Need input for career change

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DannyO

New member
Hello all. I have come to the cross roads and I'm seeking advise/personal experience on a job change.

I am 28 years old, married and have one child. I have been working on becoming a Police Officer for the last 4 years. During that time I got a job with a local computer company. Things worked out better than I expected there and after 3 years I have stock options, great 401k and benifits that are out of this world.

Now comes the problem. I got a call for a Police job on a one of the largest departments in the state. The pay is decent but no where near the computer company. They do not offer stock options etc.. My question is to the LEO's out there. I have talked to many officers and I'm getting mixed signals. Some say I'm crazy to leave a 1st shift job with all those bennies to go to a 3rd shift job with no bennies. But then others say money isn't everything and I should take a job that I am interested in.

Has anyone else been through this? I am killing myself trying to figure out what to do. I think I would love Police work but if I stay with this computer company I could build my dream house in 5 years and pay for it in CASH. Is it worth giving up my dream for a life? I would like to see my wife and son once in a while. Any input would be greatly appreciated.


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"Some people spend an entire liftime wondering if they made a difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi
 
Dude, your 28.
Don't give up on your dream for cash. Never.
OTOH, 5 years aint sh!t, I personally would have no problem DELAYING my dream for that kind of security. IMHO, you owe it to your family.
Start going to college and get a C.J. degree....then use your computer skills in the force to be an electronic forensics tech.
I do computer security for a living, and trust me, we weill need all the computer savy cops we can get in the indefinite future!
 
The way I see it, I work for money. Not for the thrill or the glory of doing the work, but for the money. That's the bottom line.

If I were doing it, I'd go for the money, pay the house off and then enjoy your new found financial freedom with no mortgage payment.
THEN I'd go for the police job if that is still what you want to do. The pressure of changing careers won't be as severe once you have cut your financial liability by not having that house payment.

My two cents.
 
Well, a few weeks ago, I posted the thread Help with a decision. I made the decision to change careers. Finally, I had the chance work with software daily. Everything seemed so perfect.
Then reality kicked in, I was commuting 2 hours to Philly and 2 hours back 3-4 times a week. My normal 8-10 hour day turned to 12-16. After a week of this, I realized that the driving and constant "crisis control" turned me very sour. Instead of spending time developing software, I was mending customer relations and basically doing management's job.

Instead of being strictly a developer, I became sales & marketing, programmer, network guru, and eveything else that needed help. This was fine and all but the fact of driving 4 hours a day was no fun.

After a discussion with my old company, I decided to go back to my former place of employment. However, my position changed. From managing the Applications & Systems Engineering Dept. I go to the the Materials & Physics dept. New title is Senior Physicist. Work definitely is much more challenging. There's so much I have to catch up on. However, I did receive a pay increase, same benefits and NORMAL work hours with a 10 minute drive to work.

The grass appeared greener on the other side. Except I didn't realize that it needed daily watering.

Best of luck to ya on your decision.

[This message has been edited by ArmySon (edited August 24, 2000).]
 
Do you enjoy your computer job? I personally could not stay with a job that I did not enjoy doing. If you enjoy it, then you need to ask yourself which is the better option for your family.
 
I know someone who left a high paying computer job to go into LE, at a higher than local level. Loves it.

For myself, the money's what matters. Have fun with your hobbies - make a living, support your family, and make a life with your job. I'd love to make a six figure income, work 30 hours a week, and have fun too, but that's not happening. Sometimes as a man, you gotta just suck it up. Get fulfillment elsewhere - hobbies, family, church/volunteer work, etc. Unless of course you hate your job so much that it gives you depression, alcoholism, high BP, and puts you in jeapordy of losing your wife & kids, then leave in a minute.
 
Book em Dannyo. Do what your heart dictates. Pay for your house like nearly everyone else does..over 20-30 years. You only get one shot. But on the other hand, not many programmers get shot at,punched, spit on etc. I work with alot of programmers and they seem to be a bitchy bunch in general, while the cops I know, seem to love their work. Good luck.
 
You have to do what will make you happier. We spend too much time at work to be miserable there.
The reserve idea would be a good option or even a reserve military job could help you get some diversity.

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He who dares wins.
NRA Life Memeber
 
DannyO

I would personally get a job at an Irish pub but maybe thats just me. ;) If you have dreams of becoming an officer then do it. In ten years when that computer company is being disbanded due to whatever problem, you are going to kick yourself in the ass for not doing what you really YEARNED to those many years prior. Keep your stock and let it grow. You'll still be able to buy that house in a few years. After you build some seniority you can move to a better shift. Of course you need to think about your family, but don't you think they will support you in any endeavor, you bet they will.
You seem like a smart guy, so go with what will make YOU feel happiest. I know too many unhappy and stressed out people who now know that hindsight is 20/20.
Good luck Boss

Jeepster

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No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

-- Thomas Jefferson, Proposed Virginia Constitution, 1776, Jefferson Papers 344
 
I'm in a similar boat, but not exactly. I'm working in the computer field, but as an AE for a software company. I've been doing this for just over 3 years now, and I'm mighty sick of it, and I'm ready to do something new. Problem is I currently work out of my house, I'm putting very few miles on my vehicles (ride my bike mostly), and I'm making more in this job than I could in just about anything else that I could find in Boise. I hardly travel, too, which is a big bonus. I'm very bored.

