Slashdot Mirror
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?
I have considered this time and time again but the only thing keeping me from changing out of IT to something more gratifying is money.
i am we todd did... i am sofa king we todd did
It is simple really, it is a pay me world and I want to get paid. I think I'll be happy doing whatever so long as it pays well and I can live comfortably. Of course the hour worked is also a quality look for in a job. I don't exactly want to spend my weekends working.
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One is born into aristocracy, but mediocrity can only be achieved through hard work.
I spent 5 years getting a BC in CS to do a job that a flea-infested, poo-flinging resus monkey could do in its sleep. And I've been doing the same thing for 18 months this week. Quite frankly I'm ready to start considering a change, since I pretty much have a snowball's chance in hell of finding something else in the IT field. I've already informed some of my superiors that if they don't place me in something that more effectively uses my abilities, I'm probably leaving. They've been dangling a carrot in front of me for months about an actual programming position...yeah right.
Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
Not always true, unfortunately. All too often the 'job' part ruins the 'fun' part.
... and I no longer can easily start working on programming related things once I get home from work. After 5+ years of doing it as a job now, it's very difficult for me to spend time writing code at home now ... it just feels too much like work. =(
For example, I used to love programming. Then I got a job doing it for a living
I'm thinking of moving out of the IT industry...
What I'm looking for:
Reasonable job satisfaction- No more adjusting the settings on something that's going to get screwed up constantly or need non-stop maintenance. Something physical. And preferably something that people don't consider vital to their life. I can't even guess how many day-traders have threatened to hold me responsible for their ISP being down...
Human interaction-And by human, I don't mean people that can't use their computers.
Being in a job where the only people you see for months on end are 7 other guys kind of gets old. Especially if you don't get out a lot.
Money will/would be nice, but my expenses are low, so I'm fortunate that it won't be a primary concern.
I had a sucky sig.
I was a highly-paid dot-com bubble programmer, and then I was asked to become a vacationer overnight.
Seriously though, it was a very pleasant experience : 2 years of absolute slacking, doing only what I wanted on the money I had made during the bubble, recovering from 5 years of uninterrupted software development death marches that had left me kind of sick, and reflecting on all the mistakes I will never make in the future, either as an employee or as an entrepreneur.
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
Also a lawyer, turned IT professional. I would _consider_ going back into law, but i know i would miss fun things in technology like all the times you get to work on a really hard logical problem and the satisfaction you get when you solve it. Then again money is pretty nice too
On some really bad days, I sometimes consider leaving the IT industry and becoming a botanist.
What's the worst that could happen? Your bulbs don't germinate on time? Maybe some of your plants get some bugs... It's not like 500 employees breathing down your neck because the server is down.
But I would really miss working with the people. Go figure. The source of most of my IT pain is really the only reason for working in the industry.
What factors would make you seriously consider leaving your current career for another?
If I didn't like it, of course.
Right now, I work for a private college in the IT department. It's pleasant work, for the most part. Taking a job like this definitely caps your potential income, but frankly, there's a lot more important factors than money.
If I'm spending a third of my weekday hours somewhere, or more, why the hell would I do it somewhere I hate? That's like just _asking_ to be miserable the rest of the time.
--saint
Right now I'm a programmer but I am also an avid scuba diver. I wish I had the courage to quit my job and open up a dive operation in Akumal or somewhere similar.
Do they have broadband in Akumal?
Lord, bless my users that they may stop being such fucking idiots!!
I went from a career working in life sciences to programming because I was sick of science and lab work. Plus my new job paid twice what my old job did. Now I work as a bioinfromatics programmer. So, in the end, I have combined the two.
I changed out of IT after the crash in 2000. I started teaching college as a stopgap measure and found it immensely rewarding despite the drastic drop in pay. I got certified to teach math in Florida, and I'm now here looking to teach kids in the public school system. Job satisfaction was the only motivating factor.
"My ship came in, but was bombed by terrorists in port and sank." - Me
sit at home, hack perl code, and watch tv/listen to music. I work in my underwear most days...in fact I'm posting in my underwear. I have sex while i'm at work when my gf comes over. I can drink if i want, smoke whenever i want, get a tan on my deck since i have a laptop, whatever i want. sometimes i walk downtown and go to a coffee shop for a change of scenery.
:) what more can I ask for? maybe i could buy a house close to where i am now, which is 3 blocks from the beach.
plus i get paid well
perl -e '$_="\007/4`\cp%2,".chr(127);s/./"\"\\c$&\""/gees
The way I feel about it is this: I can sit in a cubicle doing what is essentially rearranging random ones and zeros into non-random order to create something of value (although most of my time is actually spent doing documentation, reports, supervision, meetings etc).
OR I can take a bunch of raw pieces of wood and create something that is not only beautiful, but allows a musician to create even more beauty and music.
Which one sounds more satisfying to you?
The more I write code the more I want to build guitars for a living.
[BTW, I'd love to add a shameless plug for my website right about here but I'd probably just slashdot myself and end up taking my whole site down]
you say that now, but once the checks start rolling in...
I was in a project that I loved, unfortunately, it ended. I then took another position within the company with a 25% raise attached. I absolutely hated the job and the subject matter was pretty rough, but I dealt with it.
Once that project dried up, I went back into development, took a 10% pay cut, but it's a much better fit.
Then why to game developers work 12 hour days, 6 or 7 days a week?
In all seriousness, I gave up the ideal career-making game dev job for a relatively mundane web application job. Why? Because the latter paid significantly more, had flexible hours, didn't require working on the weekends, and let me stay in San Francisco.
It was entirely a Quality of Life decision, and while part of me misses the "Biz," I'm still glad I made it. The additional money, time, and flexibility enhances my life outside of work, which is more important (IMO).
y
I spent a few years in college working for a television station, most of my job boiled down to watching our station on 5 different monitors as a quality control (high-def, black and white, regular color, a radial spectrograph, and a high-def black and white) - but after you trained yourself what to look for it bwas basically watching TV 8 hours a day in an otherwise featureless room with nobody else there, no outside stimuli. For two years, getting paid for it.
... ouch.
I still don't watch regular television anymore - can't bear to watch what amounts to crap for free. I do watch some Discovery Channel and the History Channel, that's time well spent - but regular TV
Glonoinha the MebiByte Slayer
I'm definitely considering a move out of the IT industry. While I am extremely thankful I have been blessed with great business in the last few years, job satisfaction is at an all time low.
Frankly, I've come to realize that I work for the machine! I find them a nice 42U space for them to habitate in, give them power, air conditioning, a line out to talk with their friends. I then go on to teach them how to talk with other folks in interesting ways, so that they can stand on their own and make some money!!
It'd be nice to do something good for the planet. I'm returning back to the ideals of my youth - I want to help the planet, and not just one server at a time. Another monkey could do my work (maybe not quite as well, but it'd get done), I should be out helping people. Even if I climb the fabled ladders or just retire a rich consultant - would I really want to look back on my life in 40-50 years and say "Welp, I built some damn fine servers in my day, yessir."? No sir. What would really turn my crank? That's the one that's tough to figure out. Who else wants to save the planet?
...after totally losing it with my last so-called university job, I figured that research was a dish best served without direct monetary flavour. The alternative is to 'research' as you are paid to research, which in the computer-science field is of course merely another way of becoming an underpaid code monkey for the greater glory of a usually-very-stupid boss... so now I'm taking the PhD on my own terms until I persuade somebody into funding it for what it is, no strings attached, and getting money as a freelance translator (certification pending).
I think, if you're ideologically handicapped (eg, you have the irrational and idealistic belief that science involves facts) then the best type of science is at least initially that which you aren't paid for. The alternative is either to be very lucky, get a great boss or go blindly through your life ignoring the fact that you don't believe in your own papers, and eventually receive a PhD that might just as well be printed on toilet paper for all you'll care...
no, its creative control.
when a given problem that has exactlly 1 solution, and upper management tells you to do something that you know creates 10 more problems instead of the correct solution, there isn't much "fun" in coding it up for them.
MARIJUANA, SHROOMS, X: ONLINE?! - E
I must post as an AC here, as you shall soon see..
.
I was making some nice cash in the software industry not too long ago (mid-2002) when my recently-acquired employer decided to shutter its local lab. I was on my arse for eight months, looking for anything that would allow me use my M.S. in computer science. (I should also mention that a lot of the local s/w development was in telecom. NOT a good time to be on the dole.)
During that time, I had a chance to evaluate what I really wanted to do with my career.
