Keep the cushy but low-paying job or angle for more money/challenge?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’m struggling a bit with a major life decision, so I thought I’d open up for opinions.

I work for a small software company right now as a senior support tech. I’m considered the department ‘lead’ but there’s nobody to lead. Previous to that, I worked as a tech support manager, but the company was nightmarish and I was desperate to escape. At the time, the company planned growth and there were to be opportunities for advancement, but that hasn’t happened, and I now believe it’s very unlikely to at any point in the foreseeable future.

I like my job in that I have a lot of free time to pursue other interests, and can play video games or watch Hulu or whatever when it’s slow (which is a significant portion of the day). However, I took a small pay cut to take the job, and they did follow up on their promise to make it up to me in the raise after that. However, after that time the raises have steadily decreased, and the times between them increased, until this year. Now we’re apparently under a wage freeze, but nobody communicated this (to our team at least) until my boss got his review in the last few weeks. I found out as soon as I came back from vacation, about a week ago, on my anniversary date… when it’s time for my own review.

To add insult to injury, health care costs drastically increased this year and coverage drastically decreased for singles like me. This was in order to switch plans to one that had better coverage for families, not just a general increase, and the single people ended up getting the shaft. (Nearly all of the people with families are tenured and/or higher earners; the singles are newer and/or lower earners.)

I was really incensed to find out about the wage freeze so late, especially because I’ve been trying very hard to find other ways to help the company and go above and beyond (for which I’ve been praised). I’m also frustrated because the lack of revenue is due to persistent mismanagement and lack of accountability for poor employees rather than any economic forces, such as by a really expensive new hire that goofs off most of the time and produces little to no useful work. I promptly went out and started looking for jobs last Monday, and I’ve already had a phone interview. I am pretty sure I can find another job.

However, this weekend, I’ve been feeling really anxious about it for a variety of reasons. My job is admittedly cushy, and my boss and I are on great terms. He feels like a close friend to me, but we don’t do a lot of stuff out of work, and I’m afraid that I’ll lose him as a friend if I leave. (He knows, and approves of, the job search, but I guess I’ll just miss talking to him every day.) My job is flexible and accommodating, I know and understand it well, I get great performance reviews every year, I have my own office, little stress…

On the flip side, between the wage freeze, the health care costs, and my “temporary” roommate of a year announcing he’s finally moving out last week as well, I crunched the numbers and I will get by, but not much more than that. I’ve been responsible with money so I’ve paid off my car and my only debt is my house, but ultimately I’m going to have to cut spending and tighten my belt a bit - and I’m not exactly a spendthrift as it is.

Because there’s little to no advancement opportunity and I doubt my company’s long term success, I need to establish an exit strategy. My ideas so far are:

  • Take a new job and gamble that I’ll end up someplace shitty again or get laid off as the last one hired. This would likely be just another tech support position, either as a tech or as a supervisor, and I do want to get out of the field at some point. On the flip side, it could be a really good thing, too.

  • Stay at my job and pursue online courses (where, I’m not sure, but was thinking of trying to gain the skills to become a DBA), cut spending, and hang in there for awhile longer.

I’m completely on the fence at this point. Any ideas? Am I crazy to leave? Am I mad to stay?

2

I wouldn’t leave for a job you aren’t excited about and where you will simply move up to a slightly higher wage and challenge plateau and then be stuck there, only without the comfort/job security/free time. I would leave for a job that suggests the possibility of continued growth–learning new skills, new responsibilities. I’d keep feelers out for a job like that–which can take time to find–and in the meantime be working on improving the skills I need for jobs with that sort of potential.

3

If you’re wasting your life playing games (and posting here) it’s time for a better job.

4

What I’d do is stay there, continue the job search, and not leave until you find a job which really sounds and feels better. Don’t just take the first job offering more, don’t blanket mail the area.

The long-distance learning is a pretty thing on paper, but unless there is something specific you’re excited about, it’s not worth it: it would mean spending time and money… for what? Something that leaves you thinking “meh”? You don’t need to bust your ass for “meh”!

5

Don’t leave your job until you’ve got a better one. Further, it sounds like you’re at a college or university, so don’t leave your current job until you’ve also got one that’s reasonably secure. Instead of watching Hulu or whatever, why not improve your tech skills?

Don’t worry about your house-mate: advertise for another.

One thing does stand out: your lack of stress. This is very valuable in itself.

Were I in your position, I’d keep the job and work on improving my skills.

6

I’m a big fan of “What Color is your Parachute” for situations like this. It’s a really cheesy book. But it does give some very good suggestions about finding a career you WANT, not just a career that’s easy for you to get into. It sounds to me like you know you want more than what you’re headed for. You need to figure out what exactly this is. Then you can work on figuring out how to get there.

7

Thanks everyone for the opinions.

