Hi,

I’m not going to mention the industry I’m in as I feel it will cloud judgement. Basically my role at the moment pays a decent wage and is 9-5 no worries. The problem is I have reached the ceiling as far as prospects go in head office.

Question is I might have the opportunity to go field based with earning potential to increase by 20-40%. This obviously comes with added work and pressure but much greater opportunity.

I am 32 mortgage with a partner no kids.

What would you do?

Thanks I look forward to all responses.

Go for the better prospects route. You will regret it otherwise

Depends on your personality – I hate coasting and need to be under a bit of pressure or I get bored quickly…

I went for better pay and prospects… turns out its even cushty-er than before.

Go for the better prospects / more money but bank the extra cash, or you’ll be trapped by golden handcuffs and won’t be able to downscale if you don’t like the extra pressure or have kids and want to spend less time working.

Raindog speaks much wisdom.

I’ve usually coasted to be fair. OK money compared to some but nothing to set the world on fire. Now at the age of 46 I’ve realised I need to push ahead. Having a young family is the major consideration when I look at any potential role.

Go for it now, you will regret it if you don’t.

As long as the new role actually has prospects. 20% extra for longer hours and more time away from home isn’t a great deal. It sounds more like a sideways step, but it might be a better path. Is there a third option?

32 is way to young to hit a career ceiling – the opportunities (if real – as above) need to be taken.

But are kids imminent?
A cruisy 9-5 job fits well with supporting home life in the first few years.

Really depends on the person,

I have chosen to have a job where i have some money and plenty of freetime.

Things i have learnt, business is business, you can sell your soul to a company and it will still crap on you, the higher you go the more the job becomes politics rather than work.

Do what you enjoy, what gives you the life you want, your a long time dead and to be blunt, no one will remember you in the long term.

Also, i don’t know if you plan on kids, the number of senior managers i know who are divorced because they put work above family is astonishing. you only get one chance with kids and time matters more than things.

Depends on your personality – I hate coasting and need to be under a bit of pressure or I get bored quickly…

This. I hate not coasting and get bored of challenging environments easily. Pressure doesn’t affect me either, neither in a good or bad way.

Basically I have zero career aspirations. All my goals and dreams are outside the workplace. All of them.

It’ll be a personal choice, it has to be. Making a decision based on somebody else’s wants and needs is daft when you can make the decision based on you own wants and needs.

And what Raindog said. Life without debt is better than life with an S Class.

5 years ago I’d have said take the risk. However, 5 years ago I did just that and the resultant pressure induced a nervous breakdown and I ended up unemployed and a gibbering wreck. Now I’d say stick with the nice 9 to 5 and find some hobbies to keep life interesting….

I’ve usually coasted to be fair. OK money compared to some but nothing to set the world on fire.

/Thinks back.

/Nods.

Cheers for the replies. Quite interesting and all thoughts I’ve had myself.

Kids will come in 2-3 years time I would’ve thought, I feel I am doing myself an injustice just “coasting” and also potentially missing the boat.

The motivation for extra cash is not fancy cars and flash clothes. Simply security for the future. (Earn it while I can?)

Thanks again.

assuming your partner is a similar age to you, id tread carefully.
about 30 is the age when most women start to think seriously about having kids, even if they have said previously that they never want any ime.
also, as said above, 20% extra for more pressure/time at work isnt that much of a deal.
i liked the quote above “life without debt is better than life with an s class”, there is a LOT of truth in that statement.

Work to live imo

Work will chew you up and spit you out and ten years down the road you’ll wonder why you bothered.

If you are planning kids soon, then I would stay where you are. You could only regret not seeing your children grow up.

Work will chew you up and spit you out and ten years down the road you’ll wonder why you bothered.

Yep, the minute some accountant can justify laying you off to make this quarter’s dividend $0.0001c higher, you’re out on your ear faster than you can recite your 7 times table…

You spend a lot of your time working so you might as well enjoy it.

Imagine it as a hobby.

Would you choose to do something easy that you don’t particularly enjoy (Stamp collecting?) or something that is fun, challenging, sometimes hard work or painful but you enjoy (mountain biking?)

I am not suggesting which one you should go for but it gives you a different way of looking at it.

Interesting how the tune of this thread is changing/developing. To clarify the extra work would actually be at home not away.

Thanks again.

Question is I might have the opportunity to go field based with earning potential to increase by 20-40%. This obviously comes with added work and pressure but much greater opportunity.

does the increase in pay push you into a higher tax bracket? If so, you could well end up getting half of what appears to be a 20-40% increase for a whole lot more work. IMHO, there is more to lfe than £. Once you are comfortable, why sell more of your time just to buy stuff you don’t need? Each to their own though, people have different motivations.

Depends how much you are currently earning.

If you are comfortable why give yourself extra stress at work? Enjoy your free time and give your partner an easier time. Stress is major contributor to divorce and early death/illness.

Basic question: do you handle stress well?
If so, go for it. If not, don’t.

It requires the death bed test to me: do I regret not achieving as much in my career as I might have done, earning more money, buying more expensive things or do I regret not having the time to do the things I wanted to do eg bike rides, be there for the kids, non-work ambitions. I think you can see where I’m at with the conundrum.

I’m much happier sat in front of the fire at home, fiancée by my side and cat on my lap than working late or driving miles on some long commute…

To clarify the extra work would actually be at home not away.

If you are working you are working, same difference really.

Are you comfortable in the cushy job, or do you value self-development? Do you feel that you’ll stagnate in your current role? Bear in mind that the longer you stay in one job, the harder it is to move to the next.

I’d take the money, if only because it makes it easier to pay for the things you enjoy doing. I took a better job with longer hours and more stress a couple of years back, but I don’t regret it because my lifestyle has changed for the better.

If you plan to have kids in 3-ish years time then now could be a good time to move. In a challenging new role it might take you a couple of years to establish yourself and get to the point where the workload starts to become more manageable, which is where you want to be when kids come along. You’ll be very grateful for the extra money.

I’ve been very much coasting for the last three years while we had kids, youngest is two now and I’m starting to feel like I can push on a bit at work. These days I’m very much motivated by how much I can earn while still spending as much time at home as possible – I want to be able to provide for them as best I can, but I also want to see them grow up.

No kids? For me, always the ‘more work, more money’ option. Always. I love what i do and I still have that hunger for doing more. There are plenty of 9-5ers in my office but I assume they have kids…. With kids, my attitude would be the reverse.