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?

Comments

Switch from my current position? In a heartbeat!

[zaren]

As the position I've held for the last 8 months is "unemployed", I'd be changing positions with unmitigated glee.

I faced this when I graduated with my BSEE

[JGski]

When graduated my friend (who is a professor in EE) was having a house built. He would regale the laughable incompetence of his electrical contractor and we'd joke how he was making more than both of us combined yet we knew how to do his job better than he did without any great mental effort. I seriously thought about becoming an electrical contractor. My father is a mechanical contractor and the money was so much better than an EE could make.

Some contractor examples made me consider it:

1. Because the code says to do it that way...

   My friend wanted plenty of electrical sockets so though he spec'ed 3 per wall, he wanted to make sure that it was being done right. Drives out to the job site and finds the contractor and country inspector do the last walk-through on the outlets and such. My friend looks at the outlets and notices that the ground was nicely screwed into the junction box wall... except the junction boxes were all PVC plastic. My friend calls them over and say "do you anything wrong with this outlet box?" "Nope, looks fine!" "It's not supposed to be screwed into a plastic box...!" "Hey, it's OK. The code says to do that" The county inspector nods approvingly. "Ah, do you know why you need to ground that line?" "Well, yeah, you can get electrocuted - electricity's dangerous!" "Ok, so how does grounding protect you?" "Well, the power can go through the ground instead of you" "Yes, ok. So if the ground is connected to plastic, which doesn't conduct electricity, how do that ground protect you?" They both think for a minute, and in horror look at each other. Apparently neither of them was available for a few weeks as the contractor and inpector went back to several hundred other new homes, "just to check them one more time". ;-p

2. It's just low voltage stuff

   Same house, same contractor. My friend has a long driveway going down a hill. He wanted 24V lighting in the concrete retaining wall along the wall. He drops by and notices that the contractor has a spool of 22 gauge telephone wire out next to the cement forms. "Ah, aren't you going to use a heavier gauge than that?" "Oh no, this is low voltage stuff! You don't big stuff" "Yes, low voltage but it's a 500 ft run. The current.." "Hey don't worry about, I know what I'm doing" "Ok, so you'll test it before they pour the concrete tomorrow?" "Yeah, sure." Well, you know he didn't test it under days after the pour. As expected, the light went on in the upper third and then got gradually dimmer and none were lit on the lower third. After ~$5K spent by the contractor paying to demolish the wall, repipe and wire with 10 gauge, and laying a new wall, the lights worked perfectly.

So in this context, I began thinking, WTF, given that I clearly know what I'm doing compared to the "competition" and they're making $80-120K per year (this is in 1984!), what would I be making and and how does that compare to the low-ball job offer I just got for $25K a year at Northrup? The problem was I know I have a craving for having things "interesting" and "challenging". I didn't take the lame Northrup offer (they were actually surprised I wasn't kissing their feet for amount they offered! Bastard PhDs! To them BSEE meant overpaid technician!) I strongly suspected I'd get bored far too soon as an electrical contractor (even with the money). I went to work at a military think-tank instead, which was a pretty wild time. And the rest is history... :-)

I have, however, had many jobs in many wildly different fields. My rule of thumb has always been: if job stops being "fun" more than 50% of the time, it's time to look for something new. No job is fun 100% of the time but 50% isn't an unreasonable expectation IMO. Each time I've been well stretched and well challenged. It's gotten to the point that the only Myers-Briggs recommended job for my personality that I haven't done yet is being a lawyer!

Nerd with an MBA