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Should I leave a chill job for more money?

babyballer

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To put things into context, I am working as a sales engineer for a NASDAQ listed company in Asia. The company has been around for the longest time and they have a legacy product that has been their consistent source of income (renewals/maintenance). So for the past decade, they have been buying companies left and right. I have been here for 10-11 months so far and it took me while to understand the products, the people within the company, how to presell the products, the competitions, etc. I am reporting to the sales guy who is also my boss. My work life balance is really good now as a sales engineer since I am only supporting 1 sales guy (my boss). However, I am also required to help out other regions as well if need be. If I am being honest, I probably work about 30 hours per week max. We sell a number of products but I happen to like selling a mar tech software that is selling very well my region. My only dislike about the company in terms of product strategy is that they are trying to sell a piece of technology where the competition is Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc. We aren't making a lot of sales for that product but yet it is featured in Gartner's. In terms of people, my boss treats everyone nicely when you meet him face to face. However, he also likes to talk shit behind everyone's back. This is his main character flaw. Other than that, he is a very good sales person. This year however, we haven't been meeting our numbers. We are at around 80% of our numbers. So my commission is less than what I would be getting otherwise had we met the number. This is one of the factors which makes me think that maybe I should look out for a company with products that are in demand.

My friend out of a sudden called me for a job opening in his current company. I was not looking around for a job actually. It is a devops company (think of chef, puppet, ansible, terraform, etc). Hence, if I take this job, I will have some sort of branding due to the company's reputation. I attended couple of interview rounds with them. However, in the end, they chose another candidate instead of me. I was their 2nd choice. So I thought that's about it. One month later, they called me up and offering me a job. They told me that there's another opening for this role. They asked me for my expected salary. I quoted 33% hike of the current salary since I wasn't so keen anymore. I was hoping that they would just go away and tell me that they couldn't afford me. However, I was wrong. They came back and offered me the job with the expected salary. Basically, my OTE was 150k (80% base, 20% comms). They offered me 200k OTE (70% base and 30% comms). The increment is not much from the base salary point of view. However, the commissions part is bigger. Also, the fact that they have been overachieving for the past few years (exceeding their target numbers), really lures me into joining them. My friend told me that the workload was high since they didnt have good ratio of sales engineers v.s. sales people. However, now things have changed that they have added one headcount more for sales engineer. I only worry if I join, I don't know whether I will have free time to actually do side hustles. Typically, when I join a new company, I need to acclimatize with the new working environment for at least 6 months (i.e. the usuals: learning the products, how to work within the company, knowing the people, market, etc). On one hand I like to be where I am now apart from few negatives, but on the other hand, if I don't take this opportunity, I am afraid I will miss the opportunity making around 50-100k more per annum.
 
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Kruiser

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What do you WANT? Where are you trying to take your life? As @Creed noted, it all depends on your goals.
 
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ChrisV

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How much more money? In general I'd say no, but I'd need to know more specifics.

Work will be a big part of your life. So with a non fast lane job your life is roughly:

8 hrs sleep
8 hrs work
8 hrs your own time
plus weekends

Its pure mathematics. Will the extra money enhance the '8 hrs your own time / weekends' enough to offset the 8 hrs of work?

Plus the element of the unknown.

I say you're happy, stick with the devil you know.

But you know your situation better than us
 

Sizemore

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To put things into context, I am working as a sales engineer for a NASDAQ listed company in Asia. The company has been around for the longest time and they have a legacy product that has been their consistent source of income (renewals/maintenance). So for the past decade, they have been buying companies left and right. I have been here for 10-11 months so far and it took me while to understand the products, the people within the company, how to presell the products, the competitions, etc. I am reporting to the sales guy who is also my boss. My work life balance is really good now as a sales engineer since I am only supporting 1 sales guy (my boss). However, I am also required to help out other regions as well if need be. If I am being honest, I probably work about 30 hours per week max. We sell a number of products but I happen to like selling a mar tech software that is selling very well my region. My only dislike about the company in terms of product strategy is that they are trying to sell a piece of technology where the competition is Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc. We aren't making a lot of sales for that product but yet it is featured in Gartner's. In terms of people, my boss treats everyone nicely when you meet him face to face. However, he also likes to talk shit behind everyone's back. This is his main character flaw. Other than that, he is a very good sales person. This year however, we haven't been meeting our numbers. We are at around 80% of our numbers. So my commission is less than what I would be getting otherwise had we met the number. This is one of the factors which makes me think that maybe I should look out for a company with products that are in demand.

