A $14,000 pay rise

A few weeks ago, I presented my friends on Instagram with a dilemma I was having: to take a higher paying role that is aligned to my career path, or to take a lower paying role that is aligned to my purpose and passion?

The question came with the exciting news that I'd received two job offers:

Option 1:

$12,000 pay rise

No WFH that I knew of

Aligned to my career path (financial services industry)

Permanent

Option 2:

$4000 pay cut

WFH 3 days a week

Aligned to my purpose and passion (humanitarian industry)

Fixed term until January 2022

I then asked in a poll: Would you take a pay cut to do what you truly love, and excites you?

Most people (81%) voted that yes, they would.

I, too, was leaning towards this. It seemed like the intuitive choice: for years, I'd been wanting to break into the humanitarian and non-profit industry. It's something I yearned for. I recall sharing with them in the interview how thrilled I was to be there and how, after years of volunteering for non-profits, I'd love to take on a paid role and actually work in the industry.

Not to mention, I love this charity. They are an international non-profit organisation (most have heard of) who help to transform vulnerable children's lives by fighting injustice and poverty. It's one of the most meaningful companies I could ever imagine working for.

I was out at lunch that day when I received a call from Madison, calling to confirm that I still had the verbal job offer from my other choice - an international financial services company. My recruitment agent reiterated the benefits, and so I asked, 'Can you please let me know if there's any WFH flexibility and also, where the office is?' (Their office location is hidden online.)

When she told me she'd find out, I said, 'Just to be transparent, I've received another job offer, so I'm currently weighing up the pros and cons of both and hope to make a decision soon!'

That afternoon, she came back to me with two pieces of good news: there's 2 days WFH, and the office location is in my favourite North Shore suburb - only 15 minutes drive away. (Compared to a 1 hour drive for the other role!)

But there was more. It seemed she'd told the company that I had another job offer, so they increased their salary offer by $2000 - bringing my potential pay rise up to $14,000.

I was shocked. As if a $12,000 pay rise wasn't a large enough jump already, it's now $14,000? I couldn't believe it!

Meanwhile, the humanitarian charity sent me an email: my official offer of employment.

I spent all of Queen's Birthday weekend deliberating, plus reflecting on what my friends had said:

'If you take the job that pays more you can save up and afford to work part time doing your passion later? But otherwise go paycut if that will make you happy imo!'

'Maybe a permanent role? Save up heaps then go for a life time role which you're more content with.. HOWEVER.. if the 2nd one is what you have been waiting for your whole life... there's your answer.'

'Deffo second option. It just makes more sense for you!! Happy, wfh, what's 4K a year when it comes to your happiness?! either way hun I support you!! Both are great, but more money won't make you happy and fulfilled in your job day to day!'

'I voted happiness but tbh I was torn on that. 12000 is such a big jump!'

On Tuesday, I emailed the humanitarian charity back and wrote, Thank you very much for offering me this role. Though it was a difficult decision, I have accepted a position with another company.

I then told the financial services company that I would like to accept their verbal offer. I'd decided to go with them, and to sponsor a child from the humanitarian charity.

AHHHH!!!!

A little about how amazing this is: this role is based in Wellington. Halfway through my job hunting journey, I'd hit a wall and decided to widen my search to roles in Wellington. I'd be happy to move back to my second home any time, and my husband's company has an office in the Wellington CBD - so it would've been no problem and in fact, an exciting change to move there together.

When I got the job offer for this, my first thought was, YAY!!!

My second thought was, OMG, DOES THIS MEAN I'M MOVING TO WELLINGTON?!

But not only did the company offer me a generous salary, they offered for me to work from their Auckland office, while being part of a team that's in Wellington.

What's more, they offer 4% Kiwisaver employer contributions - instead of the minimum of 3%! To illustrate, on a $65,000 salary, this 1% would make a difference of $650 more per year.

I'm so lucky.

Plot twist: two days later, I received a call from the humanitarian charity - after I'd already thanked them for their offer but said no.

'Hi Sophia, I'm just calling because we have had the exact same role come up - but this time, it's permanent,' they said.

