A Job Offer with a Fee?

Take the job. A year goes very quickly, if you decide to stay the full year. And 28 is not too old to start over in NYC.

I would say take the job. Every month, do your damnedest to sock that $250/month away in a savings account. Think of it as your Fuck You money; the money you need to escape the indentured servitude they've got you locked into. At six months, you can walk away clear, if it's a really terrible place, and six months is nothing; in the meantime, you'll have bought yourself enough time to really make a plan for how to get to New York if you want to. At the end of the year, if you stick around, you'll have a $3000 nest egg, and a lot more freedom. You'll be able to move wherever you want (or take a better job in Seattle) and you won't even be thirty yet!

Let's commit to staying in Seattle for 1 year. I don't think you'll regret that. You have a job you like and you're settling in. You have housing, you're making friends, etc. New York will be there in January 2015 too. How great is it that you have a permanant job with bennies! You haven't made Seattle your home yet. I suggest that you give it a try. Sign a year lease, take that job for a year and really set your mind to making it work where you are. One year down the road, you'll be in a MUCH better position to move to New York, if you even still want to do that! In that year, take a vacation to New York, with an eye towards moving there. You had some great experiences previously, but living and working in a new place is a "hole nother" thing entirely. It's funny, but you may have conflated the experience you had on vacation in New York into something that is impossible to live up to as a resident of New York. Bloom where you're planted. As for the legality of the "pay back the recruiting fee" that's out of my wheelhouse, so you may want to investigate that.

I moved to NYC to start over when I was 27, left after a few years, and moved back when I was 34. I felt old both times, but the ticking clock was only in my head. Here's why: no one actually knows how old I am until I tell them. (And I look a bit younger than I am, so people are usually surprised when they find out my true age.) You're only too old to start over at 28 if you think you are. You may want to think a little more about why you think people will look askance at you being 28, and who those people are, and if there's a way to mitigate it. For instance, are you worried potential employers will think you're unaccomplished for your age? Worried that everyone in your age bracket will be partnered with children? Etc. The other thing to consider is that the trappings of an adult life in NYC are not necessarily the same as those in other cities. For instance, many people here have roommates well into their 30s and 40s out of financial necessity. Plenty of people put off having kids because it's expensive, or they don't have room. Others have pets instead of children. For every person in a high-paying, high-powered career, there's someone that same age (often with the same education!) who's a receptionist or a server and doing something creative on the side. There are many reasons to move to NYC, and many reasons not to, but at 28, your age shouldn't be one of them. P.S. Take the job.

Call the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries http://www.lni.wa.gov/Main/ContactInfo/WorkplaceRights/default.asp to find out if this is legal or enforceable. If you refuse to pay in the end, you might expect that you aren't going to get a good reference. I don't think this sort of indentured servitude is a great way to treat your employees in general though and it doesn't give me a good feeling. If there were another job available I would take that but you can decide whether this is better or worse.

Dear Mefites, Thank you so much for all of your advice and support. I can't say how much I appreciate you all taking the time to really read my question and give such helpful answers. :) I was thinking long and hard today, reading everyone's responses and looking at my goals, and I'm thinking about taking the job and just eating the fee with my savings if I am ready to leave before the year is up. Breakin' the Law is right, the minute I quit, I don't have any money coming in, and I remember how hard it was for me to even find this temp job. And, chances are I'll spend around $3,000 until I find another job. I can use this time to really put my head down and research New York so that when that day comes, I can hit the ground running. I did contact the Employment Standards Office and haven't heard back (but left a message), so I am curious as to what the law is. And I talked with HR (at Company X) and they said that the repayment fee is for voluntary termination only, and in the case of emergencies, they would be open to discuss it before requiring payment. That leads me to believe that perhaps it can be negotiable down the road if I pay my dues and am tactful. And I have some good news- I got a raise from the initial offer. So, I am going to do the practical thing for now and rely on my savings to eat the fee (if it's under a year) once I'm ready and prepared. I'll probably be back on here asking questions about New York. Thanks so much, everyone, for your help. It really goes a long way. :) Take care.

Oh, I remember you from your previous questions! It's great that you got an offer like this, even if it's a little odd. My recommendation would be to take it. I say this as a person who currently lives in NYC. If you spend another year there (and you'll be able to put it down as 16 months on your resume, which isn't a terrible tenure for a job in your 20s), you'll be moving to New York with more savings, more experience in an office environment, and more experience just making it work in a big city. Believe me when I say it's hard to find your people here, too- I'm only just starting to, really, and I'm on year three here! I agree with others above who say it sounds like you haven't really committed to the idea of Seattle. No city is going to be perfect, and it would be good practice to really commit to discovering what you love about the place, just for a year.

I've done a "fee for leaving before a year" gig before. It's common in entry-level-ish jobs, especially ones where people are liable to work for a few months, decide "I can do better than this!" and flee the coop. There's really no reason not to take it... you can do a year of ANYTHING, and this will be better than, say, a year of jail, or a year of Siberia.

I'm a little confused here: the HR department you've been talking to --- is that the temp agency HR department, or the full-time job's HR? But either way, this all sounds kind of shady to me, everything from the way the temp agency has been leading you on and changing the rules mid-stream to this repayment fee business. If I was you, I'd not only pass on the repayment-fee job but also leave this particular temp agency entirely. Re: your temp agency boss being perplexed by things like the agency's 3 months/6 months rule change: remember, he works for the temp agency, not for you --- frankly, this guy sounds more like a sleezy bait & switch used car salesman than an honest employer.