Jens, Your situation is unique to you, so you are the one who has to make the call. Pay is an important aspect of any job, and in some measure or another, a gauge of success of one's life and life work. Job satisfaction is another important aspect of one's career. Some would say pay is most important. However, in my opinion, job satisfaction is the more important of the two. My reasoning for this is that if you aren't satisfied in the job you have, regardless If it is simple or complex, no amount of money would really make it worthwhile. However, if you are satisfied in your job, and enjoy it, the fact that you earn less money is only a minor setback. There are always raises, both periodic and non periodic. The periodic ones are typically cost of living raises, and virtually everyone on the payroll get them. But the non periodic raises are the ones I tend to aim for. And I have gotten several of them in my career so far. These come from the fact that if you are satisfied with your job, you will tend to work longer or harder or more effectively, and be looking for opportunities to excel. Your superiors will most of the time see this, and realize that you go the extra mile, and to keep you in their employ, as well as reward for a job well done, will issue a non periodic raise. At least in my experience, that is what has happened. So, bottom line from my perspective is weigh the benefit of working where you are satisfied Or where you're not satisfied. Then factor in the loss of the extra income. In other words, based on the information you supplied, is it worth 30% of your current pay to have a job you enjoy doing, and one that you can't wait to get to in the morning versus having extra money from a job that you can't wait until quitting time arrives every day. To me, the choice is simple. I would take the satisfying job earning less pay. But that is me. You have to make your own choice. FYI, I have worked for basically two companies for the last 27 years. Texas Instruments Inc. for 15 years and for Ion Geophysical Inc. for 12. At both of these employers, I have thoroughly enjoyed my job. I worked in Product Engineering at TI and am currently working in R&D Engineering at Ion Geophysical. I can't wait to get to work in the mornings, and I also stay late most days because I choose to, not because I am required to. I like the atmosphere where I work, and I truly like my coworkers. I am a blessed man for having the good fortune of having jobs that I truly love. To me that is the important thing. You just have to decide which is more important to you. Good Luck and Regards, Jim -----Original Message----- From: piclist-bounces@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-bounces@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Jens Konig Sent: Sunday, May 09, 2010 1:50 PM To: piclist@mit.edu Subject: [OT] Job satisfaction or money? Hi all, I can`t say that i`m totally disgusted with my job, i work on my area of expertise (embedded sw and hw developer) but the enviroment and the kind of products i`m working on are not motivational for me. However, at the moment i earn a good pay. These days i receive a invite to come back to work in my old job, wich doesn`t pay so good (actually 70% of my actual salary) but where i used to have a good enviroment of work, where i could develop products with high level of complexity and high aggregate value and have more life quality. I haven't made up my mind at all yet, actually i`m so indecisive that i`m doing a list with advantages and disadvantages of each one. I`m single, live alone, have no kids and i can have support of my parents if I need. One could say that this is the moment to make changes and doing wath is best for me, but money also matters. I would like to know your opinion about this. -- View this message in context: http://old.nabble.com/Job-satisfaction-or-money--tp28504683p28504683.html Sent from the PIC - [OT] mailing list archive at Nabble.com. -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist