created by janus_labs on 17/03/2025 at 17:39 UTC
4 upvotes, 17 top-level comments (showing 17)
Hey men,
A friend and I have been working on something to help people figure out career changes and we’ve realized that job searching in your 30s comes with a whole different set of challenges compared to your 20s: more responsibilities, higher stakes, and less room for trial and error. We're still in our 20s so this is uncharted territory for us lol.
We’d love to hear from you guys; what do you look for when making a career move at this stage? Is it all about salary and stability, or do other factors like work-life balance and long-term growth play a bigger role? Curious to see how perspectives shift with experience.
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Comment by Time_Battle_884 at 17/03/2025 at 17:43 UTC
11 upvotes, 1 direct replies
In my 20s, if I needed to blow everything up, move to a city to find work, couch surf, and starve or otherwise go broke until I found it, that was an acceptable sacrifice to make.
Now that I actually *have* a career and experience in my industry, the prospect of just dropping it to move to a place to start again just becomes that much more horrifying. I'd rather find work in my industry in this or that city, *then* plan the move, because if I do it the other way, I lose all my bargaining power wrt current salary vs. salary offered at the new gig, and gaps in employment start to be way more important than in your 20s.
At 40, with maybe only 20-30 years left in my career, I have that much less time to recover from career mistakes or financial setbacks than I did in my early 20s. And the longer you're without work, even if the reason is "I needed to be [in current city] in order to get interviews and find work", the less 'current' your experience becomes, and the harder it is to find new work in your field.
Comment by CatsCoffeeCurls at 17/03/2025 at 18:07 UTC
3 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was more inclined to job hop, put up with far less, and was fired from more jobs than I care to mention. While I'm still a serial job hopper now in my mid to late 30s, the motivation is to add more to my bottom line faster than I'd get staying in one place too long. I'd say a lot of moves now are more strategic and purposeful when before I was just bored. Still have more than my share of discipline and misconduct issues, but I've been better behaved since I have something to lose nowadays.
I wouldn't be willing to change career paths altogether now (cybersecurity) since my motivation to retrain is pretty low, but there will probably come a time when it's needed in IT.
Comment by BlueMountainDace at 17/03/2025 at 17:52 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
In my 20s I was focused on building a skill that I could get paid for. Took whatever jobs, regardless of pay, that I thought would help me get better and flesh myself out.
In my 30s, now married and with kids, I'm focused on maximizing income while minimizing work. Because I have proven, measurable success with my skill and skills tangential to it, I've moved into more strategic roles where I'm more or less a project manager who has deep understanding in marketing and hires out a lot of the creative pieces of the projects to contractors or other team members.
That is what I want to do because it gives me the most flexibility to be the husband, parent, and community member I'd like to be while also providing for my family.
Comment by AshenCursedOne at 17/03/2025 at 21:51 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Nothing changed much in my requirements, apart from expecting fully remote nowadays. But the market and the recruitment methods have shifted dramatically in my field since 2022. I simply wouldn't risk a job change as readily because it wouldn't be as easy to dip and find another job, if I didn't like the new job. In the past I could secure a job in a few days, but now there's less options and the recruitment processes have become painfully bloated. In the past I could risk taking on a new job knowing that if I hated it I could hand in my short probationary notice, and find another one within a week. I don't think that'd be so simple nowadays.
Another factor is that I am more experienced and therefore more expensive over time, so hiring at my level is getting more sluggish and bureaucracy dense.
As for potential new jobs, I don't believe any company talking about long term growth, it's all bullshit. In the broken job market and attitudes in my field the real promotions always come from switching jobs, I've never had a company offer me a competitive offer to stay when I showed them what the new employer is offering.
Work life balance is easy, I'm working for my contracted hours, I don't care if my employer fails to give me enough work or overcommit their resources, I'm not doing unpaid work or mandatory overtime even if it's paid.
The only things that matter are things the company is offering right now, I'm not taking on a job based on promises and maybes. What is the work environment, tooling, methodology, salary, benefits, role spec, is the bonus scheme solid or nebulous? Did I like the people I talked to, what reputation the company has, are they overly corporate and stiff? Ofc the non negotiable factor is remote work, and more money than I make now.