No, I work for a small software company that I feel is likely to fail in the moderate future, and in the meantime will likely continue to lose money and as such not give me much money to work with. That’s the problem. :slight_smile:

I guess one followup question: where is a good place to even take online courses? I’ve checked the local universities, and even community colleges and tech schools, and they don’t offer any night or online courses in anything that sounds remotely useful. I don’t want to waste money on a University of Phoenix equivalent. Is there an accredited place that offers comprehensive classes in things like SQL and Oracle?

8

So I just got a job offer, and I am excited. And terrified. But mostly excited.

It’s a substantial increase over where I am now (over 25% increase in pay, better health care). I’m excited about the project and it seems to have great opportunity for advancement. I’m hedging mostly out of fear (e.g. “What happens if they don’t like me and I end up with neither job?” “It’s pending references, what if they reach someone at my old shitty company that hates me and they withdraw their offer?”), but I know I should take it. I’m just sitting on it overnight to make sure I’m fine with it.

It’s at a friend’s company so I feel pretty confident I will fit in with the environment and that they treat people right. We spent a lot of time in the interview talking about advancement opportunities in this specific department. It’s a new project, so they want someone to come in and help them establish themselves. It seems really interesting.

The biggest con is that it starts two weeks from today! Talk about ripping the band-aid off all at once… I’ve already alerted my manager about the timeframe, and he said it’s not a problem, he thinks I should take it.

Anyhow, I’m pretty psyched but I’ve never walked away from a job… I’ve only run. :slight_smile: So I’m a bit nervous to give up someplace I’m comfortable, if somewhat poorer than I’d rather. Overjoyed to hear from them, though!

9

Congratulations! Best of luck in the new job!

I think you can be comfortable in your decision to take the new job. You described your current job as being with a “a small software company that is likely to fail in the moderate future”. If your manager recommends that you take a job with a different company, he’s giving you a very broad hint that “likely” has been upgraded to “imminent”.

10

Good luck!

11

Woooooo!

I’d do the wave but it takes a lot of coding, so I’ll do it in 3D instead does the wave for fluiddruid

12

Good luck, it’s exciting (and unnerving) to get into something new, something that excites you, so much so that you think there got to be a catch somewhere :stuck_out_tongue: It’s only natural to second-guess, it just fear.

Good luck on the new job!

13

Best of luck in your new job!

14

Wishing you luck and joy in your new career! :slight_smile:

15

Congrats! Good luck!

16

Thanks everyone!

You’re probably right. Somehow it feels surreal to actually be paid appropriately for my skill set. :slight_smile: I’m still working out the details but I’m definitely taking the offer.

17

Does your friend own the company, or just works there? I’m a little wary of anything like that. Is he the kind of guy that will treat you chummy at work? My old employers had trouble drawing the line between things you tell your employees and things you tell your friends. Be sure to make that distinction.

18

He works there, in a different department, as a non-manager. It’s a big company. I wouldn’t worry. :slight_smile:

Trust me, I understand. One of the reasons why my current company is going under is because there are two groups: the “friends”, who do fuck all, and the “others”. The president of the company, when presented with irrefutable evidence of one of the “friends” being a problem and the inherent double standard, said, “Look. Some people here are my friends, and some are just friendly.”

What’s happened, of course, is that our staff is bloated with people who don’t do that much, is too large for what we produce, and therefore there’s no money for raises.

Believe me, I wouldn’t want to put anyone in that position. I’m lucky that I have an “in” through networking but it pretty much only went as far as nudging the HR rep to forward my resume to the hiring manager. From there, I did it on my own.

19

Hello early me. This is later me. :smiley:

I was in this position 19-20 years ago. Different but the same. I wish I had some good advice to you, but I really do not.

I was also a ‘lead’. It was not tech support but still technical in nature. I was a ‘lead’ but only in that they needed to give me something to stay and they did like me. However, I had to really fight hard to truely be the ‘lead’ in anything but name (I am convinced they did this just to placate me). I won the fight and truely became a manager in deed and not just in name…however I was still paid a mostly non-manager salary.

I loved that place. They loved me. To this day I still remember working there fondly. However, I couldn’t stay. The work was essentially data processing. I was a stat guy. Now, DP for much (not all) of the industry I am in is thought of as a necessary evil…a cost to be minimized. In other words…not much of a future and little advancement/promotion possibilities. The pay sucked (though it paid much better than teaching…another story).

So…I had to leave. I was younger, ambitious and confident.

Good story so far? Well…I went into hell. I worked 2 jobs in 5 years that essentially tore me apart. It was hell. Looking back…it probably was the main cause of my divorce. So…yes…you can find yourself in a much worse place.

That being said, the job I have now with the company I have now is great! I am paid well, valued and have some respect in the industry (I sometimes get the ‘I heard of you’ when talking with a new client :slight_smile: )

What does this tell you? My only advice is that you should be looking. Like the comfy job I had long ago…it was a nice training ground. I learned much. However, you need to leave the nursery and enter the big bad world. There is danger so don’t leave in a hurry and don’t leave unless the company is worth leaving to. Take your time and find a higher-probability good job where you can grow and move up.