everyone wants a piece of me

I need your help.

I have a decision to make. A big one. Several, in fact. The decisions are completely unexpected, and I'd like y'all's help.

See, apparently everybody thinks I ought to work for them. I've gotten a crazy amount of job offers over the past couple of days. Well, really, only two, but add that to the three jobs I have now, and the multiple combinations of jobs I could make of them all, and it's a big deal.

I'm really quite flattered. It seems that just when I've started to sort out what I might want to do when I get done with school (work for Union), Union's all of a sudden found a way to get me there. For some reason, the folks in Advancement and Marketing/Communications have decided I'm cool. Talk about a foot in the door. While this is definately a nice feeling, it sometimes makes me wonder if they've confused me with someone else.

So here are my options.

My current jobs are as an RA in the dorm, a student worker at the TLC, and as a phoneathon caller for Advancement (that one's only 7 weeks though). Let me tell you about them.

RA Job
I like my job as an RA. Well, actually, I like all my jobs. This one's got its perks in that it gives me my own room in the dorm, and my hours are entirely on nights and weekends. Love that. It leaves me lots of time to work elsewhere and have free time too. The having to stay up until midnight or come in by eleven, depending on my plans for the evening, is sometimes a pain, but otherwise, it's a good gig. The downside is that if I took the job again next year, I'd have to live on campus, obviously. I'm 'bout done with that. But if I'm on campus, the RA thing is essential for the no roommate factor.

TLC
I love this job. It was my first job at Union. It was an answer to a prayer I never even prayed, and has been wonderful to me. The TLC is incredibly flexible, and it's fun. I have four bosses at the TLC (count 'em--four) and I absolutely love them all. How often does that happen? Working there actually de-stresses me instead of adding to my life's craziness. I work with a good friend and with my sister, and with other great people too. I already know the job. I feel competant and on top of things most times, and I'm comfortable there. Did I mention it's flexible? Like whoa. Love that. And I like the "helping people" aspect of it (the other jobs don't do that with such focus). And I laugh there. I feel real, and myself, and that's priceless.

Phoneathon
I'll most likely keep this job regardless of what other ones I take. I'm freakin' good at this job and I've no idea why. I'm not a phone person with my friends, but give me a stranger who went to Union, and it's cake. I hate money, and all I do is ask for it at phoneathon, but it comes rolling in. Sure, it gets old, but it pays $6.50 an hour cash, which around here is a beautiful thing. Again, the evening thing is swell, and heck, they love me. That sweetens any pot. The guy who trains us callers (who trains phoneathon callers professionally full-time at schools around the country) listened in on my calls tonight (nerve-wracking!) and told me that it was flawless and he couldn't find anything to point out to me. Whoa. This sounds like arrogance. What it actually is is astonishment. In two years, I still haven't figured out why this goes well for me. (I made $2000+ tonight, by the way.)

Okay, onward to the new job offers. Exciting like whoa.

Marketing/Communications
Last week a lady in Advancement pulled me aside at phoneathon to point me toward the idea of working for Marketing/Communications or Advancement eventually. She told me to go see the head of Public Relations for the college, who was looking for a writer. I thought this meant "Here, Katie, write a news release and we'll slip ya a twenty." Nope, we're talking 15 hours a week starting in January. Plus a summer job. And all of next year. As a writer. That's getting paid to write, folks. (The whole reason I changed from an English major was the notion that I'd never in a million years get paid to write.) And it's in Public Relations, which is my major, and intended field-of-the-future. Foot-in-the-door, as I said. I'd get to work for Jacque Smith, the PR Director here, who's majorly cool. And I'd be in the same office as Emily Yancer, whom I adore (moving from one Yancer to the next, apparently). The learning experience would be phenomenal. I'm bringing her four writing samples tomorrow to see if she wants me fo' sho'. But it was looking good when we talked.

Advancement
So tonight at Phoneathon my boss, Nicole, comes up to me between calls and lays it all out on the table. She offered me, sans interview, a 20 hour a week position starting as soon as I can. She point blank told me that she'd hire me in a heartbeat because she "wants Katie Carlson" and I'd be her assistant. Okay so here's the clincher. She wants me to come be her Phoneathon Intern this summer. Full time at $7.50 an hour. I need an internship to graduate, by the way. Then the job would continue through next year, by the end of which they'd likely have openings for an Assistant Annual Givings Coordinator and a Capital Campaign Intern. Yeah. Oh, and apparently LuAnn Davis, the VP for Advancement, is a "rock star" in the Fundraising world. You get a good recommendation from her, and you can work anywhere, or so they say. And advancement and fundraising have been a huge interest to me lately, although we'll see how I feel after Institutional Development class next semester.

So those are my options. I can't work more than 20 hours per week, plus phoneathon, according to school policy. And my own sanity.

What do I do? I can't even begin to describe my lost-ness in this process. Second semester this year with the TLC? Advancement? Public Relations?

Summer in Lincoln? Pennsylvania? Tennesee?

Next year with Advancement? Public Relations? RA? (Sorry TLC, it's not looking good.)

I don't even know where to begin. Help...