Reasons why you should never Choose a Career Based on Salary Potential alone
It seems simple when you are looking at the classified advertisements in the newspaper looking for work; you go for the job with the highest salary, except nothing in life or work is simple. There are many reasons why you should base your job choice on other things besides salary alone.
A job with an astronomical salary may seem more attractive than one with a lower salary. The fringe benefits and bonuses may be better in the lower salary job and less or non-existent in the higher salaried job. The monetary value of the fringe benefits, bonuses and perquisites when added to the salary in the lower paid job may actually exceed that in the high salaried job. It is worth looking behind the headline salary figure to determine the true worth of the employment offer.
Another reason not to choose a career based on salary potential alone is because the industry’s or the company’s ethic make you uncomfortable or compromise your own morals. The firm’s or industry’s business is not in line with your standards of right and wrong, e.g. most people could never work in an industry or company that made torture instruments or arms, or perhaps accepted business practice in the company is immoral in some way. Either way you would not be happy in such a career and although it has a high salary, you will be far happier in another company or industry where the pay is lower but you can live with yourself because you are not contributing to behaviour that you feel is reprehensible.
Job satisfaction is extremely important when you are choosing your career. Some people are temperamentally unsuited or just not interested in particular types of work. If you adore the outdoors life, you will not be happy being a stockbroker or a financier no matter that the salaries for both jobs are extremely high. You will hate being cooped up indoors for all your working life and always hanker to be in the countryside rather than the city. This means that you will not be able to give of your best at work and sour your temperament.
Family considerations are another reason why you should never choose a career based on salary potential alone. Some careers involve sacrifices by the family not just the employee. Some careers may require the family to move abroad, to the other end of the country or perhaps moving every few years causing the whole family to have an unsettled life. The pay may be high but could you cope with uprooting your spouse and children and taking them away from everything they know, especially if you had to do so every few years.
Another thing to consider when trying deciding which job is right for you is how far the workplace is away from your home and how much travel expenses are likely to be. You can easily count expenses in monetary terms, but you should also weigh up the time that it would take you to commute and the number of hours you will be away from your family and how tired it will make you. It may not seem very much when you look at it as a daily time but you should think that you would be commuting for more than one day and consider how much family time it removes from a year.
Too long a commute may require you working away during the week or spending long periods away from home thus putting a strain on your family and your marriage.
The high salaried job could be a dead end job from which you cannot advance. Taking a less well-paid job may bring more benefits in the end.
Salary is only one consideration when deciding on a job or career. You should consider other important factors in your decision-making and they are as important as how high the salary potential for the particular job.
