Taking a job you don't care to do, for the money?

So interesting situation currently. About two weeks ago I was approached by a recruiter for an IAM Engineer position at another large global financial firm (a direct competitor to my current one) and it would have been a $13k raise PLUS 15% annual bonus, with that bonus bringing compensation to a hair under $100k. As I've made it well known here I went through hell for 3 years to escape being pigeonholed in the IAM world. But I decided I would interview and find out more on the role. So I interviewed with the hiring manager and had a great interview. He said he was interested in bringing me on board and was scheduling a last interview with an exec at the home office (in another country) as a formality. After mulling over the position over that weekend (interview was on Friday) I decided I did not want to go back to the IAM world (more like I was too scared and mentally talked myself out of it) and last Monday I informed the recruiter I would like to withdraw myself from consideration. Since then I've only regretted it from an income standpoint, as I'd love to have what would have effectively been a $25k+ raise.

Today I just got an email from the same recruiter, for another position at the same company, with a straight salary in the mid $90s, and that would be a raise at almost $25k. This position is actually not IAM, or even in InfoSec at all. Its a high level application support/incident management position. It's kind of unique and best I can tell it's a mashup of several types of positions like application support, incident management, business analyst, and some other random stuff. Not my cup of tea and would take me out of InfoSec, but as the sole source of income for a family of five, it's hard to simply ignore the financial benefits of that kind of salary increase. On the opposite side, I've gotten no further interest for other InfoSec roles I've selectively applied for, itnernally and externally.

Has anyone here made a decision to take a position they didn't care for, or was out of scope of what they wanted to do, for the money?

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Comments

Plantwiz

From experience, I will never follow the money for a job.

Too many factors go into a work experience, and money very quickly falls to the bottom when the work sucks.

My five cents

JoJoCal19

That too has always been my thoughts when I have been in that situation in the past. That's why I went through the interview for the first one, to see what the situation is like. I already know what the company and work atmosphere is like there as I know no less than 10 people there, many of whom defected from my previous employer. So that's not a concern. As for the work, its not that the work would suck, it would be interesting and I'd probably like learning new stuff. It's just that it doesn't fit what I've been aiming for, as far as roles in InfoSec.

So that's another way to frame the situation. It's not taking a job that sucks for the money, it's taking a job that you normally hadn't considered, or wouldn't normally consider, for the money.

Plantwiz

Ok, little tougher, but will it take you too far off track of your goals? Can you live if you goals change? say you do there work for a couple years, enjoy it, enjoy the money and benefits, and now to change gears and go back on path to the goal when you are older may prove more challenging.

So, what is your opportunity cost of the move? If you like the people and environment (which are HUGE IMO) then you may be just fine making the jump. My guess is, someone over there wants you, or they would not have countered with another role. Do you want them?

JoJoCal19

The first role was at least in the InfoSec realm, so that wasn't so bad. Like I said, I let my past experience trying to break out of IAM, scare me out of that. As for this role, yes the latest one is completely outside of InfoSec. So it's far off the radar as far as what I've been aiming for, or the track that I'm on now in the GRC world. Yes I absolutely could live with moving in a different direction, as I will continue to pursue skills, knowledge, and credentials that are inline with either my ultimate goals, or that keep me agile in the workspace as far as being able to post internally or externally. I agree with you though that leaving one realm, will make it more challenging to move back into that realm, however I do have a way to somewhat counter that.

I do know when I withdrew from the previous position, that they said that management expressed great disappointment as they had greenlit hiring me. I would like to work for the company, and this position actually would allow me to relocate my family back to where we moved from last year, so theres more upside. The prospect of just chilling and enjoying the income and benefits (while still pursuing knowledge, skills, certs, degrees outside of that) is appealing.

Deathmage

I guess if you think of it this way, you seem to be interested about the role since you'll be learning different stuff. But since you do want to stay with Information Security long-term wouldn't it help to diversify your experiences? ... Basically what I mean yes it won't be InfoSec but later on down the road the experience from this different experience could help you look at and manage InfoSec in a different light.

That my 2 cents.

stryder144

Deathmage...my thoughts exactly.

JoJoCal19

@=Deathmage

That's a good point, and I looked at the job description to see how I could parlay it into helping in InfoSec. I'm not really seeing it right now. But regardless, I plan on staying the course with my MSISA and the CISM/CISA. After that though, I'm not sure. If I like the new path I can always stay, and just bring my security frame of mind and knowledge to that role, or other roles in the company. Honestly at that salary, I'll be content to stick around in it and work on my "Act II".

networker050184

If you have to try and talk yourself into the job then you probably won't end up sticking around for long anyway.

