This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Spencer Specht, a 33-year-old manager of sales development and enablement who is based in Minneapolis. It’s been edited for length and clarity.
In July 2025, I was laid off from my role as a sales development manager at a SaaS company. Three months prior, my wife had decided to stay home with our 10-month-old daughter. We quickly became a zero-income family.
I received a severance package of around three months’ pay, which allowed me some time to find a new role. My wife and I were also saving for a down payment on a home, so we had savings we could dip into.
I started applying to jobs a few days after I got laid off
I was very focused on finding a company or role I was truly excited about. I connected with 5-10 people at companies I was interested in on LinkedIn.
I tried to look at my job-search situation with a positive mindset — this was a chance to reinvent myself with a fresh start and, hopefully, find something that could propel my career much faster than if I had stayed at my last job.
The realization didn’t start to kick in until about a month after my layoff: My COBRA is running out, and things are going to change if I’m not able to find anything.
It took roughly 60 days to land two job offers
I found both offers through people reaching out to me on social media, when hiring managers and employees suggested I look into their company.
I interviewed with 12 companies and participated in about 27 interviews in total. I landed two offers — from Company A and Company B — after about five interviews and conversations at each company.
Figuring out which one to take wasn’t easy
I’d already started working at Company A for a short period prior to receiving the offer from Company B. I accepted an offer from Company A because I was still going through the interview process with Company B. I was confident I would get an offer from Company B, but not confident enough to pass on something in front of me.
I was employed by Company A for two and a half weeks. It was very difficult to try to be a good performer while still negotiating an offer with Company B, knowing I might have to say, “Hey, I’m leaving” very soon.
Once I had the second offer from Company B, I had to figure out what to do
I considered everything about both Company A and Company B, including benefits, salary, job security, travel, and growth opportunities.
There were a few similarities between the roles — both were in the SaaS field and remote, though Company A required some travel, which, at the time, was a negative for me because Company B didn’t.
Both also had on-target earnings and a similar payout structure: a percentage of my yearly salary would be a base, and the other percentage would be commission.
Comparing key differences helped me make my decision
I chose Company B, and in October 2025, I left Company A to join Company B as head of sales development and enablement.
I don’t think I burned the bridge at Company A by leaving so soon. My manager was very understanding, and at the end of the day, it’s just business. They’d invested time in me, but it was probably best I moved on so fast rather than a few months later.
I wanted leadership opportunities
When I graduated from college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I took a basic corporate job for six months, then bounced around: I was a UPS driver, I worked at a banquet facility, did some oddball things. Then, I got my foot in the door as a customer service representative at a logistics company, which sparked my interest in sales.
Once I was there, I saw a path to leadership: you start as a sales development representative, become an account executive, and then transition into leadership, which is what I had always wanted to do.
When I was deciding between Company A and Company B, the leadership opportunity was a major factor. Company A was an individual contributor role, so I’d be out selling and closing deals. Company B was a manager-level role, where I’d be leading people. Company B offered greater exposure to leadership-level decisions and strategies, and that’s a big reason I chose them.
I wanted a faster path to advancement
Company A had been in business for 25 years. As a long-standing, mature, private-equity-backed company, I figured it likely had a slower path to advancement.
As a Series A startup, Company B had only 40 employees, so I felt I had unlimited potential to grow with the company. This ties into Company B’s leadership role — having the ability to move up as a leader seemed like the best avenue to advance my career.
I wanted a higher base salary, even if it came with a lower split
Company A was offering $85,000 with a 50/50 split. If I achieved my goals as a seller, I’d walk away with about $170,000 at the end of the year. Company B had an almost 50% higher base salary than Company A, but only an 80/20 split, which meant less money in total.
With a wife and a child at home and still trying to buy a house, that higher base salary meant a more stable income, so it became my go-to option from a salary standpoint.
I also wanted to enjoy my work as much as I could
I asked some mentors at my last company who were also affected by the layoff to help me weigh this decision.
After talking to them, I realized that what it really came down to was: where am I going to have the most fun, even if the startup gets sold and I only make it six or eight months? I realized that working at a Series A startup seemed like the job I’d enjoy the most.
12 months into my new role, I don’t regret my decision
I hit one year at Company B in October. I’m still happy with the decision as I’ve gained a ton of great experience. I’ve had the opportunity to do things that I never thought I would.
In my last job, it would’ve taken five or 10 years to get some of the exposure I’ve had from being this close to leadership and negotiating with our vendors. I wouldn’t have gotten this experience at Company A or in my previous role. That exposure alone has been worth the difficulty of navigating my job offer decision.
It’s better to take risks for a possible reward rather than play it safe and regret it. I think if I were still at Company A, I’d be kicking myself or thinking about what Company B could’ve been. That gives me peace of mind.
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