My friend out of a sudden called me for a job opening in his current company. I was not looking around for a job actually. It is a devops company (think of chef, puppet, ansible, terraform, etc). Hence, if I take this job, I will have some sort of branding due to the company's reputation. I attended couple of interview rounds with them. However, in the end, they chose another candidate instead of me. I was their 2nd choice. So I thought that's about it. One month later, they called me up and offering me a job. They told me that there's another opening for this role. They asked me for my expected salary. I quoted 33% hike of the current salary since I wasn't so keen anymore. I was hoping that they would just go away and tell me that they couldn't afford me. However, I was wrong. They came back and offered me the job with the expected salary. Basically, my OTE was 150k (80% base, 20% comms). They offered me 200k OTE (70% base and 30% comms). The increment is not much from the base salary point of view. However, the commissions part is bigger. Also, the fact that they have been overachieving for the past few years (exceeding their target numbers), really lures me into joining them. My friend told me that the workload was high since they didnt have good ratio of sales engineers v.s. sales people. However, now things have changed that they have added one headcount more for sales engineer. I only worry if I join, I don't know whether I will have free time to actually do side hustles. Typically, when I join a new company, I need to acclimatize with the new working environment for at least 6 months (i.e. the usuals: learning the products, how to work within the company, knowing the people, market, etc). On one hand I like to be where I am now apart from few negatives, but on the other hand, if I don't take this opportunity, I am afraid I will miss the opportunity making around 50-100k more per annum.
I struggled with this decision recently (although your increase is bigger)... my job is also chill, which allows me time to hustle.

In the end I decided that I want 100MM... and an extra 30k per year wasn’t going to help me get that based I what I currently make. Also, you never know who you will end up working for... my flexible schedule won.

Good luck!
 

babyballer

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How much more money? In general I'd say no, but I'd need to know more specifics.

Work will be a big part of your life. So with a non fast lane job your life is roughly:

8 hrs sleep
8 hrs work
8 hrs your own time
plus weekends

Its pure mathematics. Will the extra money enhance the '8 hrs your own time / weekends' enough to offset the 8 hrs of work?

Plus the element of the unknown.

I say you're happy, stick with the devil you know.

But you know your situation better than us

In terms of base salary the difference is around 20k, but if I add the commission aspect based on their performance, the diff can be around 100k per annum.
 
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babyballer

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I struggled with this decision recently (although your increase is bigger)... my job is also chill, which allows me time to hustle.

In the end I decided that I want 100MM... and an extra 30k per year wasn’t going to help me get that based I what I currently make. Also, you never know who you will end up working for... my flexible schedule won.

Good luck!

I would not move for 30k but this is about 100k difference and would allow me to save more.
 

Sizemore

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I would not move for 30k but this is about 100k difference and would allow me to save more.
It sounds like you know you need to do it. If it fits into a plan to achieve your long term goals, then go for it. What are your long term goals?
 
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Kevin88660

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To put things into context, I am working as a sales engineer for a NASDAQ listed company in Asia. The company has been around for the longest time and they have a legacy product that has been their consistent source of income (renewals/maintenance). So for the past decade, they have been buying companies left and right. I have been here for 10-11 months so far and it took me while to understand the products, the people within the company, how to presell the products, the competitions, etc. I am reporting to the sales guy who is also my boss. My work life balance is really good now as a sales engineer since I am only supporting 1 sales guy (my boss). However, I am also required to help out other regions as well if need be. If I am being honest, I probably work about 30 hours per week max. We sell a number of products but I happen to like selling a mar tech software that is selling very well my region. My only dislike about the company in terms of product strategy is that they are trying to sell a piece of technology where the competition is Amazon, Google, Microsoft, etc. We aren't making a lot of sales for that product but yet it is featured in Gartner's. In terms of people, my boss treats everyone nicely when you meet him face to face. However, he also likes to talk shit behind everyone's back. This is his main character flaw. Other than that, he is a very good sales person. This year however, we haven't been meeting our numbers. We are at around 80% of our numbers. So my commission is less than what I would be getting otherwise had we met the number. This is one of the factors which makes me think that maybe I should look out for a company with products that are in demand.