When I was a wee lad with only an undergraduate degree, and busily starving to death for those extra two letters, I realized that I did NOT want to be in software development at age 50. (This was over 10 years ago.. 'twas a much more innocent time.) The recession-before-last was in full swing, and plenty of middle-aged engineers were out of work -- very expendable resources to be sure.
Well, now I'm on the wrong side of 35, and after over a decade in industry, and a near-brush with a return to grad school, I noticed that I participated in quite a few death marches, failed efforts, and other examples of bad (or no) leadership. (To be fair, I've had great managers as well. Did I mention that I posted as an AC?) I realized that the only thing I was missing to be a project manager or leader was credibility -- be it a certification, promotion, experience, what have you. And oh yeah, soft skills would be nice.
So I followed the footsteps of some close friends, and enrolled in an MBA program. Today, I don't want to be a software developer (unemployed or otherwise) when I'm 40.
Now, I work for an outsourcing firm as the local developer/proj. manager. (If you object, remember that it pays the big bills, so kindly STFU, 'kay?)
I guess you could say I'm a very well-paid grad student right now..
NOT to belittle LEO's, but I've heard that some departments won't hire people whom they feel are too intelligent. They are afraid they will get bored too easily.
There was a case where a guy scored extremely high on one of those little tests, and was therefore not hired. Of course, once his lawyer was done, he probably didn't need to....
I had a sucky sig.
I agree.
This just happend (and is happening) in the place where I used to work, but the bosses still don't get it. They just announced that a whole development facility is going to be shut down. So everyone working there is jumping ship, what did they expect? but they keep saying that it's unprofessional to leave in the middle of a project, never mind that the guy who leaves is one of the two programmers assigned to a project that used to have 5 people, 3 of whom got fired because they couldn't finish on time because of technical limitations (of software, not people) that they couldn't work around.
Another guy left for a better job in another city almost as soon as he found out that the office was shutting down. Another programmer just left for a much better job in different city. Me, I was transferred when the news was given but they wanted me to do some other stuff that I didn't like so I found a better job.
Go hug some trees.
Mod down this rant if you want, but it is an objective opinion of the consensus of this thread.
Everyone here talks about how they can't leave IT, and "boo-hoo" that this corporation that cares little for you offshores your job.
The PhD in question realized that plumbing pays more (and to reply to another thread, a plumber can make much more than 100k USD if they want to).
Personally, I hate my IT job. I do network administration for a logistics company. We also have a help desk (which for some strange reason is my boss) and three programmers who program in something easier than VB (magic software out of israel if you are interested...shudder).
I loathe my IT job, loathe the fact that nobody understand what I do, loathe the fact that I am forgotten about, loathe the fact that I put in 80 hour weeks and get chastised for the raise I threaten to quit over if I didn't get it. I am going to quit. As someone else stated, money is the best form of flattery. Who will pay me better than me? Nobody. So I am starting my own buisness.
Yes it is a horrible plan (ebay selling combined with windshield repair) but I do have aspiritions (would like to start developing games for cell phones and pdas)
So I am leaving my position in about 3 months to start it. Will I make as much? No. I only make 40k now, but with benefits that is probably nearer to 50k a year ( no bonus, no matching 401k ). Do I have to potential to make more? Hell yes I do. I am greatly suprized that people haven't taken the ititiative to start up there own niche based software companies. I am about to, and plan on hiring part time java programmers from wherever they pop up, as so long as they can do the work.
Not everyone has the prudence to start there own buisness, not everyone can code 4000 (good) lines in a week, not everyone can program a pix without looking at it.
If you love coding, but hate your job, find a niche that nobody else has filled. Write damn good software, and actively work on getting it marketed to the people who will use it. Maybe a niche to you is an answering machine for your linux box that emails you the ogg version of the message. Maybe it is a good time management system. Or software for logistics, or dental offices, or time management. Is each one of these things something that will make you a millionare? Of course not. If you change certain aspects of it, and spin the marketing a certain way, and sell it correctly, you could easily be sucessful enough and make enough bread for your family.
I still come back here even though 95% of the posters on slashdot haven't a clue, and usually don't mod up the intellegent posts because they don't agree with them.
Blah Blah Blah.
Longshot my ass!
I don't see it being such a longshot. A neighbor of mine and one other friend work as consultants for large very US based corporations that are are investigating offshore resources.
The American people profit by getting somewhat lesser product (except for terrible support) and a cheaper product. However, once the plant closes in the US, another chunk of people go on unemployment. Which causes a decline in US money circulating and therefor causes more loss by the American public.
