My last day at the company is end of October, so I have one more month to go. I'm both upset and happy. Upset because I'm very anxious/nervous about my future and will probably make a dent in my FI. Happy because I did not enjoy my work-- lately I haven't felt motivated nor appreciated for things I am doing. Dealing with manager was tough. Dread going to work.
Here is a kicker-- I have IT background but no programming (I'm systems analyst currently, 2 year prior internship as PC technician so nothing impressive).
I'm 26 years old, salary ~$93k (401k match + base + bonus). Located in Boston. My 401k balance is ~$90k, Roth IRA $37k, no debt other than mortgage but my renters are covering it fully since it is multi unit building, so technically I have no living expenses except food. I have emergency savings in taxable accounts that would cover all my costs for ~2 years in worst case scenario (ie. renters stopped paying, things break in the house, etc.) without tapping into roth ira.
Issue 1: I started looking for new opportunities and it just seems that this salary is not replaceable with my 3 year experience.
Issue 2: I don't know if I enjoy this type of role anymore. But Maybe I'm simply feeling burn out, I don't know.
Here are my questions:
1. Is it OK to take a salary hit early in a career?
2. What path would you recommend for me to find a job that I truly enjoy and look forward to?
3. What should I tell my recruiters? Right now they only know that I'm looking for new opportunities and my current salary.
4. Most importantly, have you went through something similar in your career? What did you learn from this experience?