My friend out of a sudden called me for a job opening in his current company. I was not looking around for a job actually. It is a devops company (think of chef, puppet, ansible, terraform, etc). Hence, if I take this job, I will have some sort of branding due to the company's reputation. I attended couple of interview rounds with them. However, in the end, they chose another candidate instead of me. I was their 2nd choice. So I thought that's about it. One month later, they called me up and offering me a job. They told me that there's another opening for this role. They asked me for my expected salary. I quoted 33% hike of the current salary since I wasn't so keen anymore. I was hoping that they would just go away and tell me that they couldn't afford me. However, I was wrong. They came back and offered me the job with the expected salary. Basically, my OTE was 150k (80% base, 20% comms). They offered me 200k OTE (70% base and 30% comms). The increment is not much from the base salary point of view. However, the commissions part is bigger. Also, the fact that they have been overachieving for the past few years (exceeding their target numbers), really lures me into joining them. My friend told me that the workload was high since they didnt have good ratio of sales engineers v.s. sales people. However, now things have changed that they have added one headcount more for sales engineer. I only worry if I join, I don't know whether I will have free time to actually do side hustles. Typically, when I join a new company, I need to acclimatize with the new working environment for at least 6 months (i.e. the usuals: learning the products, how to work within the company, knowing the people, market, etc). On one hand I like to be where I am now apart from few negatives, but on the other hand, if I don't take this opportunity, I am afraid I will miss the opportunity making around 50-100k more per annum.
Logically I wanted to say you didn't give us enough information. How was your side hustle? What financial goals do you have?

But I kind of had a good guess that moving to the higher pay job is probably the better option for you.

Because you have typed a lengthy description of your situation without describing your side hustle. There is nothing wrong with having a side hustle that is not making money yet. But I am guessing it is more about your attitude that your heart is not really in it?

I am here to give you even more reasons on moving over to the better paying job. In employment other than the monthly cheque nothing is certain. There is no guarantee that your current job that pays less wont turn into a nasty place to work in any time soon.

No everyone will or should achieve financial business through a business. If you work in a place you like and has a high income, investing consistently will give you a rewarding financial position.

I am in financial sales. My contract is a self-employment contract. It is a low basic pay structure that is driven mainly on commission. It gave me much less headache that running a “actual business” as I have done both.
 

babyballer

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Logically I wanted to say you didn't give us enough information. How was your side hustle? What financial goals do you have?

But I kind of had a good guess that moving to the higher pay job is probably the better option for you.

Because you have typed a lengthy description of your situation without describing your side hustle. There is nothing wrong with having a side hustle that is not making money yet. But I am guessing it is more about your attitude that your heart is not really in it?

I am here to give you even more reasons on moving over to the better paying job. In employment other than the monthly cheque nothing is certain. There is no guarantee that your current job that pays less wont turn into a nasty place to work in any time soon.

No everyone will or should achieve financial business through a business. If you work in a place you like and has a high income, investing consistently will give you a rewarding financial position.

I am in financial sales. My contract is a self-employment contract. It is a low basic pay structure that is driven mainly on commission. It gave me much less headache that running a “actual business” as I have done both.

My side hustles are not making money yet. That is also because I spent my first half of the year ramping up and learning about the products. Now that I have more free time and control over my schedule, I can really focus on the side hustles. If I accept the new job, I will have to learn new products again and won't have much time for 6 months or so to focus on the side hustles. So that's the trade off that I will have to make.
 

babyballer

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It sounds like you know you need to do it. If it fits into a plan to achieve your long term goals, then go for it. What are your long term goals?

My long term goal is to have my own fastlane business.
 
