Javelin
MegaDork
12/13/13 6:48 p.m.
Most of you know I was laid off earlier this year after 3 years as a Vocational Counselor (a mostly boring and very confusing to explain job, basically I claims managed worker's comp stuff and sent disabled people to school). I pretty much got hired right away at a place I interned at back in college (steel service center). They had me do a little bit of everything (cold calls, outside sales, inside sales, safety, inventory, etc).
Long story short, they really didn't want to commit to anything (the Sales Manager is a total Fogger Jr) and I could smell the writing on the wall when they kept punting on making me a permanent employee. So I put my resume back out there and immediately snagged an interview at DSHS (Welfare office basically). I also had an interview with the VA on Tuesday, but DSHS made me an offer today to start Monday, so I took it. It's a 2.5 mile commute!
The pay is going to be a pretty substantial drop for the first 6 months while I go through some training, but not anything I have to rebudget for. I think I will be a LOT happier at DSHS though. Not only are the benefits much better (state employee), but the work will actually mean something. It's also very similar to what I used to do, and utilizes my degree and specialized certificates. SWMBO is happy, too. Bonus stuff, too. After 6 months I basically step back up to what I was making as a VRC, and 9 months after that I'll be pretty much back up to what I was making now.
TL:DR - I took a $10K a year pay cut to a real job at a real place and have personal happiness again.
mndsm
UltimaDork
12/13/13 6:50 p.m.
Dude, 10k loss is worth that commute!
It's a growth industry. Job security at least until we're out of this Greater Depression in about ten years.
wbjones
PowerDork
12/13/13 7:46 p.m.
fantabulas ….. Merry Christmas
10k is cheap if it buys you happiness and you don't have to make massive budget cuts to accommodate the drop in income.
Congrats!
JoeyM
Mod Squad
12/14/13 7:54 a.m.
happiness is a valuable commodity
Just the commute difference will be huge. I went from being 50 miles away from work to 2 miles. Those 2 extra hours you get that aren't spent driving are great. More time with family/friends/projects/GRM/GGA thread/etc. 
Good for you, in the long run, I think you did the right thing. Being happy is worth a lot
Ian F
UltimaDork
12/14/13 8:44 a.m.
Oh hell yeah... I'd take a $10K pay cut for a 2.5 mile commute... of course, my current commute is ~48 miles (each way).
Good luck! Hopefully it works out. If I can offer any warning I've learned from friends who have or do work for the state/city/etc: public jobs often have bizarre-stupid office politics - be aware.
Yes, happiness usually does outweigh compensation.
Last year, Mrs RMD left a job of nine years, and took a slight pay cut. She works a few more hours per week, as well. However, the PITA that was photo processing at Walgreen's, and dealing with shiny happy people, is no longer part of her life. Now, she makes people happy, and has fun at her job, dealing with motorcycles (a GRM member, FSP_ZX2, helped her get the job, BTW).
I took a 18k pay cut to get my life back, worked for a little while but lately not so much.
Sounds like an excellent deal to me. Congrats.
Well happiness is apparently overrated. The department overestimated their budget and tried to slip me in for 2013 but HR said no, so guess who's back on the market?
Berk me. 
mndsm
UltimaDork
1/14/14 9:05 a.m.
WOW..... you just can't catch a break.
Eh, I'm taking it as a sign that it's time to leave this podunk town. SWMBO's job is going to have issues next school year, too, so the timing is right for both of us. We need to be gone before mini-Jav hits school anyway.
