Experience vs Salary : What would you choose?

Hello TE!

I am stuck at a fork right now in my life and I do not know how to proceed. The current job I am at I make about 40K w/ benefits. I get to touch lots of goodies, and have full access to their Technet licenses. I work as a Help Desk Analyst but I am also in charge of the Helpdesk lower techs. I have learned so much in the past two years at this place, but with all my certifications I earned (And working towards MCSA Serv 2012) I don't know if they will bump my salary. I love the fact that I just 'breached' into server stuff, setting up domains, building virtual environments, getting familiar with CentOS, FreeBSD, FreeNAS and learning how to use advanced hardware firewalls and building VPN's. The experience I am gaining gives me nerdgasms when I think about it…Again, my salary is low in my eyes, but my experience is probably commensurate with my pay.

However, opportunity has struck to do basically the same work, oversea's as a contractor making almost double, if not, triple that amount for oversea assignments. And I obviously have to thank all my certs for that kind of opportunity, but I feel as if I will be stuck in Helpdesk for the rest of my life without moving up and learning more. The job will pretty much be static, no messing with servers, PW resets galore, account creation city, real basic help desk stuff. And of course, plethora of printer issues.

I want to move out of my families house and be on my own, but where I live, $1600 will barely get you a 1 bedroom apartment with a bathroom, no parking space, and I want a place to build a big rack lab. On the other hand, If I contract, I would move oversea's, have my own place and basically be my own person and could probably build my own rack and then some. I'm at a loss, not sure what do to. I have a few months to make a decision on what I want to do. The company I work for now can only pay me so much, they think I can reach 60K in 2 - 3 years time, that isn't something I'm looking forward to, but then again, I have learned a ton load from them.

Can anyone shed some experience or advice? I'd appreciate it!

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Comments

TheProf

The best thing you could do, is weigh out the pros and cons and see which opportunity is right for you.

For me, the experience is more valuable than money, meaning it's something that you can't buy and something you can only gain by having the right opportunity, it will also pay off down the line.

The other option is of course your current financial situation, is it really bad or can you be patient for another year or two until you gain the necessary experience and move to system or network admin role and at the same time with a higher salary? Personally, I'd rather get the experience and wait a bit before jumping into something I am not too sure of. At some point, if you don't gain experience you need, you might find it hard to move up.

Xyro

Certainly you can think of other options to work through this than to give up a the type of opportunity you are experiencing at your current job? Is living with your family really that bad? Is there no room in your family's house for a big rack lab? If it is really all that bad where you currently are, what about getting a place with a roommate instead of throwing away this great opportunity?

gbdavidx

I would do whatever it takes to get out of help desk support

paul78

Without understanding more about what the new opportunity consists of, it's going to be difficult to offer any type of meaningful advice. But I wanted to point out that you may not necessarily be trading experience versus pay. I feel that it's a common mistake when people are early in their careers to equate pure technical experience of having access to technical resources with actual business experience which has a much longer shelve-life in the overall span of a 40-50 year career.

If your new opportunity allows for a greater range of exposure to different business problems, meeting and interacting with various business cultures, solving varied problem statements, - that experience may far exceed having access to a bunch of routers, switches, and servers.

LittleBIT

I appreciate the feedback, maybe I will wait to hear my employee review and see whats up. I am included in purchasing, providing face to face with clients, and doing billing. So You're right about being involved and learning more then just tech stuff.Thanks again guys.

Tyb

Gaining international experience also cannot hurt, but as stated previously weigh the pros and cons.

blargoe

Most of us have found that true promotions and significant pay increases tend to come when you change companies. Your current company already has you doing the next tier or two up of work for a helpdesk analyst price, and they are only going to be motivated to change that arrangement if they are afraid of losing you. Then they will likely only bump you up just enough to keep you there for a little while longer. I don't know if the opportunity you mentioned is the best thing for you, that depends on your personal preferences and life situation, but I really feel like you are ready to look for a different position. You should be able to earn more money doing the same work somewhere else.

My two cents...

-Blargoe

White Wizard

TheProf wrote: »

For me, the experience is more valuable than money, meaning it's something that you can't buy and something you can only gain by having the right opportunity, it will also pay off down the line.

Exactly how I feel.

LittleBIT

The oversea's position will be contracted with the Army, but again… doing remedial help desk drone type stuff. Not even accessing a server, they would have Tier 2 do that.. lol.. So I wouldn't really be moving up, but from the staff there that I make contacts with, they use that time to pursue certs, or re-learn stuff. A girl relearned SQL Database stuff and left, one guy has been there 2 years, obtained his CCNA and MCSE 2012. One guy became a CISSP and got a bigger salary lol… I will have to think about this, biggest problem is, I will be leaving home, again, for another year. But I don't know, pro's and con's I suppose.

Bloogen

You are choosing between two very contrasting options. Your job is increasing your knowledge and you seem ambitious so why not go for option C?

Get a better job making more money in a location you want to live. Get serious about progressing and start building a badass resume, (post it on here for people to critique), pass more exams, watch more training videos, start doing interview prep with people you know or even vido record yourself for practice. You may also want to look into contracting where the hourly rates are often higher.

You are in a pretty good spot you may just be getting a little anxious with wanting to move forward.

TomkoTech

Personally I would take the over seas job. As it sounds like you don't have a wife/kids to worry about, you could travel and see places a lot of people never would. Depending on where your job is you could get exceptionally cheap travel accommodations on your time off and see other parts of the world.

puertorico1985

As others have stated, it really depends on what you consider your pros and cons. For example, since I have a family, getting up and leaving for a year would probably not be feasible for me especially since I have two little kids. You might not have such a restriction, and only you can determine that. Experience outweighs money, but only to a certain amount. If someone said to me that I could triple my salary (and part of that is tax free depending on what the location is) and I would have the opportunity to obtain certs, network with new people, possibly take a few classes if I was in school, have "me" time away from home, and come back and be OK without working for a few weeks (depending on if you save some money while over there), I would be all over that opportunity.