[Job/career Pool] Responsibilities vs. Salary clash

[Atryu]

Hi.

I am currently considering changing my job, and I have several opportunities I can choose from. I have to decide this by the first week of april, and I though I might as well ask SRK for an advice before I throw myself into some kind of trouble as I use to do whenever I decide something by myself.

I wanted to know what do you guys think about the responsibilities / Salary ratio? Which one in higher in the tier list? What would you prefer? To do an easy job with a decent pay or to have a somehow high resp. position with a higher pay?

1. Tech support position, the job is easy and relax. the environment is rather cool and so are the working hours.

The pay is avarage though. let's say $X.

2. IT manager position, the job sucks.. I would have to restructure shit loads of stuff to make everything better. I will have to design and lead projects, and make decisions. The pay is X+700$ a month, but if something goes wrong it's directly my fault.

3. I have applied for 2 other positions. One of these is my kind of "dream" job. (Tech engineer for a server virtualization software company), the Salary would be close to X$, but I have not received any reply from them yet.

4. Keep on doing what I am doing now. (Sys. engineer for a small local IT service providing company), I like my job, but the pay is X-500$.

What do you gys think / woudl do in my position?

Please consider:
- the fact that I am living by myself, I have no one to care of financially, and I am pretty lazy in general.
- I dont "like" working... I do it to pay the bills ONLY. If I could just stay home and chill out doing nothing, I would do it starting tomorrow for a X-1500$ salary, without hesitating a single second!

Cheers&Thanks!

[masher]

I hate responsibilities but I like money...

this is a tuffy D:

[Atryu]

I hate responsibilities but I like money...

this is a tuffy D:

Same here! that's exaclty the reason why I am asking... :wgrin:

[ElderGOD]

Stick with your current job until you hear from better places.

The high paying job seems like a pain. Especially the part where if something goes wrong it's your fault, too risky. The low paying job seems like a joke, you do need some money and your current job seems better.

[Manx]

Tech Support is not easy. You will get annoyed by everyone you encounter and you do not get payed very well unless it's very specific software/technology you are supporting and you're at least tier 2 support.

IT management sucks. Your chances are 50/50 of getting the boot if one of your upper managers decides to go to another company. Turn over rate for corporate IT managers is high. The liability issue kinda depends on the company you work for. At my company, everyone pretty much has to do their job, so it doesn't come up very often.

Since you want to advance, but you're apprehensive about changing companies, try to move outwards in your own company. Notice I said outwards, not up. Try to take on new responsibilities and see what you like and are already capable of, then build on those skills and look for a job doing that. That way you'll be going into something you like and it's still fresh and enjoyable for you while making you more money at the same time. :tup:

If you want an easy job look for Mainframe Operator positions with a large company. It's an easy position that pays well and doesn't have very much liability. You pretty much learn how to watch jobs on the mainframe and notify sys admins if something goes wrong. You're also responsible for the system integrity, but since mainframes have like .01% downtime, that's not that big of an issue. People say mainframes are going out, but that it totally not true. The companies that rely on them are pretty much packed into them for the long haul, even if they were to decide to do away with it out of the blue one day. It's a pretty secure job, provided you can find one. Mainframe programmers, on the other hand... no thanks. :tup:

[kz0060]

Stick with your current job until you hear from better places.

The high paying job seems like a pain. Especially the part where if something goes wrong it's your fault, too risky. The low paying job seems like a joke, you do need some money and your current job seems better.

?
Why are you telling him to stick with his current job? If he goes with the first choice he listed, he'd be making more money and have a nice working environment that seems to suit his preference.

[ElderGOD]

?
Why are you telling him to stick with his current job? If he goes with the first choice he listed, he'd be making more money and have a nice working environment that seems to suit his preference.

Because he said he likes his job now and it's uncertain if he will really like the new job and he has other jobs that may become available so while he is uncertain he can wait to see what happens with the dream job he applied for.

Tech support doesn't sound like something that he might have fun doing, but who knows, just my opinion based on current information.

[Atryu]

Thanks for your replies guys!

The tech support position (the first one) is not a helpdesk job (not "User support"). It involves mainly Server support, setup and datacenter monitoring.
I said it's an easy job, because the tasks are something I am very familiar with already. and yeah, I will slightly increase my salary if I choose that position.

As far as I see, nobody advises me to take the IT manager position... hmmm...
I guess money is not everything indeed. (its the one appealing the least to me as well)

Ninja-manager-Edit: hmmm... actually, after checking the pool, 2 people checked that option after all...

[Manx]

Don't forget to value how much Seniority with your current company is worth to you. that can get you far within a company. :tup:

[thurst]

i feel it really depends on how much X is in relation to where you live since you're talking about a difference of about 8.5k not including any bonuses that you might end up getting. personally the difference between say, 50k and 58k doesn't seem worth the added stress responsibility that you make it out to be.

but like if you're making anything less than like 48k you kinda have to take the better paying job imo.

also does increased responsiblity include more work hours? bcuz if you're still putting in your standard 40 or whatever you're working now then i think you should get that paper.

[Serpent]

Unless you are talking about a unionized job, employers have a habit of tacking on extra responsibilities without increasing your salary. I guess you can fight it, and if you negotiate things in writing early on you'd be immune to that, but in my experience generally you don't have much if any bargaining power and you are stuck taking the terms they give you. So with those realities in place, you are pretty much always better off taking the higher paying job. Paycuts are very rare, but responsibiliy and worload increases are not.

[Atryu]

i feel it really depends on how much X is in relation to where you live since you're talking about a difference of about 8.5k not including any bonuses that you might end up getting. personally the difference between say, 50k and 58k doesn't seem worth the added stress responsibility that you make it out to be.

but like if you're making anything less than like 48k you kinda have to take the better paying job imo.

also does increased responsiblity include more work hours? bcuz if you're still putting in your standard 40 or whatever you're working now then i think you should get that paper.

I live in Japan. I am making a pretty standard salary here according to my age (28)...

Thanks for your replies. I will try to renegociate the income and the T&C for both positions, and it might save me some time... maybe I'll get a reply from the 2 others offers I have applied to...

(I will keep you informed here anyway, just in case... ^^ )

[Plutoburn]

It's really simple, if you are single and not in a serious relationship which will turn into marriage anytime soon, then just do what you like, on the other hand, you may want to consider what would bring in the most bacon if you become a family man.

[thurst]

so you're in japan...

...are you planning on coming back to the US (assuming you're from here)? if so, then again i'd say get that paper, granted you're probably not likely to just put the money away and not touch it but an additional 8.5G's in the bank is nothing to sneeze at.

if you're planning on staying in japan then maybe you should stick with the old job since being the new guy is a lot more of a pain in the ass over there than here, at least from what i've heard.

[Atryu]

so you're in japan...

yep... no much choice for Guilty Gear players. ^^


...are you planning on coming back to the US (assuming you're from here)?

I'm from europe, and I am not really planning on going back there exept for vacation.
(Life became kind of difficult there since the Union)


if you're planning on staying in japan then maybe you should stick with the old job since being the new guy is a lot more of a pain in the ass over there than here, at least from what i've heard.

Yeah... but I'm mainly looking for positions in US companies. (I am not a big fan of the Japanese working conditions in general. I've tried it for a few years, but it made me feel like jumping under a train. ^^ )

You know, after a few years there, you reach a point where you realise that eventhough the ocean is wonderful and the fish are great, a cheeseburger still tasts sooooo much better than sushi! (if you see what I mean...)