Its a terrible downward cycle and it needs to stop. I don't give a shit about free enterprise, it would be better for the American people in whole to have jobs wholly based here in the US. If the price has to go up, so be it, people will pay more, and work more, and thus earn more, eventually paving the way for a market that is so over saturated and fucked by price, that it'll just fall.
A good fall would do us some good, bring the money grubber bastards of corporate America back to reality.
--end rant.
think before you write, it'll save me moderator points.
Self publishing for people with knowledge in a particular subject, science, programming, math.
:)
(shameless plug by me
http://github.com/gbook/nidb
Yes, you do get more time to spend with your kids. I've been working at home for over 3 years now and it's wonderful. My kids are young still, but I am looking forward to the day they will be able to work with me and I can teach them.
My Dad owned a business with his brothers (he had a office of course, not at home) that my great grandfather started. I really feel a loss that I never was taught the business growing up. I talk with a cousin of mine, who is also a great friend, and he and his Dad talk about the business alot it seems my Dad didn't care too. Well I would love nothing more than having having my daughter as a designer and my son as a programmer working with me.
The only problem is that you need clients, the first year or so was so dry for work I am still dealing with the debt. But the great part is that with good credit cards (I have one with 8%) you can get money very easily to finance yourself.
Try calling a bank sometime and see about getting a small business loan, they can't beat the credit cards, it's terrible... unless I don't know what kind of loan to ask for.
Anyways, another idea is to simply start your own business, even if you have an office somewhere else, if you own it, you can take any day off you want when ever you want...
One more thing, I don't make incredible amounts of money, it's just ok, but every year I've increased my income by about %30 for the last 3 years. Considering that I could never get raises like that, I will bet on being self employed for future better salaries than at an office, also I like the control over my own destiny this position has.
A note of warning, you have to be disciplined, it's very hard to tell your cute little kids that Daddy has to work every day, they don't understand it... my daughter is 7 and she is just now starting to accept it. :P
Worked 14 years as a SDET and Developer quit three years ago and became a GC (General Contractor) building homes... have never looked back and love what I'm doing. Still keep up on the trends and so some coding for my biz on the side but I love building homes for people that appreciate my work over building some application for a sales/marketing troll.
I did the same thing. I run a small brick & mortar business. Much more interesting than writing yet another 3-tier web app in a drab, lifeless cubicle. The upside is that not only is it more interesting, but my long term financial picture is excellent. Instead of taking home an admittedly fat paycheck, my net worth is skyrocketing because my business is. It would take a salary of about $1M to get me back in IT. Good riddens!!
Or perhaps one could find a job that does not require work, and therefore come to love it ;-)
I know this was a joke but ...
I have a reasonably well paying job - I'm not American so I won't post a US$ salary since it's meaningless, but it's about twice the average wage locally.
Anyway, the actual job part is comparatively minimal. For my 40 hours a week in the office I'm actually working about 8. Which basically means that in the end I spend 30 hours a week reading Slashdot, Dilbert, and planning my second novel.
Which gets pretty damn boring, let me tell you. When you get to the point that you're creating mySQL databases and learning PHP scripting simply because there's nothing else worth doing in the day then you've hit rock bottom...
I'd switch to another job where there was actually work to do if I could find something that paid as well as sitting on my ass doing nothing.
Had this discussion with my girlfriend over the weekend and we decided we should move to Peru to become tour operators - a much more entertaining life, no doubt! Sadly I'm too addicted to my creature comforts.
The thing is that job satisfaction is very important, but sometimes you get locked into a lifestyle that takes a certain amount of cash and it's very hard for many human beings to break out of that lifestyle. Sometimes a good kick in the ass is what's needed.
I have a degree in engineering (and physics). I work in computers, specifically desktop/application support. It provides me with good challenging work without the brain numbing math. I get to play with hardware and software and other toys. In general, it's fun and easy compared to the jobs I went to school for. Even if the pay wasn't superior, I'd probably still stick with this carreer. In order to change careers, it would have to either pay much much more or soemthign I find equally fun. Things such as bad management or projects would only make me find different jobs, not different careers
I'd mod this up. My dad has been a pipefitter/plumber for 25 years, and the salary claims in the article blurb are absurd.
