How do I navigate and balance multiple job opportunities? No bites for a while and now they all come at once!

Hi everyone!

I have been seeking a role for over 2.5+ years now and suddenly, out of the blue I have 5 organizations wanting to interview me/currently interviewing me. It has been a long road to get to this point with lots of silver medals and silence and ghosting in between. Now onto the conundrum, which I never thought I’d be dealing with due to the state of this crazy job market!

Goal: Essentially I’m looking for a different and hopefully improved work environment to get away from an incredibly toxic boss (10 people have left our small office of 12 in 3 years and the door keeps swinging).

I’m seeking general advice from anyone who has had to deal with a similar situation. I am excited to have so much interest suddenly (what happened this past week?!) but now I’m an anxious mess as I try to juggle and balance all of this. I don’t want to make the wrong decision and I want to handle this with grace and professionalism.

I am married. No kids. Husband has well-paying job but he’s miserable (12 hour shifts, lots of overtime demands). He’s got some bites locally in a city 1 hour away so he’s navigating that separately – his line of work can take about 6 months though to offer. We own a home. No debt, just mortgage. Good emergency savings each and a shared account too. Before this all happened I was actually going to quit my current role next month for mental/physical health reasons anyway with nothing lined up.

Here’s my current state of affairs…

Job 1) Received an offer this morning. Role is hybrid. Salary is ok and a little more than I’m making now. I have asked to speak about benefits (they didn’t share this yet…) to see if this truly makes financial sense as it requires a move to a new state (one over, a few hours away). We’d be paying mortgage AND rent which is doable as we live well below our means and we’ve done this before but in-state about 8 years ago. Lateral move but at a very reputable org and household name. This job opportunity has been incredibly quick this past week which is why I don’t have a full benefits picture yet. References have cleared here and they are ready to get the background check moving and then set a start date. I did all interviews virtually with real people (don’t worry!) but a red flag is that they never invited me to meet in-person and the speed has me concerned that I’ll be jumping from one toxic workplace into another. Essentially there’s A LOT of risk here as my husband would have to find a job in that area too and we’d have to sell the house – our market is very healthy though with low inventory.

Job 2) Small, local family-owned company. Role is in-person. Salary is a little less than I make now but will give me exposure to an industry I’m interested in. Would be a fun job for a couple of years while I recover from the job I’m trying to escape. In-person interview early next week. Lateral move.

Job 3) Large company but local. Role is remote but with some occasional visits to local office. Salary is 15% increase to what I make now with 10% bonus potential. Good benefits, time off, and 401k match, etc. Phone interview early next week. Lateral move.

Job 4) Large organization out of state (one over). Role is remote with very occasional visits to location. Salary is 27% increase to what I make now. Unclear on benefits at this time. Virtual interview later next week. One step up the ladder in my career.

Job 5) Large gov organization in state and one hour away. Role is hybrid. Salary is 20% increase to what I make now. Good benefits all round as it’s for the state. Phone interview and virtual panel interviews complete (long process so far) and received an email today advising it will take 2 weeks to follow-up w/ next steps. One step up the ladder in my career.

Ultimately, I only have one offer but I’d like to seriously entertain 3, 4 and 5 if things go well with interviews. How do I navigate this? Would appreciate any tips.

Until yesterday… Job 1) was all I was really thinking was a serious candidate due to the slowness of Job 5) but I’ve had 2, 3, 4 come up in the past few days and I’m freaking out slightly.