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Changing Jobs for Job Satisfaction?
I-love-my-work, who is considering rejoining the IT world after a stint in business, asks: "A molecular biologist with a PhD at University of
Birmingham, in the UK, quits his lab position to become a plumber, since a plumber apparently earns twice what he currently makes (~US$42K).
How many of you would change careers if given a chance? What factors would influence the decision (money, hours, upper management, a chance to enjoy more of your life)?" What factors would make you seriously consider leaving your current career for another?
....and you'll never have to work a day in your life :-)
I work in the software industry, and the recent death of a co-worker has me thinking about what I do with my time. Could I support my family with an at-home job? Could I work somewhere that lets me spend more time with my kids?
Sure, I make pretty good scratch, but what fun is the money if you never get a chance to spend it?
These questions and more are definately floating around our office.
I worked in IT for a good number of years, as everything from tech support to running a small computer shop. Eventually, I decided to try something else...I was getting sick of IT, sick of people. I went full tilt the other direction -- I became a trucker. The pay is the same or better (depending upon what I'm doing), and the satisfaction of getting things done, truly, is much better than the endless chain of people in tech support. Fixing pc's was never the same, nor was managing databases. I've also found that it's great seeing the country as a whole -- there's a lot of stuff out there you just don't get to enjoy when you're inside a building 8-12 hours a day.
I sing the doggie electric!
so if you have weekends off and you get paid "well", you have no problem being a porn spammer ?
How about a garbage collector ?
What about a factory worker ?
Don't forget that the grass is always greener.
So chemists want to be he-man plumbers, swinging a pick and gaining satisfaction from building something tangible? Plumbers wish they could sit on their asses out of the weather and keep their fingers soft and clean on a keyboard all day. Programmers wish they could be making explosions in a chemistry lab, wearing a cool white coat and getting all the chicks!!
It's getting too stressful worrying about layoff-this, RSI-that. I work in an industry (3D animation) that in ten years will probably be smaller than it is now. When I change careers it will probably be because I'm too tired of being one of the rats clinging to Titanic's rigging. This used to be a job that I loved (and you're right, I never worked a day), but that has changed and it's a job now.
I'll switch careers when I find something that will make me as happy as doing 3d work did five years ago.
Getting paid 1/4 for job satisfaction? Nah..
<^>_<(ô ô)>_<^>
A molecular biologist with a PhD at University of Birmingham, in the UK, quits his lab position to become a plumber, since a plumber apparently earns twice what he currently makes (~US$42K).
Hopefully if you are in science, you are doing what you do for reasons other than financial gain. Ideally, one should be doing what they are doing in science to make a difference . Really, because there are a ton of things people can do that are much easier that writing papers, doing good science and applying for grants that make much more money than do your typical scientist. Take for instance the auto mechanic who works on my neighbors BMW. That dude (mechanic) clears six figures easy. Another set of examples: Before I went to graduate school, one of my jobs was a mechanic for old Ferrari's and Lamborghini's. That was not too bad in terms of income and certainly covered the cost of tuition. The carpenter we paid to make our couch makes some pretty good money. The dudes that replaced our sewer line and driveway cleaned up to the tune of $4000 or so. So, if you are just in it for the money, go get an MBA or a plumbing license or something.
Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
If that were the choice, I'd rather hate my job for 5 years making $100k/year, put $80k each year in the bank and then quit my job and pay myself $20k each year for the next 25 years out of the saved money to do what I want ;).
Jason
ProfQuotes
PhD in Astronomy, 1998. My thesis dragged out endlessly so that once I'd finished it, I couldn't stand the thought of doing the work to create some papers out of it. Also, I wanted to come back home (New Zealand) and astronomy jobs are hard to get here.
1998-2003: Commercial programmer. OK at first, but eventually I was just doing the same old stuff again and again. I was getting very bored and I think because of that, unproductive.
So now I'm an applied mathematician in bioinformatics (having studied no biology since early high school). I was earning 40% more at the previous job, but it is worth it to be doing something interesting again.