Maybe the words are wrong, but the meaning is correct. There are more incompetent people in IT then in any other field that I know of. When the dot com boom hit everyone who knew how to operate word was suddenly drafted into IT. Now that the dot bomb hit they are all complaining about not having a job that they shouldnt have had in the first place. Maybe I'm an elitist, but I belive that one highly trained individual can do more and higher quality work then 5 half-trained mcse's............. (and yes, I am one of the highly trained competent people)
I've found that coding at home and coding at work to be two very separate tasks.
At work, I have limitations (ie: clueless coworkers, embedded systems limitations, deadlines, etc) that cause me to resent what I do. Writing beautiful code that's equivilant to an optic surgery laser, only to have coworkers treat it like a sledge hammer... is very depressing.
At home, I'm willing to write beautiful code that knows no boundaries and can be as modular and extensable as I desire. It's a real joy to write code at home, much like a creative release from the mundane tasks of the day.
I don't hate coding, I hate having to write neuthered/nerfed code.
I realized a few years ago that I like having all bills paid too, but that I care a lot more about travelling to new and beautiful places during the summer than I do about having cable TV during the winter. You choose your luxuries in life. My luxuries are less material and more quality-of-life things. I can pay off all my bills even living under the poverty line, and I'm much happier now than I was when I had more bills-- and a LOT more money.
I was a programmer for a while, most notably during the bubble. I was paid really well, enjoyed the work itself most of the time, and got great perks. I also worked in an office with no windows 40 to 50 hours a week, and it could be pretty frustrating at times (in a damn, this idiot will NEVER understand the point I'm trying to make! kind of way) So I decided to go back to school.
I'm working on a PhD in archaeology. The stipend I'm living off of is a quarter of what I was making at my old job (not considering things like inflation and the raises I would've gotten between then and now.) I can't afford cable or to go out for dinner all that much; I'm living below the poverty line. But I love my life! I travel every summer to exotic places, I love what I spend my time doing, I am intellectually challenged every minute of the day, set my own schedule again, and am excited about the fact that I have so much freedom to determine where I will be in the future. Which university or universties I'll end up teaching at, where I'll do my research, all of the places I'll be able to visit. All of the reading I'll do and all of the time I'll spend outdoors instead of in an office with no windows. It'd be great if at some point I make a lot of money again, and I'm sure I'll manage to do just fine (under the poverty line is for grad students; I don't plan to stay here forever.) But for me, it was no choice: job and LIFE satisfaction over any amount of money, any day.
Do something about world hunger. Click here
IANAP, but I have a freind who is a handyman. He does all sorts of jobs - carpentry, electrical, landscaping, but he won't touch plumbing because the insurance costs are astronomical. Apparently, anything with a blowtorch in tight flammable spaces where a fire may start unnoticed and eventually burn down the house... tends to have a high premium.
HIV Crosses Species Barrier... into Muppets
What free time? That's the real problem.
For a while I live in Vail snowboarding "all the time". But to pay for this I had to take a job at a hotel, working 35 hours a week. So, yeah I got a lot of free time to snowboard but I had to work this crap job I hated. I was also totally broke and really the only thing I could do was snowboard (not cheap)...no money left to do other stuff I like. Then I moved to paris and worked in a hotel there. Boy, Paris is a beautiful city. I would have really like to experience it. But guess what? I had to work 35 hours a week and I made euro 8.50 an hour. I was too broke to enjoy it. I had to rent a room about an hour out of the city, because it was to expensive to live there. And my job sucked a lot.
Now I have a pretty good paying job as a 3d artist (which I enjoy doing for free as well) I live in Denver which is great. Sadly, I'm expected to work at least 50 hours a week (often more like 70), with two weeks a year of vacation. I get home from work at seven, make dinner, watch tivo, read a little and go to sleep. The only time I have to do hobbies is on the weekend, provided there isn't too much housework. So I have the money to enjoy my life, but no time. Grr... You can't win in this world. If you find that magic job is ok enough to do forever, pays well and doesn't have long hours. Boy wouldn't that be great. And I guess it would have to allow you to live in a nice place too, right?
Sig removed because it was obnoxious
You see, that's the interesting part: to make a difference. Don't think it is only in the science field, but rather in anything you may want to work on... But the tricky thing is, usually, to make a difference, you ought to really like (maybe "love" fits better here), enjoy, what you do.
