Showerthought: I turned down a $5k raise to stay at my current help desk job last month.

The other offer was for a network admin role, but I realized I actually like solving people's immediate tech problems more than managing systems. Has anyone else picked a job they enjoy over a bigger title?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_elizabeth3mo ago

So you like solving the immediate problems more. Was it just the day to day work that made you choose, or was there something about the network admin role that really put you off?

baker.ben3mo agoMost Upvoted

Remember my buddy who took a network admin job right out of school? He spent a whole week just trying to get approval to change a single firewall rule, it was insane. He said it felt like his main job was filling out forms and waiting for emails, not actually fixing anything. Watching him deal with all that red tape totally showed me the parts of IT I didn't want, lol. I'd lose my mind if I couldn't just jump in and solve stuff.

umabailey2mo ago

Yeah, that part about "just jump in and solve stuff" really hit home for me. Honestly, I had a similar choice a few years back between a supervisor job and staying where I was doing the actual work. The supervisor role paid a bit more and sounded good on paper, but I knew I'd hate just delegating and sitting in meetings all day. Tbh, the day to day work is way more important than the title or a few extra bucks. If you're happy solving those immediate problems and it doesn't feel like a grind, you made the right call. Not every step up is actually a step forward for your own sanity.