Advice on career (consulting vs. hotel management (employees, credit card, debt)

[foreverflorida]

Right now I work as an independent PR consultant, providing mostly editorial support for several clients. I do okay financially, but certainly not great. I probably earn about $50-60K per year (month-to-month it varies quite a bit).

I'm really sick of what I'm doing. I sit at home at the computer and interact with people hundreds or thousands of miles away. Aside from the travel a couple times a year, there's no face-to-face interaction with people. I've tried to develop local projects, but have had zero success in the last year, although that might very well be a result of the economic downturn.

So, I've decided that I can do one of two things:

1) learn new skills and pursue aggressive business development to expand my business (i.e. becoming more proficient in graphic design and layout, learn Spanish, to to get into management consulting, perhaps pursuing an MBA).

2) accept an offer for a front-desk job at a prestigious 4-star hotel and work toward an eventual hotel management career. I have worked in a hotel before when I was an undergraduate and loved the atmosphere and found the idea of managing a big prestigious hotel very appealing, as well as working in the corporate offices of one of the bigger chains. I love the business in general, including the interaction with customers.

I'm really torn between these two paths, as I like the idea of developing my own business and being my own man. There are disadvantages to each plan, though:

1) I'm currently on projects that have a moderate chance of going under for economic reasons. Not likely, but still possible. My business is not yet what could be called a "going concern." In short, there's a lot of risk, and I do have a family to support.

2) The hotel job I've been offered pays $11 an hour, which, at full-time, would be about half as much money as I'm making in consulting - not anywhere near enough for us to get by on that income alone. But assuming I'm able to work up toward management level, I should easily be able to make more than I am now. I could work part-time and keep my consulting work, but the disadvantage of that option is that I wouldn't be eligible for benefits at the hotel and part-time employees are generally not candidates for promotion. Plus, the hotel really wants someone full-time and there would be all sorts of pressure to take on more shifts. Finally, my consulting job gives me a lot of freedom to work wirelessly from wherever I choose - a coffee shop, the park, another city if I want to vacation, home - anywhere. Being in a hotel would obviously take away a considerable amount of freedom.

I could work full-time at the hotel and keep my consulting business, but business development would be very difficult given that I would hardly have any time to go out and meet new clients, particularly in other cities. I'd also be too tired to try to learn new skills, especially since I do want to spend time with my family!!

Finally (I apologize in advance for the long post!!), my current consulting income is not really enough to pay all the bills and live comfortably. It would be if I didn't have over $750 a month to pay in credit card bills and student loans.

Perhaps I should just take the part-time hotel job, see how it is, use that money to pay off bills, and then see how I feel about it in 6-12 months?

[NJ Chutzpah]

I think you should try it part-time

In the hotel bizz people move around from hotel to hotel, company to company quite often in order to get better pay

being a manager is a full time job, will require lots of overtime, and very stressful, actually you will probably work overtime all the time

with the slow economy, I doubt you will get promoted up the chain as fast as you need if you have debts, and family to support

[SXMGirl]

I would work at the hotel part-time and keep your consulting business. Service jobs such as hotel management are expected to increase and even high schools are changing curriculum to include marketing clusters and pathways. By the time you get your credit card debt and school loans paid for, assuming that it won't take many years, you will be in a better position to make a good decision for yourself. If you choose hotel management, you probably will still need to learn Spanish and possibly take some hotel management courses, because your competition will be those students graduating from college with hotel management degrees.