Time for a day job?

I got this little tidbit in an e-mail last night:

"Congratulations!! Hiring committee recommended to move forward with references and offer."

It's from a company you've all heard of. A company that most everybody who uses, or hears about, the Internet has heard of. A company that owns the site this blog is on. You know the one.

So, the next step is that they check my references, and then the recruiter guy and the compensation team work together to figure out what sort of offer I should get, and then that goes through an approval process, etc. And then I'll get an offer. First verbally over the phone, then in e-mail, and then perhaps a FedEx package, as well.

So now the big question is: do I actually want to take it?

There are numerous factors on both sides of the equation. Not all of them are things I'm comfortable talking about on a blog, for some reason, though I am interested in talking with folks about them. I will mention one of the negatives, though, since I'm guessing that a lot of folks would be hard pressed to imagine any, and see lots of positives with the idea. So, I'm a little bit frustrated at the notion that:

If I accept this job, I'll be going back to full-time work. This will significantly reduce the time, and likely the energy as well (though my hope would be that the job would be exciting enough that maybe it'll mostly just be time), that I could spend on photography.

Of course, the flip side is that I've been having trouble getting inspired with photography lately anyway, so maybe that's OK. Certainly I expect the pay to be helpful in buying some sorely wanted equipment upgrades and such... I know they say it's the photographer and not the equipment that makes the photos, and I very largely agree with that... still, there are certain types of photography, some of which happen to interest me greatly, that require specialized equipment. So... maybe it'll be good for my photography in the long run.

I do also see this job as an opportunity on a variety of levels, some of them profoundly meaningful to me, so... Chances are quite high that I'll accept. I just somehow feel like sharing the fact that it's not completely a no-brainer decision. In fact, I've been thinking about it quite a bit and for quite a while.

Wish me luck.