Job Satisfaction vs. a Big Paycheck (NYT)

<p>Well, this one is interesting: <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/jobs/12search.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/jobs/12search.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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<p>An interesting reading, indeed.
I would make an analogy. When you were young, you want to own a beautiful and powerful computer. You browse through the entire catalog and there are thousands of them. But you only have $1000 to spend. You have no idea what to do? More RAM? More CPU power? Better HDD performance? Or better Graphic card power?</p>

<p>When you know computers well, and you grew older, you realize you can choose a mid-range computer around $500 - $600 and will be just enough for a few years, 5-7 years. Better yet, customize it yourself. Get an SSD and okay CPU. Sometime promotion codes will get 10-20% off. </p>

<p>This analogy says a lot about how people see money. The 1000 dollars symbolizes your time. We can’t tell how long we will live with certainty. There is 24 hours a day, 7 days per week, 365 days per year. But the first 25 years of our life are used to pursue education and hope to graduate from a college. The next 40 years we are so busy with work and family on the side. The remaining years will be traveling around the world and see the grandchildren.</p>

<p>But that’s just a hope. We don’t know. </p>

<p>So what if you are a billionaire? If you have a strong conscience like me, you will worry about money and feelings of others. </p>

<p>The mid-range computer is just enough for every day computing: youtube, google, movie, facebook, and sometime gaming. However, we will continue to whim about getting a better computer once in a while, just like we whim about our mid-range salary, and wished to become a billionaire.</p>

<p>If you are so consciences like me, you realize your wife won’t be happy because she would love to be employed too. But she can’t because you are a billionaire, and she cannot work for anyone else, except for you. Business is still business, no one would hire a billionaire’s wife in business world. They are afraid of spy, and conflict. Your wife can work in some non-profit organization if she wants. </p>

<p>But then again, she won’t be so happy and you won’t be happy either. </p>

<p>You realize money is evil. It provides some conveniences, but it also brings in problems. But we all hoped to become a billionaire, and retire at age 30 if you are a billionaire like Mark Zuckerberg. </p>

<p>When you browse through the catalog again, you find being a mid-range is really comfortable. Maybe not all the time, but you enjoy more. You will have a family that potentially can last forever (if you and your other half truly love each other).</p>

<p>Job Satisfaction or Big paycheck? If you are an engineer, you probably will have a big paycheck in a way. So which way to go? You can only make so much money in life time if you choose a mid-range computer, and not the most powerful one. But then you realize, when you have a family, you have to pull your teeth to secure the family too. Is it better to earn good money and sacrifice your personal life (and I meant family?) That’s debatable.</p>

<p>The law of diminishing marginal utility probably holds true here. Each additional dollar in salary adds a decreasing amount of quality to your life.</p>

<p>As an engineer, your pay is good enough (most of the time) to reject additional money when it will affect family/social life. Not just myself, but I know others who have turned down more money because of things like commuting times, too many working hours, not wanting to be “on call” during off hours and maybe feeling that extra responsibility was not worth the extra money (like turning down more managerial positions).</p>

<p>Another thing to think about is that after all the taxes and social security is taken from your gross paycheck, your net is only 60-66% of your gross. Sometimes, that “extra” may not be worth it.</p>