And they actually warned me against even considering them. Yet still, I am that desperate to move back to NYC. And unfortunate truth is, I haven’t received any other offers yet, moreso since I’m not local anymore for freelance jobs.
I’m supposed to call the CEO tomorrow to let him know how I feel, and I’m kinda torn and not sure how honest I should be with my feelings towards this situation, which he knows about and understands. I don’t know how much of this would change your guys’ opinions on the situation. Would you still recommend the NYC post?