Money is nice (a friend once called it "the sincerest form of appreciation") but having new, challenging and interesting things to do is more important.
Quattuor res in hoc mundo sanctae sunt: libri, liberi, libertas et liberalitas.
A junior technician (bachelor's degree) can make around $50K USD here in the US. A PhD can command more as a "mere lab tech." That's IF s/he wants to continue to do science. They can get jobs reasonably easily as *shudder!* consultants. In fact, I went to seminar on how to tweak your resume (a science PhD resume, anyway) to get a job in consulting.
I seriously doubt he'll be making over $100K USD after 5 years as a plumber. With his PhD he can, if he plays his cards right.
This article is a little scattered. One person is quitting his job as a *molecular biologist with a Ph.D." to work as a plumber, while another person is switching to training greyhounds and yet another is just moving to Canada. The reasons for all of these changes may be way unrelated to each other.
...
But so what? Just because you *can* do something doesn't mean that you should. I've made in excess of $100,000/year as a software consultant for four years. Now I'm finishing my English degree and studying poetry. People do this sort of thing all the time and it usually comes when they're a little older and have a better idea of what matters to them in life and what gives them the energy to get up in the morning and face the day. The molecular biologist has some big bills, perhaps. Or maybe he's just a smart guy that put in a ton of work -- Ph.D.'s, after all, aren't earned in a few weekends of spare time study, at least not from a reputable school -- and then found that the reality of research is different from the intellectual stimulation of textbooks.
Do I like software? Yes, I do. I compete on TopCoder, read books about functional programming, and throw mud at SCO. But writing and literature is, simply speaking, closer to my heart. For another person it's training an ancient breed of dogs. And for yet another person it's going to Canada to commune with, well, Canadians I guess.
The fact is that, given basic education, intelligence and wherewithal, we live in a world where you don't *have* to settle for doin' what yer daddy done, or towing the line, or staying "safe" if you don't want to.
This molecular plumber guy is just searching for a reward, I guess. After a few years of the realities of a plumber, it's possible yet he may look fondly back at his days as a molecular biologist
Chr0m0Dr0m!C
First off a plumber makes more than someone with a phd?
Anyway, something similar to this happened to me, minus the 42k and phd. I recently swapped careers after over 8 years as an automotive tech. I decided I was tired of going home greasy, busting my knuckles, and working out in the cold. Now I'm in school part time, and working with the same company only in the IT department. The dirtiest I get at work now is from a rabid dust bunny inside of a case or two. Needless to say I am happy of the change. Once school is completed I'll make at least twice what I did working on cars. I would have been reluctant to change had I not been able to stay with the same company. I know of many people who have their degrees in Computer Science, and cannot get a job either from the market bieng saturated or a lack of hands on experience. I am lucky enough to have the best of both worlds, job security, working at my degree, and getting hands on experience.
As for the plumber with a phd, my father always said "It doesn't matter if you make minimum wage washing dishes, as long as your happy with what you do."
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
He has since come back to working in the business world, which is why he now works for my company. Why? Well, he discovered that as an "odd job" laborer:
You have to work HARD.
You make no money.
You have no benefits.
You still have to deal with pompous, overbearing individuals who think they know, when in fact, they do not.
You do not get vacations.
Now given, YMMV, but I have found that the key to job happiness is having a good balance of expectations versus fulfillment. 3 years ago, when my expecations of employment were "I want a pool table, I want to go drinking every night with my coworkers, I want to work 80-hour weeks and be an IPO millionaire," I would have been miserable at my current job. The place is kinda corporate, after all. We have cubes, and use buzzwords, and there are "are you giving good customer service?" banners hanging up.
But now, what I want in a job includes things like vacation time, a chance to play with some fun technologies, good money, and a job that I can come in, do, and get outta here as quickly as possible. So now my job is a lot more fulfilling, partially because I found a different job, and partially because I modified my expectations.
If you are really miserable at your job, by all means, go elsewhere. I certainly did. But be prepared to take a good look at yourself and consider that part of the problem may lie with you.
--- Where's my car, and why are these grass stains on my pants?
