Seeking career change advice

This board has helped me before, so I thought I'd throw it out there now as well...

I'm an assistant SID at a public D-II university, and I have an offer to become a Director of Media Relations for a small private university in my wife's hometown (it's also her alma mater, FWIW). My wife grew up in this town and most of her immediate family is still in there as well. We're mid-30s with an 8-yo daughter.

This job is basically 9-5, M-F, and while I maintain and establish new media relationships, I'm basically the writer/columnist for the university. The money is a little better, but it's not a huge raise ($3-4K), but after we're settled, I would be able to say goodbye to a 45-minute, 40-mile one way commute and the long hours.

For some, this may be a no-brainer. But, 1) I've never written much of anything besides sports, so I'd like some feedback from those who have made that switch and felt like they had reservations about it at the time of the switch, and 2) I'm concerned about selling a house and moving and the expense of it all. We've lived in this area nearly seven years.

Thoughts? I appreciate the help.

 

Sounds like a no-brainer to me. You'll just have to find something to do with all the extra time you have.

 

This does seem like a no-brainer. I would have to think job security will be much greater at the private school. Which location has better cost of living, or is that relatively similar?

 

Cost of living is higher at the job being offered. The double-edged sword of it all is, the area has had a huge drop in its housing market. There are deals to be had. That said, the housing market to sell a home where I live now isn't exactly thriving. I don't want to depend on luck at all, but if all that somehow fell into place...

 

Mortgage rates are incredible right now, so if you've lived in your current place for 7 years and haven't refinanced you're probably looking at getting much more value for the money in a new place. You'd have to take a helluva beating on your current house not to come out ahead.

 

Oh, I've refinanced. Don't worry.

 

UNC, I can understand the concern about changing to something non-sports after doing sports so long. But you mentioned your wife's alma mater has offered you a job doing non-sports. Evidently they have confidence you can handle it. While I haven't made the exact change, the better hours alone will be a nice thing, especially as your child gets older.

 

Run, don't walk.

 

Get while the gettin' is good, as they say.

 

Sounds pretty good to me, unless you hate your wife's immediate family.

 

Most of the time I've seen sports people transition to news quite easily. After all, you're still doing the same things. You're attending events, gathering news, etc.

Obviously the new job isn't as much as news gathering as putting the inforrmation out there.