So I have quite a difficult decision of where to take my professional life, and I need some opinions from the reddit hivemind. Right now I'm a Shift Lead at one of the 3 major phone companies in the US. I have an opportunity to apply for a management position, making about 30k more a year, 6 weeks PTO, Full Benefits, a really good job tbh.
The issue is, I also have an opportunity to start my own little cleaning business. No employees or anything, but the type of business would allow me to work a 15-20 hour work week and make a little more than my current wage, maybe 10k more a year. The reason I like this is because I love to paint and make art, I would be truly content with this life if I could just dedicate myself to art but instead I get to try and navigate this corporate nightmare so I love the idea of having an extra 20-25 hours a week to work on my craft. The thing is, if a business or a person starts to go through hard times, the cleaner is the first to go lol, so it's not very stable.
So I'm torn between getting to do way more of what I really love to do – but at the risk it could all fall apart at any time. Or I could take the management role, get the word manager on my resume so that in another couple years I could try again, but it's so hard to find cleaning clients in my area – all the jobs get taken so quickly and I'm not an official business or anything – so I also run the risk that the opportunity just isn't there in a few years.
Since I'm only 20, I'm wondering if a couple more years in the corporate machine wouldnt be so bad to get management experience on my resume so I could find a good job in the future should I need it. At the same time the thought of having so much of my personal life back to enjoy my life just fills me with so much happiness I get pretty depressed thinking about spending a couple more years working 40 hours.
What would you guys do in the situation? Do you think I would really end up benefiting down the line from trying to slog through the corporate world a couple more years? Or should I say fuck it and really try to go for what I would make me the happiest now?