Decided to quit the office job, but timing??? Tech folks for advice.

[big_slacker]

It's been brewing for a while, but I've decided to hit the eject button on my current gig. I don't mean quit and sail off into the sunset, don't have enough $$ for that yet. I just wasn't built for an office job at a big company. Even one that is fairly benevolent, has a somewhat flexible schedule and the pays ridiculously well.

When I told my wife I decided she wasn't even surprised and said she knew I wasn't happy. Her only ask was on the timing, and that's really what I'm posting about. Here we go with some pros and cons:

Job is one of the top 5 tech companies and pays very well, I'll probably take a $20k pay cut no matter where I go. (Not going to another 'big tech' company)
Wife is done with school in june and will probably make $50k out of the gate so net positive
I have a project that I'd at least like to see through to the first phase of deployment, it's a big one and nice to have on a resume. May it should be up
Bonus time is in Sep and I can expect $15-$20k which is not insignificant at all!

Obviously I'm gonna want to wait till my wife is done with her school. I don't necessarily need her to be employed but it definitely wouldn't hurt. The bonus is the other factor. We're saving for a house and $15-$20k in the pot is a fairly big deal. It's around what we'd save for the house fund in a year. However....

My goal is as close as possible to a totally flex schedule job. That means I'd work deliverables, not schedules or office hours. I'd be free to be up early or late banging out work, I could work around my kid's/wife schedules, still go ride bikes when it was sunny out and so on.

All of the above are currently available to me

Employer #1: Who I worked for before taking the current job. I really enjoyed my time there. Great company culture and stand up people. This however would be a semi-departure from my previous role. Before I was mostly a design/build type of tech but minored in sales engineering since I was the local SME in my area. The gig they want me for now is a full time sales engineer. I'd be free to set my own schedule, *BUT* I'd have regular customer face to face meetings, presentations, taking techs to lunch and so on. Lots of driving around and lots of talking. I'm an introvert by nature but I do know how to talk and present, I used to teach tech classes as my day job a few roles back. Comp wise this is a split between base and commission, dunno how comfortable I am with that but they're happy to tweak the ratios more in favor of one vs the other.

Employer #2: Architect/big project deployment person. Almost totally remote and set your own schedule. Pay is identical to my current gig. A friend of mine who I've referred/been referred to hire has gone here recently. The idea here is to do some up front meetings with the customer to determine goals and specifics of a big project. Then go back, design, approve, make a template and then manage lower level folks to do most of the rest of the project. This one is actually very tempting, HOWEVER the travel would vary and is negotiable per project. Some customers would be ok with only some short meetings, but some might want you to be on site for weeks at a time. So I'd be constantly fighting the travel battle. That was the reason I left my last gig with Employer #1. I had a lot of remote work but near the end I was so in demand that they would book me for more and more travel and I'd have to push back.

Employer #3: Major network player, as an architect/deployment hybrid. This would be almost all work from home with ONE customer meeting in person a week,  1 hour drive away. I would have the support of a big company behind me, a long term stable customer to work with and a very flexible schedule. However, a friend of mine went through the interview process with them and their offer was total comp the same as my current base salary. 401k not as good either.

So there are some promising positions available now, *BUT* I could also wait it out till bonus time at the current place and then start looking. So... What does the MMM brain trust think? Anything out of the box I might think about?

[big_slacker]

Apply for job #3 and then try to negotiate the comp.  If they won't go significantly upwards,  then say no thanks to that opportunity but keep lines of communication open -- maybe something similar will pop up closer to your post-bonus timeline, and then a side step for similar comp but much better working conditions makes sense.

Job #1 sounds like it would be hell.   Sales generally means you are working standard business hours, and lots of them if you want to meet sales targets (esp at first).   PLUS driving around in SEA traffic all day?   Are you MAD?  Well, you might be after a few weeks or, at most, months.

Job #2 is just too unpredictable.   You've already done something similar and didn't like it.

Good luck whatever you decide!

#3: My buddy negotiated heavily with them and only got them to bring total comp up to current base salary. I may get it up a bit from there especially given how hard it is to get people at our level in the current market. I had lunch with the manager and definitely got a good vibe.

#1: When I say a lot of driving I mean compared to my current 2 days a week commuting 8 miles when I don't ride my bike I guess. I don't mean its spending all my time sitting in rush hour traffic in seattle. I have a good relationship with several of the current sales engineers and can ask them a real deal estimation of the amount of driving and meetings involved.

#2: I actually loved the travelling consultant lifestyle, it was having kids that made it not work so well. But yeah, the amount of travel being unstable is something that could be a big downside.