Most of my life I've gotten the advice to figure out what you love and find some fool to pay you for doing it. Now I'm not so sure. Go find a secure profession that will pay you well enough to live your life (hint: a life isn't what you do at work). Make sure there are enough opportunities that you can switch employers whenever you get sick of one. Then go do what you love. You're selling some of your life to your employer to finance the rest of your life.
The problem with the boom is that the textile workers got into IT where they dont belong. I know I should feel sorry for the dot bomb people that lost there jobs but looking back to many of them shouldent have been around a datacenter forget having root / administrator credentials yes they tried hard etc etc etc but a book does not make a good IT person just an ok one. People should have a spark and drive for there job if your not driven to do your job well well I dont feel sorry for you when you get laid off over the 19 year old kid that loves to code / engineer and does it well. Sure there are some things that are book learning but you can tell the difference between the 9-5 people and the ones that do cool things on weekends. Find a job you have passion for and never let it be extinguished otherwise work at dennies or become a corprate drone.
No sir I dont like it.
I had a job as senior project manager, my skills "helped" me to get into the business area as well as the technical, so at the end of the day I was doing the jobs of a sales engineer, manager of the IT crew and project manager. That was ok until my boss started to push to improve my sales!!!! c'mon...
Anyway... he went to southamerica to close a few deals and I was running the business here. We were about 10 people. The problem was when he starting to call the customers to force payments (they were late) and ruined all the negotiations I did. Projects started to collapse and 3 of the best employees left. I tried to, but my hands were tied with the responsibiliti. Finally the stress led me to the hospital and when the company refused to pay the bill and the extra expenses I decided to quit. Money was good, but considering the chores I was doing, I deserved the money of 3 or 4 management positions.
You and your health is the most important, also take time to live your life, don't live for work. Become necessary to your company, but don't solve others work. If you feel abused, talk, if nobody listens, then it's time to give the fsk salutation to your boss. Chances are they won't support you in easy times, lesser are while you're in troubles.
My 2cents.
I read most of the posts here and to summarize, we geeks are fed up to the top of our heads with the current state of affairs. Namely, corporations that don't give a damn about us. Unfortunately, most of us are indentured servants to our corporate masters at this time.
On the bright side, when the job market comes back these same corporate masters are going to wonder what hit them. Widespread walkouts, or extortion (large retention bonuses, immediate promotions/raises). If the idiot CxO's don't get a clue now, they are going to watch their companies implode as the brain drain hits them.
These sentiments mirror those of my colleagues. Our company had better get a clue too, or it won't be pretty.
There's a fine line between persistance and pestering. Giving your superiors an ultimatum isn't going to be as affective and convincing them why its in their best interest to give you a development position.
Sure, I make pretty good scratch, but what fun is the money if you never get a chance to spend it?
I've heard this from a lot of people. And certainly there are scores of people who spend too much time at work and not enough with their families. But I always remember what happened to some guy who used to work here: he came down with Alzheimer's in his 40s. I work at a scientific/engineering kind of place and, needless to say, your mind is the most important tool you have. This poor guy got struck down with a terrible disease way before his time. He had to retire. He just couldn't do the work anymore. Here's a case where doing the right thing for your family would have been to save up a big chunk of dough to support them if you died or could no longer work. Of course, he didn't know he was going to get Alzheimer's -- and certainly not at such an early age -- so he can't be blamed if he didn't save up a shitload of money "just in case."
The point I'm trying to make is that these issues are tough. No one has the "right" answer. Maybe your family is better off if you take a pay cut and have more time for them. And maybe your family is better off if you work your ass off when you're young and save up a lot of money to support them in case something happens to you. No way to know for sure. It's questions and issues like this that make life so exciting and terrifying at the same time.
GMD
watch this
A word of advice for all you soon to be graduates.
If you enjoy programming, never take any job in the IT field outside of programming. When looking for an internship or a first job, never accept any system administration, product support, or, especially, testing position. Once you are in these positions and they appear on your resume, you are pigeonholed. When you send your resume to any company, they will see your experience and only consider that for you placement. For any company with an HR department, it won't matter that you aced assembly and compiler design, that you work on programming projects in your free time, or that you've memorized all three volumes of Knuth. The only thing that will matter is your previous work expereince.
