Stability or Dream?

Sie

Do you stay in your stable job where you dont use the skills you have often and not tremedious scope for learning lots more.

Or

Do you leave and chase the elusive dream job?

I know the answer is stay at your current place till you find the new one but what if this option was removed.

Who would have the 'guts' to risk it for what they wanted?
(can apply for more in life then just a job)

EdTheLad

I left my first IT job after 2 years,i had a decent salary and company car.My parents adviced me against leaving.I left for a 3 month contract paying me 4 times my old salary.Since then i've moved to various companies over the past 6 years as a contractor.
My last job i worked for 4 and a half years earning 600 dollars a day,as i really hated that job and worked purely for the money i decided to quit last December.Now for the last 6 months i've been unemployed by choice and i dont intend to work for at least another 6 months.Lets just say i'm enjoying life at the moment and also studying for certs as i dont want to work and study and have no time for play.
The next job i go for will be in Oz and i will be looking for the perfect job.
So it depends on someones financial situation as to whether they can leave a current job or not,i consider myself extremely lucky, but i worked my hard for my luck.

Olajuwon

ed_the_lad wrote:

I left my first IT job after 2 years,i had a decent salary and company car.My parents adviced me against leaving.I left for a 3 month contract paying me 4 times my old salary.Since then i've moved to various companies over the past 6 years as a contractor.
My last job i worked for 4 and a half years earning 600 dollars a day,as i really hated that job and worked purely for the money i decided to quit last December.Now for the last 6 months i've been unemployed by choice and i dont intend to work for at least another 6 months.

$600/day is . What were duities at that job and what country was that job in?
Back to topic, stability is alaways better.

wildfire

Thats nothing really, some of the guys I work with on the project I work for are on about £500 a day ($850 ish) most of the CCNP/DP, although a couple of CCIE's. Doing network design and test on a large project. I am permenant staff so dont see even a snifter of that sort of money. Contracting is the way to go for Network related stuff, especially in and around london.

okie

In relation to a job, I think that it totally depends on where you are at in your career life cycle.

It's similar to investing for retirement. Early on you can take more risks and go after the more attractive looking opportunities. As you get a little older it becomes more about capital preservation and less about risk taking. You use the lessons you learned early on to make better decisions and prep for the long haul.

If you are early in your career journey, take that leap and go after the job that allows you to work with the latest technology or get the experience with the variety of hardware or software. You will be glad that you did. It will expand your knowledge and keep your skills exercised and out of the rust bucket. The things you get to do or the stuff you go through just might enable you to land that job later on where you will want to stay until you retire.

keenon

Sie wrote:

Do you stay in your stable job where you dont use the skills you have often and not tremedious scope for learning lots more.

Or

Do you leave and chase the elusive dream job?

I know the answer is stay at your current place till you find the new one but what if this option was removed.

Who would have the 'guts' to risk it for what they wanted?
(can apply for more in life then just a job)

playing it safe doesn't get you anywhere but where your at
playing "wild" can get you ahead but also sets you up for extreme failure

well thought out moves gets you both.. but sometimes you have to play it by ear and know when your doing one or the other

12thlevelwarrior

my thoughts are prepare for opportunities and take the right opportunities when they come.

droma001

This is my enigma to... good point about careers corresponding with retirmenent.... How many in here have taken a risk where it didn't pay off..... and vice versa? :

SRTMCSE

You're in a very similar situation to mine. I live in the Pocono mountains here in PA. The county I live in, has an average salary of $32,000 (which is real low because everything here is raising in cost. I don't know how ppl here live on that much a year). I'm currently making $34,000. The company is mucho cheap and I'll be lucky to get a 3%-4% raise.

I got lowballed when I got hired b/c I was unemployed, they originally said the position was budgeted for $55,000. When it came time for salary negotiations they lowered it to $40,000. I requested $40,000, they shot me to $32k, I asked for $36k and got $34k. This was last August, this August I'll be here one year but raises aren't until December. I did the math and it'll take a 12% raise to get me to $38,000 (where my estimated put me living comfortably. I know I won't get that, so I've come to 2 scenarios.

a) Apply at different jobs, hopefully get an offer making more, take it to my boss if they don't beat it, leave. I love the position and company, but I love my daughter more.

b) Take whatever raise I can squeeze out of them and attempt to fit side jobs into my schedule between work, college and family time. Try and make up the difference between what I want and I'm making. I figure it can't be hard to make $4,000-$6,000 in a year doing side work.

I'll probably end up doing option (b), b/c now that I've enrolled in college I'm not gonna be able to relocate as easily and there are NO jobs in this area (ie. I just attended a local IT security conference, there were 7 of us there, one of the ppl there was a former co-worker representing my old job, LOL).

Negotiating when you're stuck between a rock and a hard place almost ALWAYS gets you screwed. Well it's a life lesson learned. Good luck with what you're doing.


PS - Alexandria, VA is a nice area. I had a job interview for a company in Vienna, VA making $70,000, but had to blow it off b/c I didn't feel comfortable relocating with my fiancee so close to giving birth. Hopefully once we get this whole "parents" thing down I may look into moving down there again.

Danman32

My electrical engineering degree didn't seem to pay off a whole lot, other than the BS itself, and maybe indicating that I can accomplish tough goals if I apply myself. But the EE part of my BSEE isn't very well utilized compared to my CNE and soon to be utilized MCSE and CCNA. Granted those last two weren't around 20 years ago.

droma001

I do feel your pain. Im getting into family mode without family mode money. ..... Careeer..... family..... hmmmm.....