What If Your Dream Job Doesn’t Pay Enough to Support You?
You’ve worked your entire life for this. You may have known immediately when you were a kid what you wanted to be when you grew up. Or maybe it took you a little longer to find out your true passions until you reached high school or even college.
No matter the exact timeframe, you finally found your dream job. It’s everything you could’ve hoped for and more. Except, there’s just one problem. The pay isn’t exactly ideal. You love everything about the role, responsibilities, and company, but your job is also your livelihood. It’s what’s supposed to help you pay for your basic life essentials like your house and food.
You want to make this work, but you’re not sure if it’s possible. You don’t want to just turn down your dream job over something like pay. It’s never been about the money for you, but you also need to make sure that you’re making enough to live.
Here’s what to do if your dream job doesn’t pay enough to support you.
Determine Your Needs
If you’ve finally found your dream job, but the offer wasn’t exactly where you thought it would be, don’t lose hope just yet. Happiness doesn’t come from a salary. Sure, you may need money to live, but if you can figure out how to take a pay cut for your dream job, it could end up working out for you in the long run.
One of the best places to start is to take a look at your current expenses. Figure out what you’re spending on rent, food, gas, and more. Try to determine if there’s anything that you can cut out of your current spending to save money and make the dream job work out for you. You may have to make some sacrifices for a bit, but it could end up paying out in the end.
Pick Up a Side Hustle
There’s nothing wrong with picking up a side hustle to fill the gap in salary from your previous job to finding your dream job. Find or create a side hustle to be a supplement to the salary you’re making in your full-time role. Take a look at your passions, interests, and hobbies. You could pick up contract work helping a company with social media. If you’re crafty, you could try selling some handmade items on Etsy. Or maybe you can find a side hustle that can help you grow and develop in your current role.
Work on Yourself
Dedicate some more time to yourself, your goals, and your personal development. Work with your boss on finetuning your Objectives and Key Results so that you can work to meet and exceed your goals. Keep a list of the things you’re doing well, the compliments you’re receiving, and the improvements you’ve made while in your role. When it’s time for reviews, you’ll be set up for success in getting a promotion or a pay raise.
Seek Additional Support
It can be easy to fall into a negative head space when you finally find your dream job and you receive an offer for it only to find out that the pay isn’t where you need to be. There are a lot of factors that should be considered and it can be a lot for one person to deal with. Luckily for you, we don’t expect you to have all of the answers. You shouldn’t expect that out of yourself either. Working with a licensed and trained mental health professional or a Executive Coach can help you determine the next steps for a life change like this one. Contact me today to set up a consultation.