Comment by mezolithico at 17/03/2025 at 18:21 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
In my 20s and early 30s I focused compensation and IPOs. Now in my late 30s (with a kid and a house), I chase wlb and flexible. I'm done doing 80 hour weeks like in my 20s.
Comment by Mitch_Hunt at 17/03/2025 at 18:32 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I was in the military until I was 27; the first job I went for I got. I became a Union electrical apprentice right out of the military. I was going for pay/benefits/retirement. Now? I just want enough to pay the bills. I don’t care about all the OT, making $$, etc. I want to enjoy my family, and I can’t do that while at work.
Comment by No-Win-2783 at 17/03/2025 at 19:15 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Community colleges and Vo-tech schools offer opportunities. I became a RN after I retired out of The Army. And yes I used The GI Bill.
Comment by TenderOx21 at 17/03/2025 at 19:19 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I work in local government so maybe this only applies to certain fields. However, i’m starting to pay more attention to tenure lengths. I feel like it used to not matter that i changed jobs or city/company every 2 years. Now it’s starting to crowd my resume and I’m trying to avoid the short timer label.
Comment by sonofcroesus at 17/03/2025 at 19:21 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Can't / won't be moving house or city (solid schooling. Partners work). Kinda limited options now, but happily take a salary cut for more flexibility & WFH. Also, no desire to worm my way any further up the ladder and end up doing stuff I don't enjoy, or am not good at.
Comment by Professional-Pea2831 at 17/03/2025 at 21:12 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Just one thing. Distance. Close to my home and kids schooling. I really don't want to lose time.
Comment by Professional-Pea2831 at 17/03/2025 at 22:14 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Also one thing to add. I have massive home loan equity debt while I rent.
Instead of adjusting to the boss, grinding long hours and spending countless hours preparing for the next interview, I am beating oligarchs in their own game. Nothing beats up long term investing in stocks. Yes the first years were more " lucky " with my portfolio, but without taking calculative riskbI would be stuck in corporate world forver. I was working all my 20tish 80 to 120 hours including a job, side hassle and night games of poker. Invested and got help from family.
I work part time, and life has never been better. My spouse works full time, but her job is relax, she effectively work 4 hours per day. Never forget optimise life cost and specially long term mortgage. Mortgage is one side of coin of building wealth. Income is another side. This is why boomers are more happy. They were able to cash out from the corporate world earlier than our generation, and now it has become one big rat race with diminishing returns for personal health and family well being
Comment by Jpaynesae1991 at 17/03/2025 at 22:56 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
As we get older, understanding the responsibility of a role is more important than the title, every company handles titles differently.
So some questions I’d want to know are, is this role a manager of people or an individual contributor
Is this position responsible for a quarterly or yearly budget?
Does the company operate physical locations or is it a digital product.
What industry is it in?
Along the company ladder, what step is this position? (Bottom rung (operational contributor), middle of the ladder (brings operational groups together), several steps from the top? (Executive level))
Among other things, but finding ways to size up the responsibility of the role.
Comment by Bruthar at 18/03/2025 at 00:05 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Don't have any kids or wife, live alone. But do have a costly mortgage and about double the CoL compared to my 20s.
Prior to buying the house, I had enough savings with low enough CoL to survive for half a decade without working or tapping into retirement. Now it's closer to half a year worth of liquid. You can imagine my mentality has shifted a lot as a result.
But at the end of the day, a solid emergency fund relieves some anxieties of job loss. And an income 20%-30% lower wouldn't force me to sell the house or anything. But the sense of desperation (and a higher CoL) would be there if I did have other lives depending on me.
Comment by showersneakers at 18/03/2025 at 01:54 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It’s picking up steam- moving more quickly and want to see where I can take it
Comment by idredd at 18/03/2025 at 11:15 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
lol I work in international relations… so I currently approach those changes pretty differently in that they’ve been involuntary.
Comment by Routine_Mine_3019 at 17/03/2025 at 18:18 UTC
0 upvotes, 2 direct replies
I caution people not to make too many job shifts. If someone hops around and changes jobs every 2 years or so, it is obvious on their resume. As people move up the ladder, employers are looking for someone steady who will stick around for a while.
So if you make a move, be sure it is to a place that has more potential to move up, especially if there is a shot at ownership. Money is part of it, but I'd recommend thinking long-term and not just next week's paycheck.