Would it be crazy to turn down an offer in this market?
I left my job in social media marketing at the end of 2025. I have nearly 10 years of experience and have worked up to senior account lead / senior social strategist roles across both in-house and agency settings.
I left for a few reasons, but a big one was lack of growth—compensation, title, and responsibilities had plateaued. I also found myself stuck in increasingly execution-heavy work, whereas my strengths and interests are more in strategy, leadership, and big-picture thinking.
I now have an offer on the brand side for a Social Media Manager role. The compensation is a slight increase from my last role, but nothing significant.
I’ve had some gig work over the past 6 months, so I do have savings to lean on—but obviously steady income would be ideal.
The role itself is very execution-heavy. I’d be responsible for shooting, editing, writing captions, posting, and community management—all things I can do and have done extensively, but intentionally moved away from as I progressed in my career. I’m also not excited about the expectation of being “always on” (posting at night, constantly monitoring/responding to comments, etc.), which feels more junior than the direction I want to go in.
On top of that, the commute is significant: 4 days in-office, plus travel to a store location for content creation (about an hour+ each way to HQ, and additional travel for shoots).
My gut says this role will make me unhappy and pull me back into the exact kind of work I left my last job to move away from. But my practical side is saying the market is tough and I shouldn’t turn down an offer.
To complicate things, I also have a few additional interviews lined up this week for roles I’m more interested in. I need to respond to this offer by Friday, so I’m planning to let those interviewers know I have an offer on the table in hopes of accelerating their timelines.
So I’m stuck between:
- Taking the job for stability and continuing to apply elsewhere
- Holding out for a role that better matches my long-term goals, even if it takes longer
Would you take the offer in this market, or keep waiting for something more aligned?