In-house

I thought I had already written about this, but I can't find it now.

In the past year or so, I've had a number of interviews for in-house jobs. I thought in-house would be a good move for me because I like being involved on the business side. I like understanding what my clients need and why it's important, and helping them with that context in mind. I'm interested in what my clients are doing and want to know what's going on, what's coming down the pike, and what happens after the deal is signed. I also thought being in-house would allow me to focus more on technology (because I only applied to software companies), to have more control over my schedule, and to work on a variety of matters that I might not now including litigation.

The good news is that I've had no trouble getting the interviews. The bad news is that, with the exception of one company that I was excited about (I ended up being the not-chosen one of two finalists), I haven't wanted the jobs. The hours don't seem to be appreciably less than my part-time law firm hours. They keep telling me that the hours are more predictable, which makes it better. But I'm tired of feeling like I constantly need to check in, and at every one of these jobs that's a given. And these jobs tend to be primarily sales support, which I pretend to be interested in because it seems like an inevitable part of going in-house, but in reality I have to admit to myself I don't really enjoy. I have a client that I do a lot of sales support for, and sometimes I dread getting those calls from salespeople. Salespeople and attorneys are like oil and water. They're nice people, but everything is so squishy that it drives me crazy. Everything is always urgent. And it's the same small handful of contracts over and over. It was fun at first, but after a couple of years it's gotten kind of boring.

Besides, I really like my job other than the schedule. Making a move that is potentially only slightly better doesn't seem worth it. So I keep turning down second and third rounds of interviews for the in-house jobs. I just got a call from this company that I really liked and considered. The people and the culture seemed great. But again, it was mostly sales support and long hours. They wanted to know why I had turned them down. The HR person kept asking, "Did we do something wrong?" I felt like it was a break-up call. I actually said to her, "It's not you, it's me."

I thought that going in-house would be a way to maintain professional satisfaction while trading off some salary for better hours. But it seems like it's less satisfying, significantly less salary, and only slightly better hours.