N2IT

My two biggest concerns is money and the manager and people I work with. Generally speaking if I feel the pay is competitive or even more then competitive and the people I work with I like, I usually end up liking the job.

I've tried to work for peanuts to get a good job strategy and that never has worked for me. Chalk that up as a failed experiment.

JoJoCal19

[N2IT]

I have noticed from your posts you seem to be very flexible in the opportunities you take, and do look at the opportunity itself including money and job environment. I think I have been too inflexible and narrow-minded. Aside from the money, I am trying to look at the position and see if there is a new area of opportunity for me to pursue. Like others have said, I might have to work twice as hard if I want to hop back into my current career path. I've got a call a preliminary call tomorrow morning so I'll try to find out some more about the position.

N2IT

I comes down to your objectives. I have always wanted to get into a pure project management role, never happened. I've been a service deliver lead, AKA service manager a business analyst even a data analyst on a short term project. But never ran or planned the project from a pure project management role.

I've been flexible but it's not always been the best move. The bottom line is I never stop trying I am relentless when it comes to this. Eventually I will find a solid role that aligns with scope of role, pay and environment aka people. When I find that then I am set. Still looking........

daviddws

For me in a similar situation with a family of 4, I am considering some contract work in Kuwait for 11 months. This would greatly help my family even though it would be somewhat of a hardship not seeing them. The pay in this instance over ruled staying in the country. My wife says I'm going to end up like "Breaking Bad" and just see $$$, but I cant see staying away for more than a year.

kriscamaro68

A few years back I was so dead set on going down the Info Sec path that nothing was going to get in my way. I bought books galore, studied all facets of info sec and wanted to get into a security position more than anything. I took a Windows Admin position hoping it would get me some in-depth experience on hardening Windows servers and was a good choice for my path towards some type of role in info sec. As I worked in this role which I didn't plan on staying in for very long I worked my way up to Windows Engineer and now have a love for Virtualization. I still enjoy all the facets of info sec but, Virtualization is where its at for me now. I find it the most enjoyable and I never had a desire to get into it before and wouldn't have had I not taken this position. You never know if you will enjoy it until you try it.

JoJoCal19

That's awesome kriscamaro68, and a good point to consider. In this role I will have the chance to learn UNIX (Solaris), scripting, Oracle database, and Java. I have the skills to do the job, but I will need to learn those skills to excel at it. I wouldn't mind at all. I love learning new things. Funny you say that about virtualization. That is an area that keeps pulling my interest.

BradleyHU

i've done this before, and kinda regretted doing it, because i ended up @ a company i didnt like. The role wasn't the problem, the money was more than I was making prior to that, but the environment was THEE worst.

and my dude, 15% bonus isn't much, no matter what your salary is. and thats kinda on the low side for a financial firm, especially a big one...

JoJoCal19

REMOVED UNNECESSARY QUOTED REPLY

That's why I interview for the job first, to make sure I like the manager, the coworkers and the environment, like I did with the first position. However, if you scoff at 15% bonus, I'd like to know which financial firm you're with because 15% bonus is very high in my experience (15% x $85k = $12,750 bonus). I've already worked for two of the nations top four largest financial firms, and 15% is the largest bonus I've heard of for non upper management or execs. Heck I just got emailed for a consulting manager position at Accenture that is paying $120-$150k with a 22% bonus, so I'd be good with a 15% bonus on a non-traveling job.

JoJoCal19

After my phone call this morning I told them I wasn't interested in the position. It's weird, like a mashup of types of support roles for an application for a line of business. In the end I feel the job itself, is a much greater step back, than is the increase in pay. I'm already getting contacts for jobs at or above that pay level so I'm content to wait for the right opportunity. That's the advantage of being in a position of power to be able to selective in what I pursue.

Plantwiz

Congratulations!

My guess is your patience will pay off, hang in there!

VikingWarlord

Did it, don't ever want to do it again. It wasn't worth it at all.

NOLAJ

JoJoCal19 wrote: »

@=Deathmage

That's a good point, and I looked at the job description to see how I could parlay it into helping in InfoSec. I'm not really seeing it right now. But regardless, I plan on staying the course with my MSISA and the CISM/CISA. After that though, I'm not sure. If I like the new path I can always stay, and just bring my security frame of mind and knowledge to that role, or other roles in the company. Honestly at that salary, I'll be content to stick around in it and work on my "Act II".

Could always take the role, which comes with the extra $$, and continue to finish your MSISA & CISM/CISA. Finish those, and then do another evaluation of your situation. By continuing your cert course you won't lose that side of things, and you'll be adding additional experience you can combine with your certs. Plus you'll have an extra 50K in your pocket in two years.

Just my thoughts...

Never mind my above post. Just read your post above about staying.