conversation: User (Burton1922): "Hello everyone, here is my current situation.\n\nI am 24 and currently work as a licensed sales rep at a health insurance company with a base pay of $39,600. With the quarterly and yearly bonuses we receive in sales my total gross pay over the last 3 years has averaged about $55,000. I also have a weekend side job where I make an extra $12,000 per year. I have paid off all my credit card debt over the past year (previously I had a balance of $14,000) and now my only two major payments each month are my student loan at $327 (looking to refinance up to $450 at a much lower interest rate where I would pay them off in 5 years instead of 8) and my car payment of $390. I moved back in with my parents after breaking up with my long term girlfriend but am looking to either rent or buy a home in the near future and live in an area with a very low cost of living and cheap housing.\n\nI have a bachelors degree in accounting and my current manager has known that it was always my intention to get back to the accounting/finance industry at some point as I am generally introverted and prefer not to talk on the phones all day, but have surprised myself at how well I've succeeded in sales regardless. In my current position there is not much room for growth however and my manager spoke with the managers in Finance and they are going to have a position open as a financial analyst (at my same company) and I have an interview next week. It seems like a very good chance that I will receive this position, however my main concern is that while my base pay will be increased up to $50,000, I will lose out on any of the sales bonuses so will actually have a pay decrease. We have achieved our quarterly bonuses every time since I've started but we now have a new director and there seems to be some negative changes coming in my department. For example they used to hire temps each year (how I started) but this year they outsourced them.\n\nI am heavily leaning towards taking this new position if given the choice but I just want to make sure I'm making the right choice by taking a pay cut now to have greater job stability and more career opportunities in the future."
  Self: "if you want to be an accountant you need to figure out what your career path will be. Have you considered doing public for a few years? "
  User (Burton1922): "I have thought about it yes, and also did an internship back in my senior year of college but I really didn't enjoy it that much. You always hear about amount of overtime you'll have to work in the first few years and as I don't have any relevant experience so I'd imagine it would be difficult to find a position near my current salary. In the past I always thought I'd need to make a ton of money to be happy but once I paid off my debt I've found that at my current living standard I'm very happy and for better or for worse have become complacent and haven't been looking too much into other opportunities. It is definitely something I should look more into though so thank you."
  