Need some Advice: More Money or New Job w/ Less money

I apologize about the length of this post, but I'm confused, and i'm just trying to make sense of my thoughts. I would certainly appreciate your guys/gal's opinion and advice regarding this.

OK. So, I have a B.S. in Computer Science, and have 3 yrs working experience. My current job is not necessarily "IT focused". I'm currently working for a company in the "Product Development" industry (launching new computer products into the market) and I hold a Manager position. I do like my job, and enjoy it, and this industry definitely has a lot of room to grow, good pay (I make decent money now, and can be making about $100k+/yr in the next 4-6 yrs).

Now, when I was in school getting my C.S. degree, i always pictured myself doing Network/System Administration, and then expand from there. So basically, I wanted to stay more on the IT sector. So now I get this opportunity to work as a System Administrator, but I will be making about $10k less per year than at my current job. However, this new job would be a 9 to 5 type of job; whereas my current job is salary, requires more hours, and is more stressful/pressure. From the two jobs, I think I would enjoy the System Admin position better. But then again, I dont dislike my current job.

I'm almost sure that it would take me at least two years to "catch up" or even get close to my current salary, if i take the new position. But like i said, i always wanted to do System Admin stuff, and so I'm tempted to at least try it and see how I like it. I'm single at this time, so I guess I dont "really" need the extra money; i can survive just fine. However, some people have advised me that the future of IT might not be as promising down the line, and perhaps I will never make in this field what I could make in the current field i am in. Since with the new job, I will have more free time, I wont mind specializing in a specific field to be more marketable, getting certifications, etc. But, is there a future in IT as a long-term career? (Position & salary wise)? Right now I'm a little out-of-touch regarding the IT job market & its future, and later down the line, I still have to decide what i will specialize/focus in. So, as of now I see like this:

Stable Job/Industry, Good Pay, Opportunities for Growth
VS. Uncertain Industry, Less Pay.

I"m in my Mid 20's, and so this is pretty much a career decision, and I guess I hadnt faced a decision like this before, and so I'm not sure what to do. Well, I have to make my decision in the next couple of days ... but I'm not sure what I will decide yet. Anyway, thanks for reading and I definitely appreciate any advice you can provide. If you've been in a similar situation before, please also feel free to share.

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Comments

QUIX0TIC

Hard thing to advise you on when nobody really knows you.

Bottom line for me... if I was in that spot... I would stick with the Management position versus going into IT position. Not because of the money but better for the growth. When or if you do get married... it makes a huge difference instead of the Sys Admin job. Plus the Sys Admin novelty wears off after awhile. IMHO

int80h

IMHO, stay away from network administration, networks will continue to get more and more automated in the future, reducing the need for humans to maintain them.

If you are interested in networking, get a job writting firmware or designing PCBs for networking equipment.

EdTheLad

Also you have to consider the lower level,you were a manager,can you
take crap from a new boss who in your opinion may be less qualified than you?Just another angle..

garv221

IT is not going anywhere, if you stick with the changes, there will always be a need for an IT guy, more in the years to come. In your situation, I would stick with your current job. Save money and invest it into assests. Taking less pay is never a great idea.

darkuser

int80h wrote:

IMHO, stay away from network administration, networks will continue to get more and more automated in the future, reducing the need for humans to maintain them.

If you are interested in networking, get a job writting firmware or designing PCBs for networking equipment.

??? not if cisco can help it .....

zenboy

It seems to me that your heart is more into doing technical work than your current job. It is hard to advice what you should do because only you would know that (pretty cliche...but true). Doing system admin may seem 9-5 work, but there may be occasional overtime too. Having been IT for over 8 years (3yrs in sys admin.), I would see that the role of system admin is pretty stressful at times and had to do few occasional overtime in a month. I'm not complaining about the job because I enjoy doing it; however, I wish I was wise enough to gain more knowledge and skill when I had the chance. Now at that I'm married and have to think about the "Big Picture" and brighter future, I am pursuing my college degree and MCSE.
The important thing is to have a goal and work towards it. That way, you don't have to regret not doing something in life. If you are doing a good job at your current role and work like to expand that role into something more technical; why not get certifications on the side (MCSE, CISCO, or Linux+).
One hot field that many of my friends are going into is the Project Management in IT. It requires technical skills and management as well.
As for as the market for network admin. goes, it is still in demand...and growing. The field of network admin has changed for the demand of higher-skilled workforce rather than the out-of-college workforce. The jobs are still there but the skill set requirement has been anted up a notch.
Remember people, we were in recession for over the last few years and have just recently gotten out of it. Money are tight and budget have to be limited....good reason why many businesses look over see for cheap skilled labor to meet the budget. But as the market and economy stabilize, there will be more available resource to hire at home.
With the 'baby boomers' retiring, more and more technical skill workers are needed to meet this demand.
I don't see why people are saying that the role of network admin is not as hot as before when the national forecast as saying otherwise. Recent national news from National Science Foundation said that U.S. are behind other countries in technical innovation because there is lack of IT graduates in computer science and engineerings in universities.
Bill Gates has recently toured many of the states university to promote students to get into IT field because there isn't enough skill workers to meet the needs of it in US.
A good reason why many of these students aren't going into IT and that the computer science departments in universities are stagnant is because these student have seen the worst time when the economy is squeezing itself tight as the workforce is scaling back.
Now that the economy is coming out of the dark cloud and businesses are seeking skilled workers, there are none of these skilled workers to be found. So what do these businesses do? They seek somewhere else to meet this demand (China, India, Korea for example).
As we step further into the Information Technological era, there will be much more technological innovations intergrating into everyone life; and there will be that much more technical skilled people NEEDED to maintain and troubleshoot these technologies.
I hope you will keep this in mind as you ponder on your next move in your career. Good luck