I couldn't believe it. The fact that the role was supposedly fixed term until January 2022 was a huge deciding factor for me. It had been so exhausting searching, applying, studying for interviews, interviewing (phone, 1st, 2nd interviews) that I knew I didn't want to go through all of it again in only 7 months time. Doing what I love and helping to save the world, without a time limit? That could've been a game-changer.

But I'm off to add even more to my insurance, tax, and banking experience - with a wonderful new company. I'm young, it's still early days in my career (I have 35+ years left in the work force - but really, about a decade more, as I'm retiring at 40), and there's still plenty of potential and possibility. I'm passionate about saving the world, but also passionate about helping people improve their financial wellbeing.

I'm THRILLED to be back in the financial industry.

I'M BACK, BABY!!!

This hasn't just been a job hunting journey. It's the story of how I came alive again. I started job hunting because I hated my day to day life and wasn't feeling fulfilled.

Gradually, my world became big again, my heart expanded to life's possibilities, and I learned to believe again that we as humans are always capable of growing - no matter how much it feels like we can't.

If you are in the same boat, I hope my job hunting and interview tips give you some helpful guidance & inspiration to land the job of your dreams!

“Tell your heart that the fear of suffering is worse than the suffering itself. And that no heart has ever suffered when it goes in search of its dreams, because every second of the search is a second's encounter with God and with eternity.”

The Alchemist - Paulo Coelho

Love,

Sophia

My job hunting journey, interview tips & job offers

It all started when I went to a job interview.

I had been job hunting casually. Applying for jobs here and there, but in no rush to leave my current job. But on this day, something changed my perspective.

On the day of the interview, I arrived an hour early and grabbed lunch at the cafe across the road from the office. I sat outside in the courtyard, surrounded by lush greenery and the cool breeze on my skin, eating my sushi. As I looked up and watched the world around me, I felt something happen.

For the first time in a long time, I felt expansive.

I watched people walking around, enjoying their lunch, looking happy, having vibrant, animated conversations with their friends and colleagues. I looked at the beauty of the nature and architecture around me, standing tall and proud.

I stepped into the large office building, with storeys upon storeys, and felt this buzzing energy; that kind that comes with doing meaningful work. The kind of work I used to do.

I remembered what it was like to have good days and bad days; what it felt like even on those bad days to know that the work always meant something. That it was always worth it.

And just like that, I felt this realisation come to me, feeling like a forgotten truth my heart had known all along:

The world is big!

As my world suddenly became bigger, I suddenly felt full of possibilities again. I wondered, 'How have I let my world start to feel so small? How have I let myself get used to feeling so limited?'

It was then that I decided: 'I always want to feel this expansive.'

Which is when the relentless job hunting started - after I went to this interview on 5th May 2021. I received the first of my job offers on 1st June 2021.

Here is everything I did during my job hunting journey. If you are also searching for something better out there, I hope it helps you too.

Finding jobs to apply for

The first step to any job-hunting journey - well, apart from brushing up your CV! Here are all the places I sourced jobs to apply for:

Do Good Jobs

Trade Me Jobs

Cultivate (recruitment company)

Madison (recruitment company - my experience with them has been the best!)

Tribe (recruitment company)

Bumble (LOL. Yes, I joined Bumble, on Bizz, the networking side)

LinkedIn Jobs

Remember to sign up for email job alerts!

Kept a job-hunting journal

THE. #1. BEST. THING. I. DID.

Every time I have job hunted in the past, I never kept a record. This time, I was determined to do it differently. This time, I kept a written record of every job I applied for. I also kept a record of my interviews, exactly what questions were asked, where I did well, and where I could improve.

This time round, I was asked a lot of tough questions. There were the typical ones: "What are your strengths? What are your weaknesses? Why do you want to work for this company? What about this role interests you?"

I generally ace these typical ones, and it's always clear when the interviewers smile, nod enthusiastically while making eye contact, write it down, or even directly say, "That was an excellent answer."

But there were also some questions that definitely caught me out. An interview I feel like I failed epicly started its first question with, "Can you tell me about a time when you didn't complete your work?"

I didn't have an example, let alone a STAR example. Crap! It was an extremely strange question to me, anyway. Why would I have a situation where I didn't complete my work?

Doing my own post job interview evaluation every time helped me turn every experience, good or bad, into a valuable one I could learn something from. No matter how well I think I already did, or how poorly I thought I did, keeping a record proved extremely useful every time I had another interview to go to!