My wife tells me to find something new, but it's hard to throw away would probably be at least $20K in salary among other things, especially since we're trying to have kids.

What usually works for me is the ol' list the pros and cons. Money is very important, but so is your sanity. If you're reasonably happy with your job (don't dread going in every morning), I would stick with the computer job. Or you take the cop job, and do computer work on your own time for spare cash and to keep your hat in the game.

Best of luck.
 
DannyO, unless your current job is something you absolutely detest, or the company is going belly-up in the near future, sticking with it is a no-brainer. Asking your family to give up a dream house in just a few years, and having them make other sacrifices, just so you can take a job with worse hours, more danger, and increased stress, with pay and benefits "nowhere near" what you have now, doesn't strike me as being the right thing to do.

I'd move to follow my dream job, too, but there aren't too many openings to provide stud service to supermodels... :D
 
I think a reserve officer position would give you the best of both worlds. You can put as much into it as you want and can afford, but still get the new house.
 
I've worked in LE for almost 2 decades now so I've been there, done that.

Ask yourself: Do I want to work midnights?
Will I enjoy having Tuesday-Wednesday off? Do you mind cancelling the vacation you planned for 4 months because you have to appear in court? Do you enjoy missing family gatherings? How about not being with your kids as they grow up? Can you get used to regularaly being called, "M-F, SoB, A-hole, B***d" among a whole host of other profanities. How about having your name in the press for being a "racist" cop who merely did his job? How about lawfully shooting someone and then the Internal Affairs complaint, Shooting Review Board, Civil Suit (yes, even though the Burning Bush appears as a witness in Court, you will still be sued for it).

Law enforcement is not the glamourous thing the media protrays it to be. It's dealing with the homeless (feces encrusted, urine soaked, lice ridden, scabies infected) and the knowledge you could be bringing something home to your family, the mentally ill, in short, literally the flotsam and jetsam of society. Are you willing to deal with this?

Even if you answer yes to all of those questions, ask yourself how this impacts your marriage and family. Can she handle you being on a different shift and hardly ever seeing her? How about the different days off when she wants to go somewhere on the weekend and you have to work? It is not without reason that cops have a high rate of divorce.

Can your wife get use to the idea of you not coming home one night? Can she handle being a widow if you get killed?

I've only raised some things which you should ask yourself and your decision should be done in consultation with your wife. Your happiness as a couple depends on it.
 
I will have to look into the reserve option. The computer company is nice. Easy work. Great hours. Unlimited over time. BUT. It's not very fun. It's actually quite boring. I don't like sitting at a desk.
One of my main concerns is the fact that computer companies get bought out and taken over on a daily basis. What is to say this won't happen here? Then again if I stay and things go well I'm on easy street. :mad:

Keep the suggestions coming. Someone told me to write out a pro/con list and go from there. My wife refuses to help me because she doesn't want to feel responsible when I'm hating the world in 5 years because I made the wrong choice.

What would Chesty Puller do????

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"Some people spend an entire liftime wondering if they made a difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi
 
Gary,
Great points. These are the things I was looking for. Well the name calling and spitting etc I can and have handled. We got married while I was in the Marines and she only saw me every two weeks or so. That was a good 6 years ago though. Times are different. My commute for the Police job would be over an hour, without traffic. I would be in a high crime area. I would like to see my son grow up. My dad worked in the city and left at 5 am and returned about 9 pm. I didn't like that at all.
This is not getting any easier. :confused:

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"Some people spend an entire liftime wondering if they made a difference. Marines don't have that problem."
Semper Fi
 
My career in LE barely got started (I was still in the acadamey doing security work on the side to pay the bills) when I got stabbed, lost half of my large intestine and was no longer physically fit enought to do all of the duties required of a LEO. This happened while I was doing security work but it can just as easily happen while working as a LEO.

Ask yourself how you would deal with a permanate disability. While a serious injury can happen to anyone at any time, certain professions have a higher chance of it happening to their members. How would you handle it if you have to become dependent on your family instead of them being dependent on you? These are all questions that you all have to consider.

I'm not trying to talk you out of it because I frequently regret not being able to follow my "dream" but because of what happened to me, I want to give you a few other things to think about. Regards, FUD.
 
FUD has great points.

Ask your family.

Do you want a job where there is a significant risk that your wife and child will be told you are dead? Do you want them to think of this every shift?


Read the classic Deadly Force Encounters.
Watch Surviving Edged Weapons.

Study the downside as well as the romance and adventure.
 
Gary, you make excellent points. The pitfalls of LE work are well documented, and I could have made them myself, but coming from you they have a lot more impact. I feel very bad discouraging someone from following this path, because military, LE, CO, EMT/fire, are people I have utmost respect and thanks for, but it's a tough road and you need to go in with both eyes open.

I too am a bored programmer, and I think I would love forensic or ballistic research type stuff, should the opportunity arise.
 
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