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Should I just quit my job?

Huan Dao

Huan Dao

Joined
6/29/10
Messages
63
Points
18
Let me explain my situation first, I graduated in 2010 with an EE major, and now working for a semiconductor manufacturing company, because I took a scholarship from the company during my junior year in college, so now I have a 2 years bond with the company, so roughly I have to work for them about one more year.
The problem is I hate my job so much, and have to work 13 hours per day only makes thing worse, and the salary is not at all high.
Now I'm thinking about joining a research institute for a C++ progamming job, while applying for MFE next year, the cons is that I have to pay back the company roughly 10k USD. Should I just suck it up and quit the company? the pros and cons is:

Pros: +Doing the job that I like.
+C++ progamming experience will be valuable for my MFE.
+Don't have to pull crazy hours for a dead-end job for 1 more year.
Cons: Lost of 10K USD, but I'm only 22 and have plenty of time to earn the money back.

So what's your take on this? :)
 
I was always told if you do not enjoy what you do, then you should leave. But, you are still young and working for one more year is just more experience. In this job market, wouldn't making money be better than not making anything at all? Also, breaking a bond can turn bad if you require a recommendation letter.
 
@rajanS: Of course I'll get a new job before quitting this current job, and speaking of recommendation letter, I'm planning to apply for job at some research institutes, I believe that recommendation letters from researchers with Ph.D is better than others.
 
Jacksc said:
Let me explain my situation first, I graduated in 2010 with an EE major, and now working for a semiconductor manufacturing company, because I took a scholarship from the company during my junior year in college, so now I have a 2 years bond with the company, so roughly I have to work for them about one more year.
The problem is I hate my job so much, and have to work 13 hours per day only makes thing worse, and the salary is not at all high.
Now I'm thinking about joining a research institute for a C++ progamming job, while applying for MFE next year, the cons is that I have to pay back the company roughly 10k USD. Should I just suck it up and quit the company? the pros and cons is:

Pros: +Doing the job that I like.
+C++ progamming experience will be valuable for my MFE.
+Don't have to pull crazy hours for a dead-end job for 1 more year.
Cons: Lost of 10K USD, but I'm only 22 and have plenty of time to earn the money back.

So what's your take on this? :)
Click to expand...

Hi Jack,

Are you SURE the C++ job is yours for the taking?
What is the total difference in income when you take into account the 10K + salary difference over the whole year?

You must be sure that the research job is truly a good job and not just some title, don't get blinded by the fancy title "researchers".

Regards,
Ohad.
 
Hi,
I don't know the reason why you hate your job but generally if you hate what you do it's better you find something else. But then again, you know you are going to quit in 1 year.
If I were you, I would quit if
  • I got the other job (research)
  • I don't think I am learning anything new in this current job
In many corporate, you do also learn soft-skills (how to present stuff, how to deal with coworkers, explain your thoughts and pursuade others into your thinking, communication skills, how to suck up to your manager, how to look like that you are doing much more than you are actually doing, and so on). However, if you don't think you are not learning these softskills either, I would say there is no point of time wasting your precious (no sarcasm intended) 1 year. If you are rich, I would say just quit the job and start looking for other job full-time, but if you are like most of us, then yeah, get the other job, then quit.

Don't worry about breaking a bond. It's not like it will follow you wherever you go. You are paying back the money, so that's fine. 10K is nothing compared to what you will go through for another year doing what you hate and learning nothing, especially people like you who is thinking about going back to school with much higher tuition.

My 2 cents are based on the assumption that you hate your job mainly because you don't like what you are doing but not because of the long hours nor so-so salary.
 
Jacksc said:
The problem is I hate my job so much, and have to work 13 hours per day only makes thing worse, and the salary is not at all high.
Click to expand...
There are people working in finance who can say exactly the same thing.
Depends on the roles, you may work a lot of hours. Investment banking analysts (spreadsheet monkeys) will be working 100 hours/a week or more.
You may make more than your current job but when you look around, you will think everyone is making more than you. It's all relative.
Surely, you wouldn't had taken the scholarship if you knew how much you hate your current job. How sure you are about not making the same mistake twice?

$10K is a small fraction of first year's salary in finance so it's not an issue. The long hours and the hatred will stay with you very long if you don't like finance.
 
Thank everyone for your responses, I was naive at that time when thinking that it's cool to work in semiconductor, but now I see it's a new kind of commodity, it's like a race to the bottom, every firm is thriving for the lowest price, and it's not helping either when we have to compete with company from Taiwan or China.
I will consider this carefully and keep everyone update.
 
Jacksc said:
Thank everyone for your responses, I was naive at that time when thinking that it's cool to work in semiconductor, but now I see it's a new kind of commodity, it's like a race to the bottom, every firm is thriving for the lowest price, and it's not helping either when we have to compete with company from Taiwan or China.
I will consider this carefully and keep everyone update.
Click to expand...

LOL, tell me about it...been there done that...working on getting out of it :)
 
marina said:
now you are thinking it is cool to work in quant finance:cool:
Click to expand...
My defense is that during that time I was young and juvenile at best, now I don't make my decision base on how cool things are, plus joing to this forum give me much more information and having much more time to prepare for it, I believe that I'd not make a wrong choice again.
 
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