How good/bad do I have it at my job?

[meleader2]

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Do you play poker on the side for extra money? Can you work overtime if you want?

If you plan on sticking with this job I think you should try to find some alternate avenues to supplement your income. $120 a week is debilitating.

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i purposefully left this out, but yes, i put away in a mutual fund 1k profit from poker every month

[jackdaniels]

As entry level jobs go, yours isn't too bad. Very soon you will have a decision to make, do you want to stay in this field and work teh extra hours/weekends to make the extra money you WILL need (gf becomes wife, the couple becomes a family etc...) OR do you want to keep the easy going job and do something else on the side to supplement your income.

FWIW I started out along the same lines as you did (about 6-7 years ago), decided I wanted to keep a job that didn't require me to be there 24/7 and do something else on the side. I didn't keep my original entry level job, but did manage to find other, higher paying positions in my field (comp-sci) that had a similar structure. I get paid prolly about 75% of industry standard but I work 7.5 hour days, am never on call, GREAT benefits and excellent job security (union job at a university). This allowed me to concentrate my efforts on building a sizable side income doing other things.

Having the security that comes with a paycheque as well as the extra monies from side ventures assures that I will never become a multi-millionaire but will be comfortable enough that I won't ever have to be worried about the mortgage payment or where my next meal is going to come from. The best (or at least the good) of both worlds.

[luckyjimm]

Wow your rent is ridic cheap. I'm paying $180/week in London to lodge somewhere half an hour's tube journey from the centre...

[offTopic]

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I'm paying $180/week in London to lodge somewhere half an hour's tube journey from the centre...

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So you live in an ovary? [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[Badger]

Where did you go to school? $30k sounds really bad for your degree. You've got pretty good hours however.

[dsmith19711]

The "now" is sort of irrelevant. If you talk to some people who have worked and been successful, I think they'd all agree that the first couple of years of work is about 2 main things: finding the right company and networking.

Unless you can't make ends meet, a few thousand dollars a year doesn't matter that much right now. You want to be positioning yourself so that when you're 35, your making 6 figures, working at a top company and able to enjoy life.

I started working 70 hour weeks at a law firm. In a year I impressed someone who got me an interview w/ JP Morgan. 10 years later, I'm making mid 6 figures with a hedge fund and my life couldn't be greater. The horrible first year is now just a war story.

Buffalo might be a tough place to make it big. It's behind only the auto and steel towns as a downward cycling economy, so keep in mid that you might have to move to advance. Good luck with it.

[meleader2]

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Where did you go to school? $30k sounds really bad for your degree. You've got pretty good hours however.

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i went to university of buffalo

[meleader2]

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The "now" is sort of irrelevant. If you talk to some people who have worked and been successful, I think they'd all agree that the first couple of years of work is about 2 main things: finding the right company and networking.

Unless you can't make ends meet, a few thousand dollars a year doesn't matter that much right now. You want to be positioning yourself so that when you're 35, your making 6 figures, working at a top company and able to enjoy life.

I started working 70 hour weeks at a law firm. In a year I impressed someone who got me an interview w/ JP Morgan. 10 years later, I'm making mid 6 figures with a hedge fund and my life couldn't be greater. The horrible first year is now just a war story.

Buffalo might be a tough place to make it big. It's behind only the auto and steel towns as a downward cycling economy, so keep in mid that you might have to move to advance. Good luck with it.

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o i'm well aware of the economy situation in this city. congrats on your job. do you feel like you have golden handcuffs on? or do you see your job as more liberating, as in, you have a lot of free time on ur hands. if so that first year was a great success, even though it sounds [censored] as [censored].

something i'll have to keep in mind.

[meleader2]

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-Is what you're learning going to benefit you in the future?
-You don't sound immature but I'll say it anyway, first real jobs are all about learning that stuff doesn't just fall your way. I think you might want to sit back and figure out if you're really being treated like crap or if you're just learning that life isn't a bed of roses.
-FWIW I've thought many times that if I didn't have kids, a wife, ex-wife, bills, etc that I'd quit my job and go work in a stress free (or less stress) type job.
-I (like many others I'd guess) consider an 8 hour a day job pretty much part time.
-I would tell myself to put aside their ego's and try to learn as much as possible. Then when it comes time to move on you've learned that much more.
-As far as raises go I'd talk to your boss and discuss it with him/her. Tell them you've been at it a while now and have learned a lot (thanking them for the opportunity) and hoped you'd be compensated for it.

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-can't say yes or no on this. everyone starts out with a set idea of a job/career they want but sometimes that changes (from what i've been told)
-probably learning that life isn't a bed of roses, part of the reason of this post
-8 hours is part time? wow.
-good points thanks for the reply

[guids]

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If 20k extra is your goal, and you need to work 10 to 20 hours mroe a week to achieve it, it is not worth it imo. 20k over the course of a year is not a lot of money imo, you can find more enjoyable side work (if you are a douche like me, TAX FREE!!) and make 20k extra along with your job. You dont seem to have a bad deal going right now imo.

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my 10-20 hour extra is just an estimation based on other offers/people on the inside that could get me a job have told me (late work nights, saturdays OFTEN)

eff that.


edit: it just seems like putting in the extra time now will just make me miserable and not really put me that much well off later in life.

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it just seems like putting in the extra time now will just make me miserable and not really put me that much well off later in life.


bingo. this is how I approach it, there really isnt much difference between a 30k a year job, and a 50k a year job, for a young single guy, a lot of that will just get taxed when you are bumped up, its not really enough to make you super rich later in life, and not enough to really improve your quality of life, its probably just enough to give you more breathing room, and you wont have to be as creative with your finances. IMO an extra 10 or 20 hours a week is not worth it, especially since you could spend an extra bit playing poker, ebaying, etc to make up some of that income. Its a difference situation if we are talking 30k and 100k, but we arent.