Work Query - Decision to make

W

Winkie

Registered User
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Hello,

I'm Male, 45, two kids, Mortgage of 200k ish on tracker, investment property rented out and paying majority of mortgage. I work for a SME and my wife is self employed.

Longer term situation is that my wife's family is wealthy and we will inherit assets that will leave us comfortable, kids college and savings are already sorted. (Kids 8 + 11).

I work in Sales - not managerial but in key account management. I never had huge salary nor people management experience. I am now on 38K a year for past three years, going to 41K in Sept. Commission structure and company is all over the place and deeply dis-organised which stresses me out. T

The potential for career development is non existent within my current job. I went for a career coaching block of sessions and they were great - I'm being taken advantage of, can do better etc.... so I looked at a few sales roles and got on well in interviews but they either paid the same (sideways move) or required management experience (have none but work well in my team) or they require a commute to Dublin (I live 1.5 hours south of Dublin) so that will affect my work life balance.

I don't know what to do next career-wise - my wife says just relax and do the minimum (everyone else does so in my company with little reward so there is a culture of just doing minimum) and enjoy life knowing that we are financially well off in the long term but I am so pissed off at lack of progress, fairness and as I see it my inability to progress.

Do I: 1. stay and learn to let it wash over me, 2. challenge for more money or 3. go and retrain in tech or data or IT and earn more?

Thank you to anyone who has read thus far and can offer advice.
 
Don't know what industry you work in, but i'm on similar money but vastly different work.
There's a bit of a glass ceiling at this pay level. You're just gone into the higher tax band by a tiny amount and some businesses don't like paying a tiny bit of extra tax for you.
 
What do you want to do? What are you interested in? Take money out of it for the moment and just decide based on what you would like to do. Then look at financial implications.
 
Sales must be a highly transferable job i'd imagine. If you're good at selling one item you should be good at selling anything.
 
If a sideways move allowed you to gain that management experience it may pave the way for more responsibility in a short enough time frame.

Sitting back and doing the minimum isn't for everyone and can have a serious effect on your job satisfaction and overall mental health.
 
RichInSpirit said:
Sales must be a highly transferable job i'd imagine. If you're good at selling one item you should be good at selling anything.
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It depends on the type of sales you are in. If it is a technical sales role you are often working as a sort of design engineer who designs a solution and then sells it to the customer. That can be in IT or engineering. I suppose selling carpet and selling sofas is similar but if you are selling cars you'd have to know about cars etc.

Winkie, if you were happy sitting back and doing the minimum you wouldn't have started this thread. Your job is about more than money; it is often a big part of how we value ourselves as people (rightly or wrongly).
 
if you didnt have the safety net of the planned for inheritance what would you do? if you want to make progress you would need to be doing it quickly no managerial experience in your mid 40s isnt going to attract a lot of employers so you need to try and find a role with managerial responsibilities if you want to progress. Also forget about the being taken advantage of stuff you got in your coaching sessions, no one is forcing you to work where you work, so you take responsibility for still being there.
 
Sideways move with potential growth in the future would be my path. I'd even take a small drop if longer term it meant promotion and a better quality employment.
 
I have empathy with this situation. Outside of the main cities - Dub, Cork, Galway (possibly Limerick) there are very few good private jobs. When you get get one of these jobs and want to progress, you have no bargaining power with your employer because they know there are very few opportunities to move job in the area. If you have a family/house etc you are very unlikely to move. This generally results in very low wages and no promotion opportunities. Cynically, to placate staff, some employers will give a promotion in title only and no/little wage increase.
This results in staff switching off and we have the office situation described here with this ambitious person stuck in the middle.

In the town I live any time I see an announcement of new jobs as companies cost cutting. Some companies have set up satellite offices in the town with HQ in already Dublin. They offer radically lower salary scales here. Then over 5-7 years they hollow out their workforce in Dublin and ramp up here. One of the workers in the Dublin office said 'I always thought I'd lose my job to Bangalore' I never thought I'd lose it to (put regional Irish town name here!)'.

Back to the OP's situation it's tough to break out of this.
Options:
1) Sales job that requires minimal presence in Dublin office (e.g. 1 day a week) - but you will be on Dublin wages and promotional opportunities - Cons - you're more likely to be on the road a lot and if you want to progress eventually you're going to be pulled into Dublin HQ. But at that stage you may be able to switch to bigger regional player.
2) Set up on your own - and I don't say that likely. You are in a different situation that money isnt a primary/top motivation. You need something to satiate your ambition. So have a good think about it and find something that is a good fit.
3) look for short term contracts - These may be in sales or not. Some employers who need to have someone in a role immediately and are only signing a short term contract will overlook that you CV doesn't exactly meet what they're looking for. Get a few of these under your belt, get different experience and beef up your CV and then will be able to attract different employer's attentions for permanent contracts again.
 
Don't over rely on a forum like this but do rely on the outputs of a coaching session, you benefited previously from coaching which is an area I have some experience in, revisit your business coach and work through this, I believe you will gain the necessary clarity to come to a decision that you can live with.
 
Palerider said:
Don't over rely on a forum like this but do rely on the outputs of a coaching session, you benefited previously from coaching which is an area I have some experience in, revisit your business coach and work through this, I believe you will gain the necessary clarity to come to a decision that you can live with.
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Any career coach who said 'You are being taken advantage of' as the OP says is not to be listened to.....
 
Taking a sideways move may proved fruitful in the long run especially if it allows you to gain managerial experience. If you stay where you are you will continue to be miserable. A different role in a new company may be all you need to give you that extra reason to get up in the morning. You are in an ideal position to take a chance given that your future is secure financially so go for it and don't look back.
 
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