/everywhere/ nowadays, in every field of work. Maybe in different proportions, but it is there. a school principal, a teacher, a doctor, an engineer, the it guy etc all have their particular things to worry about. I believe the real difference is in how each of us deal with it.
;)
I've read in other posts people complaining about pressure, deadlines. Well, I think this kind of thing is basically
You're in IT for the money? I know of other people who were in other professions for the money. I personally know a fella who got a law degree (an attorney) who just can't stand it anymore. Makes good money, but doesn't like his job, don't like the atmosphere of the work & in his field of work (quite understandable, btw!). A "natural born coder" (started at his early 10s) who just got out of his way at a certain point. But as he told me, he couldn't make a difference in law - and, believe me, he is really a clever guy. He went back to IT and seems to be enjoying it. Future will tell.
Regrets? I asked him once. He said no, because he learnt a lot about life being a lawyer. And I think this is another point: get what you can from the experience, and move out if it is not your field. It is always time to restart!
To all of you who are thinking of getting out of computing.... To all of you who's heart is in a different place... To all of you who long to be doing something different...
Please leave.. Go-on.. Go... Run along now... Turn off your PC and go and do something different....
Since I'm an anonymous coward I can say this without fear of retribution... There's far too many people working in computing who really shouldn't be doing it. Far too many people who just want to take home a wage and don't really enjoy the computing... There's no minimum requirement for calling yourself a computer-technician/programmer/whatever so every wannabee MCSE assumes they know what they're talking about after a 3 week course and 2 months on first-line support.
I'll freely admit that I think that most of the people I work with are clueless lackwits who aren't possessed with even the basic ability to use Google to look for things they don't know about.. In all my years of working, I can think of perhaps 4 people I've worked with who I'd rate as competant.. (I rate myself as competant.. I don't think I'm particularly special.. I'm certainly no genius)
Everywhere I've ever worked I've quickly been signled out as 'something special' and managed to negotiate myself large rate raises as a result. It's depressing that standards have dropped to such an extent that I'm considered as 'something special'
There's far too many people working in computing now and it's very hard to differentiate yourself from the marjoity of people or to claim a worthwhile wage until you've managed to prove your abilities over the course of several months.. In my life I've never done anything except computing and electronics.. If you give me a bag of transistors, I'll build you a computer.. Then I'll program it.. and then I'll make sure it never goes wrong. I've been using computers every day for the past 22years (I'm 30 years old now) and I really can't think of anything else I'd rather be doing.
I've recently improved my working conditions but dropped my wages by going-it-alone... I've been getting enough happy clients over the years that I can work whenever I want, wherever I want and still get by quite nicely.
So.. please... everyone who wants to do something else... go.. now.. and leave your old wage packet for me.
...It's how you do it.
Trust me - I've done it.
I first got deeply into IT when I was living in the Arctic in the early 90s. A few of us got together and brought this wacky thing called the Internet to one of the most remote locations on Earth. People loved it, and even though we worked for peanuts with ridiculously poor resources, we loved every minute of it.
When I moved back 'South', my salary doubled, then increased again. I was working with really clever people, some of whom remain friends to this day. I had the car, the home network, the play time - everything a geek could want.
But I wasn't happy. I didn't feel like what I was doing was useful to anyone but myself.I'm now working as a volunteer in the South Pacific, trying to make things better for computer users in a tiny island nation. I've been reduced to ridiculously poor resources (I'm composing this over a 56k dial-up line shared over the network by 6 computers). I have been stranded for a week by a passing typhoon, which, incidentally, just destroyed the computer training center I was helping to develop. I have to face the real possibility of deadly malaria, of dengue fever, tropical ulcers, foot-long poisonous centipedes and even sharks. I'm paid a few hundred dollars a month.
... And I'm loving every minute of it.
P.S. You can read an account of my adventures on LiveJournal.
I left a promising career in computational physics (which is what I really love doing) in order to feed my family. Somehow, after 10 years in grad school the prospect of working for another 10 years before discovering whether I had a permanent position seemed grossly unfair to impose upon my wife and daughter.
2 years into my new career I was able to comfortably support my family. 4 years in and my employer really liked what I was doing (they had doubled my salary in that time). I found it somehow humorous that I was earning more than folks in physics for 25+ years.
A decade later I am out on my own. I find the turf wars within universities to be petty and basically wastes of time and energy. Companies are not loyal to you, no matter how much they pay you, and "value" you as "their most important asset." I found I am really good at the business and creative technical side. I formed one company, worked at it for a while and am in the process of starting another and seeking funding (venture money).