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SpongeGod

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It sounds like you answered your own question. Stay at your chill job and work on your side hustles. Saving an extra 100K is not going to make you a millionaire as fast as starting your own Fastlane business. Especially if you have less time to grow your businesses.
 

Kevin88660

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My long term goal is to have my own fastlane business.
No offense but I doubt so.

If that’s so obvious it will not be a hard decision.

Fastlane business is also, a mean to an end as described in the book.

But really happens here is that you have a decent path for your financial well being- the potential new job that pays well. Sales jobs very often offers intrapreneruship opportunity as well. I will be very tempted to take it also.

On the other hand the side hustle is still at its infancy.

How big can your side hustle grow in two years assuming things go reasonably well as you planned? It must be a big game changer to be worth for you giving up an expected 50k-100k less per year. An annual profit of million dollar business in my opinion.
 

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babyballer

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How big can your side hustle grow in two years assuming things go reasonably well as you planned? It must be a big game changer to be worth for you giving up an expected 50k-100k less per year. An annual profit of million dollar business in my opinion.

I don't think it can grow to 1 million in profit within 2 years timeframe. However, 300k profit per annum is achievable IF it goes well.
 

Kevin88660

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I don't think it can grow to 1 million in profit within 2 years timeframe. However, 300k profit per annum is achievable IF it goes well.
Then it makes perfect sense to take the 50k-100k more or less certain money.

My own opinion is that the subsistence job is for survival and the business has to be a game changer, for anymore who is keeping a day job to support the fast lane business. The ultimate goal is that once the business takes off the job is no longer needed.

Jeff Besos is an extreme example but that captures the gist. Even that he took a long time to consider quitting his hedge fund job to set up an “online book store”. (He already had savings and family backing that he never had to do two at the same time).

If you are making 200k per year, someone offers you a chance to take a significant pay cut and commission cut, in return to give you more time to start a business if successful, that is going to deliver 1.5x of your current annual employment income? Well come on no one will take that offer! Lol. Because even in the best case when your business takes off and becomes successful you are quite reluctant to quit your 200k more of less predictable money for a 300k that is rather highly unpredictable!

I think I catch the core issue of yours. You already had a pretty financially rewarding career and at the same time your sideline business potential is too small to entice you to invest your time at the expense of your career.
 

babyballer

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Then it makes perfect sense to take the 50k-100k more or less certain money.

My own opinion is that the subsistence job is for survival and the business has to be a game changer, for anymore who is keeping a day job to support the fast lane business. The ultimate goal is that once the business takes off the job is no longer needed.

Jeff Besos is an extreme example but that captures the gist. Even that he took a long time to consider quitting his hedge fund job to set up an “online book store”. (He already had savings and family backing that he never had to do two at the same time).

If you are making 200k per year, someone offers you a chance to take a significant pay cut and commission cut, in return to give you more time to start a business if successful, that is going to deliver 1.5x of your current annual employment income? Well come on no one will take that offer! Lol. Because even in the best case when your business takes off and becomes successful you are quite reluctant to quit your 200k more of less predictable money for a 300k that is rather highly unpredictable!

I think I catch the core issue of yours. You already had a pretty financially rewarding career and at the same time your sideline business potential is too small to entice you to invest your time at the expense of your career.

Thank you for your insight. I really didn't think it this way before.
 
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I’d take the new job. 6 months is not a long time if that’s all it’s going to take to settle in to your new job, you won’t be missing much in terms of side hustle gains especially since they aren’t making you money now, if you had a side opportunity worth pursuing you wouldn’t be asking this question, one will come but not in 6 months. After that you have similar chillness with much better money and a company that it sounds like you won’t have to worry about meeting sales targets and it going bankrupt or you losing your job.
 

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Take the new job IMO. The extra money will help in the mid term but sooner or later you are going to have to fully commit to fastlane.
 
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babyballer

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Take the new job IMO. The extra money will help in the mid term but sooner or later you are going to have to fully commit to fastlane.

Thanks, I have taken the new job offer. I am feeling good about my decision to leave since I realize now that my current workplace is toxic.
 

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