Hypothetical life scenario

[rockalt]

Hey,

Extremely random question here but I've been posting here for years, respect several posters on this board, and hell this may even be of interest to some of you.

Situation: You're 24 years old. Graduated from university with a degree in Political Science (wow, useless) and left Vancouver 6 months ago, to travel to India for a couple of months with the intention of settling in Paris and living there for a year. You've been accepted into Law in London. You're on the fence about this because the primary reason you're even considering it is because you figure you can make good money.

It's been your goal for several years to become fully bilingual. You already speak a respectable amount of French, so after a year you'd most likely achieve this goal. You've been living in Paris for almost two months, absolutely love it, and after countless rejections you've just landed two jobs, both of which are incredibly better than you could have imagined.

Job #1:

Office Boy at a major American Law Firm on the Champs Elysées. The work is menial (making tea, photocopying) but there is the very realistic opportunity of promotion. The salary is extremely good for Paris (and for what you do) and this an excellent opportunity to get your foot in the door should you choose to study Law. Should you succeed and enjoy the firm, they may even pay for your tuition in London the following year and you could land a job in their firm in the future. All speculation at this point but very possible. You receive all the standard benefits of a union.

Job #2:

International Trades Journalist for a relatively small Turkish based company, with contact offices in Paris (the owners are French). You endured the most gruelling interviews of your life and excelled. Should you accept the job, you would move to Istanbul in a month. There you would receive training for 1 month before working on your first project over the next two. You would then move to a Gulf state to work on your first "real" project. You would be working with a team of 3 to setup interviews with CEOs of major petrol companies and various government ministers. Your job would be to conduct the interviews and write up comprehensive country reports. The salesperson would be responsible for convincing the CEOs to buy advertising spots in your magazine (1 magazine per country). After 3 months, you would move to your next country and repeat the process. You would average 3 projects a year and would presumably put together 3 magazines a year. The OilandGasYear is the latest venture of the company. They have been based in the pharmaceutical sector for the last few years. To date they have published 1 country magazine and are looking to publish another four this year. Readership was 16,000 in 50 different countries. 65% of subscribers are CEOs. You'd probably be based in the Middle East a lot for the first year but could travel anywhere from Malaysia to India to Ukraine to Mexico as time passes.

You would be paid in Euros tax-free with no living expenses and would receive private health insurance. The base salary is quite good but you could make a lot more in commissions. Although you are not the direct salesperson, sales is the name of the game, and should your team not sell well you most likely would be sacked. Go big or go home, so to speak. You could live comfortably off the base salary alone but then again if you don't sell enough to earn commission, then you're probably not going to last long. The contract offers you little to no protection. You are subject to Turkish Law and the company reserves the right to give you two weeks notices for "unsatisfactory performance." There's also a slight question of legitimacy. Although the interviews were professional, the company actually has a couple of spelling mistakes on their website and two in the contract (typos). You fit the exact profile the company looks for - young, unattached, well-travelled.

So that's that. What would you do? Go for old dependable in your favourite city in the world or the allure of high risk, high reward?

Thanks buddies.... oh and er... Go Canucks Go! Hahahaha.

[MinnesotaCanuck]

Pretty tough for anyone to give someone who is virtually a total stranger advice. If it was me, I would go with #1...but obviously, I'm not you.

Good luck with whatever you choose I guess.

[stevethiessen]

dude... talk about wide open, eh? Personally, I'd go for #1. Sure, Istanbul can make you super rich, and the pace and pressure might be fun to thrive on for a time, but it precludes you from being able to build relationships, and have some semblance of balance too. You'd do some crazy networking working abroad, but the whole law school tuition paid for thing is pretty sweet too, not to mention living in the dream city. Tough call, but as Sidney Crosby would of said, taking that "hometown discount" and signing the paltry 8.5Mil deal, "money ain't the only thing."

[rockalt]

Well thanks for the advice guys. I do feel like a bit of a tool for even making this post but I was curious to see what people would do in this situation if it were them. Also thanks for the well wishes. The only thing that's certain is that I'll continue to have a bloody hard time following those Canucks

[Cornuck]

If you love Paris, go with it - you won't regret that choice. It's my favourite city in the world, with no close second (so I know what I'd do)

[dangler]

been your goal for several years to become fully bilingual. ....................... You've been living in Paris for almost two months, absolutely love it............................

#1 seems to be the logical choice to me.

I don't know if this applys to trade publications but magazines are becoming extinct,several shops have closed around the lower mainland. With so much info available on the net they are becoming redundant

[BingoTough]

Istanbul.

Sounds like you could get amazing contacts out of the job, and you'll never get the opportunity for that sort of experience once you start working for the man.

However, you HAVE TO do the law degree. If you get a training contract with an English firm (I used to be at a Magic Circle firm) you'll quite likely get a chance to live in a western european city anyways. If you don't, you've got a very well regarded degree and can go back to the Oil&Gas thing.

Couldn't do wrong with Paris though

[BingoTough]

Either way, following the canucks from europe sucks. This board is a lifeline

[Blob Mckenzie]

Either way, following the canucks from europe sucks. This board is a lifeline

You have to be kidding me . I'd rather follow these assholes from abroad than from the burbs. I love to travel, and I'm a little jealous of young rockalt right now. I say swing for the fences rockalt. Not that I'd want to be living in the Persian Gulf for too long, but make the money and have the adventure while you can.

[mattola]

ive been to paris. rented an apartment there enjoyed its life. its area its culture.

its the the cats ass if you make decent money and are willing to live life and explore.

you are on the border of a country that can take you everywhere an anywhere.

do Paris. I know nothing of Istanbul.

[mattola]

quite frankly if I made enough money I would live in the south of france an commute to Pairs.

Eze or Nice are my spots with Eze being the greatest place on earth....

[Puck]

I say Paris...

Even if the money was 'ok', I'd say that. You love it there, it seems to be setting you up for some future opportunities and, as others have said, it's a fantastic starting point to bounce around Europe when you have time off. You said that you are young and unattached - this works perfectly for Paris, too.

Working for the Turks would be a whole different world. I'm not saying it would be bad, but it would certainly be foreign. Parts of it sound too good to be true and I'm leery of commission sales at the best of times.

Good luck

[Farhan Lalji]

Hey Rockalt,

I was just curious man - what did you decide? (I personally would've opted for Paris).

[stevethiessen]

wierd. I was just thinking of digging up this thread cause I was wondering the same thing. where are ya rockalt?

[Cornuck]

If you look at his location at the top of the thread, you'll see that he decided on Paris.