What Pay Cut Would You Take For Your Dream-Career/Role?

Seriously, one-day the opportunity presents itself. Ticks every box short-term, heck maybe even long-term. But initial compensation is  a steep paycut compared to what you are already making. By steep paycut this could be 60% less compared to your current comp. Do you do it? 

For reference, my passion is making music. I really dk what it would take for me to do it full-time, since I know most artists are barely making more than minimum wage at best. 

17 Comments
 

"My dream job is to make a lot of money. So probably not." - Every Finance Bro

 

my dream job is real estate acquisitions analyst, or an analyst job with a brokerage. I feel like I have a pretty decent resume but I can't even get a god damn interview. I would like to make at least 40k. anyone hiring a real estate analyst?

 

famejranc

my dream job is real estate acquisitions analyst, or an analyst job with a brokerage. I feel like I have a pretty decent resume but I can't even get a god damn interview. I would like to make at least 40k. anyone hiring a real estate analyst?

You’re trolling right (with regards to being unable to get a single interview for a 40k job).

Array
 
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My limitation of not having my “dream” career is more of a physical and being too late to the game thing, rather than unable to laterally move. 
 

I’m a software engineer but I’d love to be an F1 driver and/ or Rally driver. I’m too tall, too big, and haven’t been racing since childhood. But man it would be so fun to take things to the extreme like that. I do want to eventually get a WRX and tune the hell out of it and do it for fun, but I’ve accepted I wouldn’t be competitive at that high level. 
 

If I could lateral to that and magically gain the skills, I’d take a 80% pay cut for a short term if I could work my way up to earning what they earn (which is way more than I make now if you’re Lewis Hamilton or similar). If I stayed at a level, I’d maybe take a 40% pay cut

“The three most harmful addictions are heroin, carbohydrates, and a monthly salary.” - Nassim Taleb
 

I see a job as a means to make money and nothing more. Finance has one of the best wages when you adjust for risk and education requirements. So no, but maybe later on I would choose a super easy/chill job in finance for a pay cut (idk what those would be yet).

Array
 

I would love to be able to freelance. I travelled throughout Latin America and met a lot of people who didn't make that much money, but they were able to live really well (very nice apt, restaurants, fun things, etc). I think they were only making around 40k a year too. But I met one dude, Canadian who could speak fluent Spanish, who couldn't get any gigs for a while and drained his savings and literally started selling hard drugs to tourists and probably worked for a cartel. So the lack of guaranteed income is too much of a risk for me. Also 40k is literally nothing. When I'd be done with travelling, I'd come back to the States with no savings and a resume not conducive to a career.

I'd like to get enough passive income to be relatively comfortable, and I plan on investing half of my bonuses on real estate, but that'll take a long time to accumulate and for the 15 yr mortgages to be paid off

 

Just teach some yoga classes after work, tons of girls and if you're a banker maybe it will help with the stress.

 
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Agree is sounds like you might like development better from what I've heard. Although if you want to feel better about not having studied architecture in school, go over to the archinect.com forums on compensation. It's crazy how low comp is in that field for most people.

Every once in a while I waffle between interest in design/arch and interest in the deal side. Currently thinking stay on the deal side and save up cash and eventually do some interesting design stuff on the side. Maybe design a house one day, do some high-end flips in partnership with an architect and really immerse myself at that point. Ultimately  the people that have the MOST fun in this industry are the ones with the cash calling the shots.

 
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This is what I've thought after working in RE too, I'm trying to pursue a masters in urban planning and tie that into development or some other kind of mix between finance/planning (maybe P3s or something like that). Other countries have national infrastructure banks, in the US it's much less centralized but similar opportunities to that would be very interesting.

Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.
 
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I don’t think I’ll switch out of CRE anytime soon. I really do like the field. But I really find theology, philosophy and literature interesting. I guess there is nothing stopping me from making a YouTube channel or a blog where I can discuss these topics, debate, etc and have my own little platform but I don’t know enough yet and I worry about how it will be perceived by people in my “day job.”

 

Aut ut minima ipsa commodi. Eos et qui est laboriosam aliquam est quasi. Ut nihil ut impedit. Enim dolorem architecto aut dolores. Nostrum et sint eligendi nisi in est perferendis.

Aperiam dolores deleniti tenetur quod quam deserunt. Quo est maiores maiores non.

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Quant (ˈkwänt) n: An expert, someone who knows more and more about less and less until they know everything about nothing.

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