I've been busy lately because I just received another promotion to a higher grade and am in the process of going through training. Because of this promotion, I turned down a life scientist job offer, but that would have been an awesome job to have if I had been willing to take a pay cut. I'm fortunate to be financially comfortable with this historically high inflation. A lot of people have to work two, three, or even four jobs these days. I'm so glad I didn't flunk out of three online EdD programs and ended up working at low-paying, podunk state universities. Some people are jealous of those who went the extra mile and graduated from schools with good reputations and are receiving the rewards. Their shade is cover for their own insecurities over their mediocre careers.
I also got contacted on LinkedIn for a post-doc, clinical trial manager position that would have paid upwards of $150k. But the economy is kind of iffy, and I didn't want to take the chance of leaving the government. I will say that switching to science was the best decision I made!
Money is not everything and I learned early in my career that it's very important to have good balance in life between work and home. As I was getting promoted and rewarded financially I had to learn how to adjust and not get consumed completely by work. I have friends who climbed the ranks and lost the control of personal life, family life and raising children. Also lost some professional skills etc.
I don't stay in jobs I hate. I've lectured in classrooms and spent much of my time doing academic research as a doctoral research assistant. I prefer being a full-time practitioner and conducting applied research. Now that K-12 and higher education have become highly political and tenure is being threatened, I'm even more thankful that I didn't go that route. People are leaving education in droves because of the stress and low pay. The skills you need depend on what you're doing at the moment. If you're a frontline employee, then you need the skills to do that job. If you're in management, then management and leadership skills become more important. If you go into academia full-time, your practitioner skills will become rusty, but you'll be utilizing other skills, such as research, teaching, and mentoring. So, I'm not quite sure what is meant by losing professional skills. https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/07/22/survey-more-half-higher-ed-workers-plan-leave
Back when I was working low-paying, stressful jobs in criminal justice, social services, and behavioral health, I would volunteer to work overtime because I was living paycheck to paycheck. I couldn't afford to travel anywhere for vacations if I could even take vacation time. Sometimes, I would take on a second job on top of working overtime, which further messed up a work/life balance. Something as simple as needing a car repair or new tires would set me back. Yeah, I'd rather make more money working fewer hours.
This is so true. A lot of people become slaves to money. I am enjoying the work-life balance I have in my tenure-track position at an R2 university. I make over 130k (FT position plus adjunct), and I still get to travel a lot (my passion). I will visit 6 countries between this week and mid-January. I continue to be productive in my research. I guess it pays to be single with no kids
My youngest son realized his passion and became HS Teacher. He has about 160 students with 40 being special assisted learning with modified programs. The pay is upper 50s K per year. he earned BA and M.Ed degrees and teachers certification to teach in public school. Lesson planning, grading, updating materials, and writing letters of recommendation consume his time completely. He works after work hours at home and on the weekends. Almost no time left for personal life. :-( Was going to reuse some materials from previous years only to get new grade levels to teach. He is really good, students and parents, admins at school recognize him and from what I hear he is going to become youngest department chair next school year. It's taking toll on his personal life, but he feels this is his calling. He is in professional counseling and I'm helping him with many house hold related issues. And his older brother is an attorney who is making good living with normal work schedule, family life etc. He looks at me, unlike when he was born and I worked 2 jobs that year, he sees me working normal hours, so are his cousins, and friends making good living and good balance work/life. Any advise?
Two possibilities: (1) Get him a job where YOU work - sounds like a good place. (2) See if he can get a teaching job in Canada. Experienced HS teachers here can get up to twice what he's making. And he won't have to fork out hundreds of dollars a month for health insurance. In fact, he won't have to fork out anything for that. And with our gun control, there's negligible worry about catching a stray bullet. This, from 2020: The average Ontario high school teacher (@osstf) earns $103,926/year (salary + benefits), the Canadian Taxpayers Federation has learned through a freedom of information request. In Toronto specifically, the TDSB reported the average compensation for a secondary school teacher in 2018-2019 to be $108,804 with benefits. But, it's important to keep in mind that teachers' benefits can often account for upwards of $12,000, meaning that while total compensation may be more than $100,000, actual salaries before tax may hover somewhere closer to $90,000, on average.
The lion's share of those "benefits" that teachers pay for, where I live, are mandatory contributions to the Teachers' Pension Fund. The pension scheme is very good indeed - definitely one of the best. I think teachers here can retire on full pension after 30 years and can officially retire a few years before that, if they wish, and receive less. Between 60-70 (time of their choice - once they are retired) they will also receive the Canada Pension, which all workers are required to pay into from payroll. The maximum on that, if a 65-year-old began drawing it today, is $1,306 per month. Old age pension, which does not require contributions, is $700+ per month. If your world-wide annual net income is over $142K per year - you won't get Old Age pension. So - all in all, retired teachers here do OK, I think.
Passion alone is not good for me. I remember only making 42k in my (3rd) final year of high school teaching. I did more work as a high school teacher than being an FT faculty and adjunct hoe (as one of my colleagues calls me). I can't think of a day when I work up to 8 hours (a few hours a day is all it takes). I spend most of my time grading or posting announcements. I understand why people are so jealous of remote workers. But for me, I don't think it should be about the time spent but the outcome. My full-time position pays enough for me to live comfortably. I have no car payments and no credit card debt. I have minimal student loans (lower than many bachelor's degree holders and lifelong ABDs), which I could wipe out easily. But, I decided to invest and save more than rush to pay off a small-interest loan. The rates of return on retirement plans are more attractive. Thankfully, all 3 of my adjunct gigs offer optional 403b plans. So, I take advantage of those. I will retire early - maybe in my mid or late 40s, lol.
When people pursue a lower paying passion, it's good to keep debt low. Unfortunately, not everyone has proper guidance coming out of high school, and even a lot of adults don't think about crushing debt when pursuing graduate education. The PhD program I transferred credits from paid me to attend, plus I received state grants because it was a public university. Even when I left the funded assistantship to work full-time, the tuition was so low (less than $500 per semester), I paid for it out of pocket. That minimized debt, and the total tuition I had to pay was cheaper than the cheapest online RA doctoral programs. I don't know if you're American, but I've learned that some other cultures think that Americans are weird for connecting their identities to their careers and education. Younger people are starting to see jobs as simply a means to fund the activities and items they enjoy in leisure. I work remotely 90% of the time, which means fewer hours stuck in traffic or using public transportation. Of course, you don't want to hate your job, but your job shouldn't be the sole thing giving you meaning in life. A lot of Millennials are also realizing that they don't need kids either to feel like their life has meaning. My only responsibility is my pet, lol. I did make the mistake of attending two for-profit colleges after high school, and my goal was to become a high school teacher. Fortunately, the Biden administration wiped out the debt from both for-profit universities.
I helped my son, also he had scholarships, so he has "0" debt. All our kids debt free. He loves his job, and trying to figure this out, he is working with teachers who have family life, he is young a new teacher that is trying to figure things out. I'm an immigrant, the kids were born in the USA. I work remotely 100%
