Author Topic: Would you change job w/ less pay?  (Read 2752 times)

johnstein

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Would you change job w/ less pay?
« on: January 30, 2015, 02:31:32 PM »
Here is my situation.  I was laid off from a well paying job at a trading shop over a year ago.  Money was great, but the job sucks, I dread waking up at 5:30am in the morning and come home exhausted.  After the laid off, I had few but limited choices, at the end, I took a corporate finance job, pay is 40% less, and overall work life balance is good, avg 50 hours/week.  I have been quite sad about the salary situation, I got my MBA 3 years ago and have a CFA designation, and now making less than what I make before my degree.

Should I look for another job that has a higher pay?  or stay?  My passion is in investments, but there are very few openings in Houston.  I interviewed with one company last year and they told me I am overqualified even when I told them they only have to match my current salary.  I was crushed.

Should I try to go for an entry level job? 

TheMoneyBadger

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Re: Would you change job w/ less pay?
« Reply #1 on: January 30, 2015, 02:46:09 PM »
Personally, I'd be on the lookout for another job if you're qualified for a higher paying job.  It's not like you need to quit in order to do the job search - the best time to find a new job is while you already have one.  There isn't any harm in looking and being open to new opportunities. 

I would only actually take another job if it was either a) at least as good from a work/life perspective OR b) the increase in pay was enough to compensate you for the decrease in work/life happiness.  If happiness decreases be sure that what you're getting for that decrease (e.g. fewer years working) is worth at least the amount of the decrease. 

MrFrugalChicago

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Re: Would you change job w/ less pay?
« Reply #2 on: January 30, 2015, 02:53:09 PM »
I left trading by choice, goodbye!

You still have a 50h a week job. I would keep looking. Either same pay for 40h a week job, or something that paid more.

There ARE jobs that pay well AND are good jobs... just super hard to find them (especially because interviews are so one sided... do YOU work for the company? Hard to really find if the company works for you without time on the job).

mozar

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Re: Would you change job w/ less pay?
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2015, 11:58:29 AM »
Can you move? When a company says that you are overqualified it is company speak for "we don't want to hire you because we are not hiring for whatever reason but we are going to blame you for it." Jobs will pay you whatever they can get away with. I recommend reading some Ramit Sethi. It might take moving to a location with more jobs and switching jobs a couple of times to get you back up, but don't ever say you just need to match your salary, because it makes you sound pathetic. You need to be saying "my job is so great, I need at least 15% to leave," or 30% more or whatever.
You don't need to apply to entry level jobs, you need to apply to as many jobs as possible. Are you on careerbuilder, linked in? I also understand that traders make a lot and most jobs don't pay as much? Like a trader might make 350k and a regular finance job is like 200k? So you might have to adjust expectations too. Look at salary.com and glassdoor for salary ranges and what you should be getting.