Yeah, it's not what I trained for. I do miss having the deep bullshit^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hintellectual discussions with colleagues outside of my field. I miss teaching.
I do not miss the pay, on which I could not afford to keep a roof over my families head, pay for food, and allow my family at least a modicum of normality. This isn't my problem per se, it is endemic and symptomatic of the bigger issue to which you alluded.
Society does not reward intellectual achievement. It simply does not care. It is not sexy. It is not chic. There are (ignoring the Nobel and other prizes), no Science Oscars.
We as scientists have done a piss-poor job at explaining why what we do is valuable to society at large. We have not made the case.
This is a shame. MD's have made the case, though HMO's have weaseled into the game. We need collectively, to make the case of attributing the value to the science.
I quit a perfectly good job as a web developer in December 2002 to start a nonprofit organization. I wrote an article about the factors that went into my decision. You can read it here.
It starts like this:
What you probably make: $40K-50K
What people will pay for consultants: $100-$200/hr
If the consultant is steady work, the obvious comes out. Less work, better pay. Calculate it for yourself, make sure you match health insurance and 401k offerings. You'll find that 15 hours a week at $100/hr is a good way to go, IF you can get steady work.
Plumbers have it made. Plumbing is slow, tedious, DEPENDABLE work. A simple job is a minimum of 2 hours, $100/hr, well, one decent job a week will pay the bills. Going out on your own makes far more, and if you can secure work, the rewards are endless. Not having steady work is a good way to shoot yourself in the foot. It's a risk, weigh the options for you take it.
I'll finish with a true story:
I make around $40K at my job. I have all the certifications (MCSE, CNA, CCNA) that I need. I perform the tasks of those certifications on a regular basis. My boss has decided that my $20/hr opinion isn't worth as much as a $150/hr consultant, with no credentials, who has never visited our site. I built it from scratch, I know it inside out. Obviously I'm more qualified, I needed to teach him a lesson.
So, I tricked him. I have a side business, and I dropped off a business card for a "local consulting firm". We conversed over e-mail, and set up a time. He agreed to pay $100 for the initial consultation. I went home for lunch, changed into khakis with a shirt and tie, and showed up as the consultant. His face was beet red when he found out it was me, but I'm $100 richer and my boss is more eager to listen to me.
There is no reasonable defense against an idiot with an agenda
:wq
I got into IT 20 years ago, back when a guy with some smarts and some good work habits could pick up K&R, learn it, and get a job. Having sampled something of the broader working work, I must say that I love IT. I'm with a small company where I get to code nearly all day long, there's minimal political bullshit, and the pay and bennies are excellent. Writing good code is so much more challenging and fun than cleaning toilets or digging graves, you have no idea!
In my best of all possible worlds, I would make my living as a musician. But that is not to be: lack of opportunity, and (to be truthful) lack of talent stand in the way. But for me, IT is a damn good second best. Take it from me, that greener grass you see out there probably is astroturf.
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I can think of a few reasons for entertaining a career change. The top of the list, IMHO, would be being involuntarily lesuired. Something I recently experienced.
I spent a lot of money getting a graduate degree in my field from a top school. No, to be honest, it was the top school for my niche industry. I finished my degree a few years ago and landed myself a sweet job doing what I schooled for and making a very decent living. I thought I was set. Perhaps I was too optimistic. Several months ago I found I was summoned into the conference room one Friday afternoon and informed that the company couldn't afford my position anymore and I was being let go.
Aside from the usual progression of emotions for such a situation, the last six months of my newfound "freedom" have been spent figuring out how to make every dollar stretch and how top find new employment. That new employment, I hoped, would be in my field and at a similar salary to that which I had. I've discovered that that is prolly not going to happen. So what now? COntemplation of a new completely different job, that's what.
While I still hope out hope for landing the position I'd prefer at this point (affording the opportunity to pay off my debt and send my wife to grad school so she can move into a new career path as orignially planned before my forced extended vacation without pay) I am considering a drastic change. Heck, maybe it'll even mean more in terms of salary.
So now that I've rambled and ranted about my situation--I thank you for the couch time--my point is that a good reason to consider a job change as suggested in the article is being forced to change your job because you've been downsized.