Know the company's values

Some companies use this interview format: they go through their values one by one, and ask for a STAR example of how you have demonstrated each example. If you haven't come across it before, STAR is Situation, Task, Action, and Result.

I was caught out in one interview because I had spent a significant amount of time learning their company's financial products and services, but forgot to properly read their values page. (Out of sheer luck, perhaps, when I was asked to describe my personal attributes, a few actually just happened to align with their values anyway.)

After I wrote this down in my journal, I went extremely prepared at my next interview, and aced discussing what the company's values were and how I demonstrated each one. One of my job offers came from this interview. Failing at one thing isn't the end - it just helps you shine the next chance you get! Remember, 'you're not starting from scratch, you're starting from experience.'

Make it personal

Personally, I've always found that the interviews where I expressed myself genuinely are the interviews that tend to be successful. Here's why I think it's important!

At job interviews, I don't want to sound like a robot, reciting facts about the company back to them. So one thing I do is: I go through the company's website and I find a few things that really resonate with me on a personal level.

For example, a company may have incredible stats and figures, but that is probably not going to excite me.

What does excite me, however, is a company having a Rainbow Tick certification; providing sanitary products for women; being committed to diversity; or winning awards for ethical business practice.

When I tell them that I love these things, the passion comes through in my expressions, my gestures, my voice, because I mean it. And they can see that.

I do occasionally bring up things I love about the company's actual work. For example, I told a life insurance company something that I personally noticed:

'I love that you guys have really put a lot of thought into your life and health insurance policies. I have looked at other life insurance companies, and most of their policies are the same, covering the usual things like injury, illness and death. But you guys have thought about everything, from childcare assistance to emergency transport to rehab, therapy & counselling costs. It shows that your company really cares about its customers, and has considered everything to protect them and their peace of mind."

In a nutshell: find something you 100% genuinely love about the company so that when you talk about it, you mean it and it shows.

Remembering scenarios / STAR examples

It's essential to memorise a few STAR examples! Here are some of the real situations I was asked to describe:

• A time you negotiated

• A time you worked extremely hard on a project, and the result

• A time when you experienced conflict

• A time when you struggled, and how you overcame it

• A time when you had to change someone's way of thinking to yours (yes, a real one - tough!)

• A time you worked as part of a team to achieve a goal

• A time when you resolved a complaint

• A time when you went above and beyond

Something I learnt as time went on was that I could change the focus of each example to fit the question - even if it was originally about something else.

For example: describing a time when I negotiated. I might use an example I would've usually used for 'going above and beyond', but in the situation, it actually did include negotiation.

I would tell them about the situation, but focus strongly on the negotiation instead. Remember: no matter how challenging the situation, always close with a positive outcome.

Overall, I have about 6 real work situations committed to memory, which have all been useful at one point or another!

Dealing with rejection, doubt, fear of failure

Struggling with insecurity has always made job hunting even more difficult as it's a process where many people often encounter rejection.

I'm really grateful that this time round, I seem to have become more resilient. How did I do it? Personally, I treated each interview as free interview practice.

Even if you go to an interview and don't get the job, you've gained something - valuable experience! You now know what questions are asked, how to speak with interviewers, what you are good at, what you are not so good at, and how to do even better at the next one.

It's like taking your university entrance exams, and knowing you only get one shot. Then imagine you get limitless FREE practice exams. That's how I saw it, and it stopped me from taking each 'no' to heart.

In my personal life, I've learned to turn jealousy into inspiration. Instead of being jealous of someone's success, I choose to feel inspired.

In my work life, I've learned to turn fear into curiosity. Instead of being afraid, I choose to be curious. What can I learn from this? What exciting new thing will I discover today? What new skill will I add to my repertoire today?

Two job offers!

I received my first job offer 3 hours after I had the interview for it.

"Hey Sophia, she was really impressed with you and wants to offer you a role in her team!"

YAY!!!

I received my second job offer 3 days later, from a company I'd had my second interview with a week prior.

I like both companies, so have a tough decision to make. I can't wait to share more with you next time!

I hope you have found some helpful tips for your own job hunting journey. Best of luck, and always remember:

The world is big!