Yes job #3 is the best if the salary can come up. I'll reach out the the manager and see where he's at. In a perfect world I'd wait till bonus time here, take the big $$ and then jump ship. :D

[PDXTabs]

I don't have any specific advice for you. I just did something very similar. I was a senior software engineer at company A, moved to company B for a 15% bump in base pay and another 15% bump in total comp. Then, ~1 year later I went back to company A in a lead role but I managed to keep my total comp (which at company A means almost all base pay). To put it another way, because I left and came back ~1 year later I got a 30% increase in my base compensation at company A.

However, it took months of negotiations. I sent back the first two offers and met with the hiring manager's manager for lunch. I'm not sure if my outcome is an average one, and may only have been possible because everyone at the company knew me and my work.

With all that said, long term, I want flexibility in location and hours more than I want money. However, in the near term being able to save way more money is going to help with that long term goal.

[cloudsail]

Have you considered becoming a freelancer? It seems like that would suit you well. There might be travel involved if you take on projects in other cities, but I don't think you have to. You guys will have your wife's job for the health insurance.

When I worked at M one of my co-worker's husband was a freelancer, and also the main childcare provider for their daughter. When I was working in the Bay Area I also tried to recruit one of my husband's friends who is a freelancer, and he absolutely refused to consider leaving that lifestyle.

[big_slacker]

Have you considered becoming a freelancer? It seems like that would suit you well. There might be travel involved if you take on projects in other cities, but I don't think you have to. You guys will have your wife's job for the health insurance.

When I worked at M one of my co-worker's husband was a freelancer, and also the main childcare provider for their daughter. When I was working in the Bay Area I also tried to recruit one of my husband's friends who is a freelancer, and he absolutely refused to consider leaving that lifestyle.

Yeah, I have considered this. We need to wait to see what kind of health insurance my wife will have. I've talked about doing mid term contracts (6 months to a year) or selling blocks of hours to companies. I've done this before but stopped just before kids.

[RobFIRE]

Staying until bonus time sounds sensible if at all possible as you've said the extra money would be significantly useful.

In terms of next job options, you say your priority is lots of flexibility on your side (which I fully understand as I also want that), then talk about the money not being as much. Well, perhaps you can't have both. The senior and best paid tech roles seem to come with the expectation 24/7 availability and always visiting the client, so perhaps to avoid some of those expectations you will need to earn a bit less. You don't mention what the figures are, it's your salary so fair enough if you don't want to post if, though from what you're saying it sounds like these are $150k+ roles; if you're earning at that level I would think that 10% of salary/benefits here or there can easily be given up to get the flexibility you want. Trade a better working life for having to stop working a bit later. (Of course when the salary is much lower a drop in pay becomes relatively more significant, potentially affecting regular spending/immediate financial security so harder to accept).

[big_slacker]

Staying until bonus time sounds sensible if at all possible as you've said the extra money would be significantly useful.

In terms of next job options, you say your priority is lots of flexibility on your side (which I fully understand as I also want that), then talk about the money not being as much. Well, perhaps you can't have both. The senior and best paid tech roles seem to come with the expectation 24/7 availability and always visiting the client, so perhaps to avoid some of those expectations you will need to earn a bit less. You don't mention what the figures are, it's your salary so fair enough if you don't want to post if, though from what you're saying it sounds like these are $150k+ roles; if you're earning at that level I would think that 10% of salary/benefits here or there can easily be given up to get the flexibility you want. Trade a better working life for having to stop working a bit later. (Of course when the salary is much lower a drop in pay becomes relatively more significant, potentially affecting regular spending/immediate financial security so harder to accept).

In the OP I mentioned that I'd almost certainly be making less. Part of the tradeoff. I don't mind a bit posting real salary numbers on MMM. I'm currently making $158k base, bonus this year was 17k, 10k in stocks vested so it was right around 185k. For sure at that rate there is a 'buck stops here' mentality which is totally fair. Although I cant reasonably expect too much less responsibility without taking MASSIVE cut. And I'm fine with the responsibility, it's the flexibility and lifestyle I'm after at this point. No one pays you over 100k and expects nothing for the $$. :D

The jobs above. #1 is negotiable, I really haven't talked base vs commission to see what the numbers are. #2 is $155k base. #3 is $125k base, think if they'd up it to $135k with perhaps a larger bonus I'd make it work.

In terms of freelance for short term contracts I normally to $125-$150/hr. If my wife's work had decent health I could work long term contracts in the $80-$100 range which is typical. I think I'd be fine even juggling a long term lower pay one with a few short term here and there. The more I think about it, the more this might be a great option. It does hinge on my wife landing something with decent health, one downside of our ridiculous healthcare model but that is what it is.