'nuff said
Yes, exactly. It's taken me a while (I'm 43), but for the last couple of years I have been doing the exact technical engineering job that suits me. Part of this is the realisation/acceptance that I am not interested in managing other people. Now, to get this job (it was an internal transfer) I had to use office politics. Eight years ago I wouldn't have bothered, but one good thing from my exposure to management is that I know how to play the game now.
I'm also frighteningly well paid. Funny heh? Compared with my friends in management I get: paid overtime, one day off a month flex time, little stress.
They get a bit more money than me, and a better pension scheme. And have their first heart attack at 55
Well...
How much DO you make? Where do you live?
I quit my job on July of 2002. Thats... well, apparently 19 months ago. Whoa.
I spent the first year building a consulting business with a partner. Because we were building the business, we deferred most of our wages. Then in May of 2003 she decided to go off the deep end, and I decided that I don't need this kind of bullshit in my own damn business and walked away. Gave up over $100K in order to do so cleanly.
Took a couple of months to get my thoughts sorted out, then started over again. Started a new consulting business, this time completely on my own, last August. It was tough at the beginning, but now I'm pulling in about $5K/month for about a day and a half of work every week; still a long way to go obviously.
So; I used to make $200K/year. Socked a lot into savings. We bought a house, a car and had a son at about the same time I quit that job. Expenses had to be severely limited. Savings still got rapidly depleted.
Today, our expenses are between $4000 and $4500 a month, including a mortgage, car, bills etc. We live in the San Francico bay area, certainly not a cheap place to live in. But we manage.
Just remember that everything counts: you trade shopping at andronico's and trader joe's for walmart and costco. you give up cable or at least take it down to basic. you stop going to starbucks (period). you dont pay more than $10/head at a restaurant, even for dinner; you dont go that often anyway. you check your safeway bill like a hawk every single time because they make mistakes and when they do, you go to the customer service desk and get the item for free. you never buy anything at safeway that isnt on sale, unless its an absolute must (like milk for baby). you clip coupons, and you use them. you manage your credit in superhuman fashion so that you can keep utilizing "no interest" offers over and over again. you fret over every choice that involves money, even if its as little as 50 cents. in short, you manage.
you DO find something thats cheap and entertaining so as to keep your sanity; in my case it was a new love for boardgames, and finding groups of gamers to go play with.
but let me tell you something; this has been the best 19 months of my life. I got to spend all this time with my son that I would never get if I was working fulltime. One of his smiles is worth all the money in the world, and I get 50 smiles a day, and I get to see them, because I hang around the house a lot. I can't bear to think about going back to the insanity of before.
It's a choice of what matters to you in life. If it's things, then by all means don't quit your dayjob. Mine was a different choice, and I'm happy I made it.
Good luck!
After working as a SysAdmin and then Software Engineer through the dot-com boom ... I got burned out, and was generally just not happy. It got to the point where I didn't even LIKE writing code.
:) I even enjoy wiriting code again, as a hobby.
... but in the last few years I figured out there's SO much more to life than that.
In Nov of '00 I woke up one morning and wrote my letter of resignation. I sold my house, moved to an area with a low cost of living, and now am a motorcycle mechanic.
I love my job, and actually like going to work in the morning. I also have time to actually enjoy life, instead of working all the time. Oh, and nobody pages you at 3am because they need an oil change
I won't get rich doing this, nor will I ever have stock options again
- Roach
I was making $300K a year when I had a blow-up with my employer and decided to check out. Now I work at university where I make $80K - after ten years of raises. But I walk to work, spend a lot of time in the gym, work with fascinating professors creating online programs for classes and distance learning, and my back problems are ten years behind me along with about 20 pounds. I remember my second year here I was walking my third child to the bus to go to third grade, and I wondered, what were the other two like at this age?
My only disappointment is that I hoped to find people with higher values as well as higher intellects, but instead found that the fewer the scraps, the harder the dogs fight, no matter how smart they are.
I am now in a position where I have to choose between a stable job doing work that I feel is just plain brain numbing, and a job that is much less secure (highly possible that I will be laid off within a year) doing the type of work that I want to do. My wife and I are expecting our first child by the end of the year, so we will be cut down to one source of income...so the job security thing is kind of important. However, if I'm not working on the stuff that I find interesting, my skills in that area will begin to deteriorate and I run the risk of not being able to do that type of work for the rest of my career. Can anybody offer my any advice?