Pay Threshold For A Job You Don't Like

[spartan86]

Curious to see what people's threshold is (if there is one) in terms of the minimum you would work for a job you might not enjoy or the flip side, the lowest you'd take for a job you love, ie:

Currently work as a systems engineer in R&D - Pay is average, 100k, but have relaxed work style and love the work - Working from home, get to go for a run during the day, clean the house, run errands etc.

Have opportunity to move into a sales engineer role, so not as fun as R&D engineering - Huge pay bump, minimum 160k plus commission, bonus and car allowance - But would require working everyday on the road and obviously can't work from home at all.

- Would you take the huge pay increase if it means that you loose a lot of the flexibility, have you worked in a role just for the money?

- How long did you last or did you move back soon after to a role that was more enjoyable but less pay?

 

[serllpcb]

@spartan86 I reckon if you love working in R&D, you will not enjoy sales, and there is no amount of money that will replace your soul. Maybe that’s something you need to find out for yourself though.

If I were you, and really wanted a pay increase, I’d explore better paying system engineer jobs.

 

[spartan86]

@serllpcb Unfortunately the industry I'm in is limited in Australia, so not many roles. I guess sales might get boring after a while

 

[hodgemorin]

@spartan86 How is systems engineering limited, you don't have to restrict yourself to r&d

 

[lizabey]

@spartan86 Sales is incredibly stressful man. Yeah it's fantastic money, but your entire lifestyle would change -- from experience it's rarely worth it.

 

[bcik]

@spartan86 I’m in the same situation. Do I give up my salary which used to be considered fairly good (but has been paused for a few years) but is now very average, but at the cost of being a research scientist, for a role which is much better paid more senior but not at all research and therefore likely to be very bland?

 

[ashleywatkins]

@spartan86 I'd worry more about the difficulty and stress of sales work, and it sounds like you have little of either in your current position. Being boring is not the problem with that job.

 

[rbp]

@spartan86 Im assuming it’s Defence? If you’re willing to leave R&D and get into Acquisition sustainment, there are lot of Systems Eng roles out there that lay $120k plus with minimal responsibility.

 

[spartan86]

@rbp It's in medical, but it's a unique role where I get to hands on develop software and electronic prototypes as well, not heavy on paper work side, like other systems roles are (especially defense).

 

[lolasrobot]

@spartan86 Ask for a appraisal? Especially worthwhile if you’ve been there for a while. Good luck!

 

[tbuy]

@spartan86 You sound happy. That is worth a lot. None of us take anything with us when we die. But you could ask for a payrise due to inflation and/or ask to take on new projects/leadership. But if you can comfortably pay your bills etc and can save for a rainy day/holiday/a goal, you have to ask, what would it be for? There is always someone with more money. But time is something noone can buy back. Your life is precious.