Your possibilities are endless. Your potential is limitless. If you lose one opportunity, another will come along. You are not stuck.

To living expansively,

Sophia

I quit my job (without another lined up)

A few weeks ago, I shared with some close friends that I was working through a 'job quitting list'. Working through a to-do list, I was going to quit my job - without another lined up.

If you are in the same boat, and if for any reason you are also quitting your job without another lined up, I wanted to share the things I did to financially secure my husband and I.

Work out current emergency funds

Worst case scenario: if I didn't secure a new job soon, how long could we survive on my current emergency fund?

This was what I asked myself.

I should say 'funds', because I accounted for the worst case scenario and took into account every savings account we held, from short-term savings to long-term savings. I counted in terms of fortnightly essential living expenses.

The answer? 33 fortnights.

A reassuring number, and more than I’d expected!

But I didn’t think I was going to take anywhere near 1 year and 4 months to find a new job, so that allowed us to do the next step...

Sit on it

We agreed that I would wait two weeks before I made the decision to resign.

The two weeks weren't easy, but I did distract myself by coming up with other small ways to reduce our expenses!

Switch car insurance

My husband drives a trusty, reliable Nissan that's 14 years old. With any car that is lower in value, we asked ourselves, "If we accidentally crashed this car, would it be one we would want to completely replace?"

The answer was no, so we reduced our cover by switching from a Comprehensive policy to a Third Party Fire & Theft policy. This means that we'd still be covered for damage we do to someone else's property, plus of course if it was lost in a fire or stolen. As you'd expect, this significant change in cover reduced our fortnightly premiums.

Combine life & health insurance

My husband has life insurance and health insurance at two different companies. It happened unintentionally, but we never gave it much thought. We did a quote online at a company that does both under one policy, and it showed that it would cost less!

Not only does combining insurance policies often work out to be more affordable, it also simplifies things by giving you only one company to deal with, only one policy number to remember, only one policy statement to read, and only one payment to pay fortnightly (or monthly, weekly or quarterly).

If you're also trying to reduce expenses, ask your insurance company which of your policies can be combined. Is it your home & contents insurance? Is it your house & landlord insurance for a rental property? Or is it life & health insurance? All of these are real combined insurance policies I have seen or sold, so it's definitely worth asking about!

Secure references

Most employers will ask for two job references. I wanted to have them ready when asked, so I politely asked some people if they would be willing to be a referee for me, including my previous manager from the recruitment company I was employed at while working as a tax consultant.

What I got back was a heartwarming reply:

'Hi Sophia, yes I remember you, and am more than happy to give you a job reference!'

How kind and reassuring!

A small withdrawal

As a financial buffer, I wanted to withdraw a bit of money for the future, just in case we needed it.

I decided to withdraw from my Kiwibank Notice Saver, a PIE savings account that allows you to withdraw money only if you give either 2 or 3 months notice in order to earn interest. Giving 3 months notice, I withdrew $2000 - a sum that will be deposited into my everyday account early August.

However, the title of this blog post could have also been I quit my job! (before I had another lined up) because... I won't be needing to use that $2000!

YAY!!!

I resigned with a 4 week notice period, taking 1 week of annual leave. My optimistic logic here was that, if I secured a job soon, I wouldn't want my new employer to wait an entire month for me to start.

Luckily, my last day present at work turned out to be just the right timing - even before I knew it. I trusted the universe but also worked extremely hard during my job hunting process, and it paid off.

Next time, I'd love to share with you what happened during this job hunting process, how I aced some of the interviews (and epicly failed one), and the exciting outcome!

It is still a stressful time, but I'm praying things will settle down soon, with a fresh start, a new door opening, and plenty of learning opportunities ahead.

My heart swells at the thought of the happier, more abundant, more purposeful path I am about to take.

If you are also in the same boat, I hope this post has helped give you some ideas and inspiration!

I wanted to share a quote that really helped me when I was terrified.

Was I making the right choice? Was I being too impulsive? What if I lose everything in search of something better? At the same time, doesn't every decision in life come with risk? What is the point of constantly talking about trusting your intuition and acting with faith if you don't put it into action?

Well, here is a beautiful, inspiring quote from Brené Brown:

“I'm just so grateful, because to feel this vulnerable means I am alive.”

Love,

Sophia