Like the parennt poster, I wasted alot of time at the beginning of my career because I didn't know how the world worked. I got out in six months, but getting out required leaving the position instead of advancing in the company. I wish someone would have told me.
Good luck.
They cannot off shore plumbing, or framing. It would be sad if eventually the ability to carry cinder blocks and boards around was more valuable than the ability to code, etc.
We would be the third world labor country, and the other countries would become what we were in the 1990's.
This is rather unrealistic. In most urban areas, the cost of housing goes UP near the University, way up. Since most students are getting large student loans and/or parent funding, and many times working as well (even McDonald's full-time will beat the 13k poverty line), they don't have that much trouble affording their apartments. The real poor people live in slums, which are not usually near universities, and are seriously dangerous places to be.
Having a car of any kind is generally expensive; the problem isn't just the price of the car, but insurance, registration/taxes, and repairs. If you buy some crappy used car, thinking you're going to save money, you'll more than make up for it in regular repairs (depends on the car of course). And even if you never have problems, if you're under 25 the insurance is ridiculous. It's better over 25, but still a significant cost. Of course, if your alternative is the bus, you better live fairly close to everyplace you need to go because they're so slow.
Where this whole "living cheap" thing totally falls flat on its face is when you get into marriage and kids, something, statistically, most adults do at some point in their lives. Yeah, I know this is Slashdot, but I think even most people here will experience one or both of these eventually; I really doubted it too when I was in college but now that I'm pushing 30, things have changed a lot. There is simply no way you can raise kids properly on a poverty-line income. Sure, lots of people have kids and are dirt poor, but their kids are sick, in jail, etc. I've never heard anything good about raising kids while living in the ghetto.
This has nothing to do with an "ostentatious" lifestyle; families making $40k have a hard time making ends meet in this country when they have 2-3 kids ($80k in california), and the reason is the high cost of living, caused by many, many factors which could fuel several articles here.
Of course, armchair idealists will say "it's all about choices you make", but here in the real world, people are limited by the society they live in and the costs it imposes on them (you know how much it costs to visit the doctor when you don't have health insurance?).
Getting that behind-the-scenes look at the job I thought I wanted was SO valuable! Chefs work hard (12 hour days or more, 6 days a week) and don't get paid all that much (I guess there are exceptions) - it really gave me the chance to see how good I had it as a programmer and that's what I really loved to do - to solve puzzles and write the code to solve 'em. My urges to cook are satisfied by cooking at home on a hobbyist basis.
So that's what I would say ... do some research into what you're thinking of switching to on an extra-curricular basis. Don't leave your job until you're sure ... well, that is, if you have a job. There is some truth to the adage "the grass is greener on the other side of the pasture." You don't want to find out after switching sides that the side you were on was already pretty green.
I'd also recommend a good book: What Should I Do with My Life?: The True Story of People Who Answered the Ultimate Question, by Po Bronson ... we've talked about it before. I've read most (if not all -- I forget) of it. It doesn't answer your questions, but it does offer some insights into people who have done similar things.
I'm not sure what the secret to success is, but the secret to failure lies in trying to please everyone -Bill Cosby
Ah, the famous 'dead money argument'
/ALL/ depends on circumstances. I know some very succesful people who are serious sharemarket investors and many of them rent, on the basis that they don't understand the housing market, so why risk their capital there?
Can you explain why paying a landlord for the use of his asset (a house) is evil and stupid, whereas paying a bank for the use of their asset (a lump of capital) is clever and mature?
It
So what's the lesson learned? When you're young, work the job you like. You have your entire life to work jobs you hate and once you get that house, new car, wife, and children it will be tougher to leave a bad job if it pays well. When you're young and basically all you have in your life it work, make that work as enjoyable as possible. Plan for the future, but don't let that possible future ruin your present.
"Oh dear, she's stuck in an infinite loop and he's an idiot" -Prof. Farnsworth (Futurama)