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This is branching off from a friend-conversation I was having recently IRL.
When weighing career choices, it seems it often comes down to balancing two big sides to the equation, and they are often in opposition for some reason. On one side -- salary and benefits; on the other side -- everything else. The second category would include quality co-workers, work that you enjoy, a stress-level you're comfortable with, prestige, good fit with your degree/training/interests, physical environment of your workplace, etc. Whenever I consider a job that has a better salary, it always seems to fall very short of Category B stuff. I usually talk myself into applying anyway, and most of my friends think it's loony to consider anything outside of the salary. "So what if you don't like the other things! You can cosole yourself with your fat paycheck" seems to be the prevailing opinion. Or "With that salary, you'll be able to afford to travel to the places you need to refresh yourself." Yeah, for two weeks out of the year. We're in our offices for 40 hours in the week -- it seems important to me that I like where I am while I' there. I've always put a pretty high priority on Category B. My physical surroundings are tied in with my happiness. However, not making enough money is definitely stressful and that's also tied in with one's mental health.
I'm just throwing out some thoughts here. Feel free to tell me what you think. I'm not sure there are right/wrong answers on this one....
I think people often think too much in extremes in these discussions. It's not always "amazing salary but miserable working conditions" versus "minimum wage but decent working conditions".
If a job truly makes you miserable and severely impacts your physical and mental health, no salary in the world is worth that. Having a lot of money won't help if you have no time, energy or motivation left to enjoy it.
The older you get, the more you realize how much time and peace of mind are actually worth. My current job is already well paid and has pretty great benefits (3 days I can work from home, completely flexible schedule, nice colleagues, no overtime or weekend work if I don't want it and even if I do it it's very well compensated etc.). Could I make 200-300€ more a month somewhere else? Maybe, if I gave up working from home, my flexible schedule and would be willing to do overtime, weekend work or to move somewhere else. Is that worth it to me? Hell, no. I'm debt free and financially comfortable. I'd rather keep the 2 hours of additional free time a day that I don't have to spend commuting and a schedule that allows me to live the life I want.
Can you take the high-salary job for several years and transition to a high-everything-else job after you've made your cash?
I think that's how many people do it. Once they have some financial security, they optimize for workplace comfort.
Agree no right/wrong so I'll just share my experience.
I also weight "other stuff" pretty heavily. Though this is also because I grew up never really having to legit worry about money, and I don't have student loans. I am also child free, which frees up my financial planning a lot.
My undergrad degree is in economics. After graduating and having interned with a variety of consulting firms, I chose a smaller place. Less pay than the big guys, but it was enough for me to still pay rent, have good food and hobbies, and save a reasonable amount. (50k, in the DC suburbs, in 2017) I also got much better experience than just the data entry I would've been doing at a large firm, and had amazing work life balance. Got a promotion in 2019.
In 2020, while that job was remote, I moved to Chicago. I offered to keep working as a 1099, indefinitely remote, or they could fire me. They chose to keep me, and I rolled all my benefits into a raise in my hourly 1099 rate plus gross up for higher taxes.
Being hourly was great as I never felt bad taking off, and I actually ended up making more and I ended up paying waaay lower taxes. Because during this time, with that flexibility, I also did a masters so my tuition was a "business expense".
At the end of 2021 I tried to quit to look for a job in Chicago, and they gave me a 40% raise to keep me.
In winter 2022/2023, my boss/company owner was retiring and so I looked for a new job again. My boss wanted to use his contacts to get me in at one of the big fancy firms, I asked him if his friend there seemed relaxed and happy, and he said "haha absolutely not". I said well there's your answer. Ended up with the federal government which is awesome.
It's a totally remote job, so I moved out of Chicago to a nice place with low cost of living. (GS pay does vary by location but not as much as COL does, so it's slightly low in big cities, but higher than it should be in more rural areas). Great benefits in every category, great work life balance, I'm not at-will. My team is a small team of highly educated people and out of 10 people there is one "dud", which is pretty good all thing's concerned.
I could be making double what I do now if I was at a large consulting firm, but I also max my IRA, max my 401k, have a pension, have a house I could put 20% down on and will pay off in 10 years, and have time and money to do things like go to the Galapagos for 3 weeks next year.
So yeah, I'd recommend the government. Even if you get a meh team to start, it's much easier to switch once you're already "in".
Hail no, give me my $$$. I feel like category B is a luxury anyway. All jobs will detract from your ability to live your authentic best life. So, I'd rather be getting paid for that.
I've never looked at a job as anything other than a tool to make me money. That's it. I'm 23 with a puppy, a nice house that I'm gonna spend the rest of my life in, a paid off car, very little debt, great work/life balance, and I'm making enough money that I've got thousands to play with at the end of the month. Hard work, high salary, high stress upfront for a sweet reward that I'll be enjoying for the rest of my life. It's well worth option A to get to option B.
Honestly, I think you're doing yourself a huge disservice by not choosing option A because what about retirement? What about savings? Money is crucial to living a healthy, happy life. Choosing short-term pleasure instead of long-term gain is a losing strategy. Especially when you get older and lack enough money to retire comfortably. Most people don't realize until their 40's that they should have started investing younger. Don't fall into that trap!
I'm not saying choose option A for the rest of your life, but option B comes AFTER you've reached financial stability, not before. Struggling your entire life isn't worth it just to have nice coworkers.