I Turned Down a Tech Job I Wanted (Value of Time)
I never got a job description, but I think it was a Senior UX Researcher job. A connection posted it on LinkedIn, and I let them know I was interested. I had one interview, which I really enjoyed. I was confident I would like the team and the work. The famous company could look good on my resume. And we know, sadly, that the person who is working looks more attractive to the next job than the person who isn’t.
So why did I turn it down? I made a mistake in my spreadsheet that calculated if it would be financially worth taking the job. I don’t want you to make the same mistake, so I’m taking you with me on this journey!
The pay was low.
What does a Senior UX Researcher job pay at a Fortune 100 financial company in America? I know what it should pay, but this job was $53 USD per hour. I could get that C2C, as we say, which means they pay my corporation without withholding any taxes. That helps!
They also wanted me physically in America. I would have to fly to America (at my own expense) and live there. It's not my top choice, but it's doable.
They wanted me from late October 2024 to the end of December 2024. So this is a two-month contract with the possibility of renewal. And maybe it’s just two months of work with no future work.
Here’s what I put in my budget spreadsheet for this job.
Let’s look at my spreadsheet… and what I got wrong that you don’t want to get wrong.
- $2000 for round trip last-minute flights, Italy to the USA. Last minute because they wanted me to start once the contract was signed, but I didn’t have the contract yet. I’m not buying flights without a signed contract.
- $1000 for rent. I know that doesn’t sound like two months of rent, but one of my best friends in Dallas would let me live with her, possibly for free. I’d insist on chipping in, at least on utilities and other things. Maybe some nice dinners or fun weekends to thank her. I budgeted $500 per month.
- $900 for food. Food in the USA isn’t cheap. If I mostly live on protein shakes and veggies, I could spend $15 per day on food. That might be a stretch since lunch alone in San Francisco used to cost me $15 every day 8 years ago.
- $500 for travel insurance. In Italy, you can get travel insurance (from Globelink, #NotSponsored) for around $500 per year. This covers $10M of medical expenses anywhere in the world. Much cheaper than buying American health insurance while I’m there.
- $160 for gas in my friend’s car, which she said I could share. The job would be working remotely, so I would mostly sit in her house and avoid going anywhere and spending money. But I’d go food shopping or to…
- Target (#NotSponsored), $200 budget for toiletries like shampoo.
- $60 for Airalo (#NotSponsored). This would give me an eSIM and data in the USA since I don’t maintain a USA mobile phone account.
- $400 for meals out. My friend lives near some darn good BBQ. We’d eat there weekly, my treat.
- $32 for lottery tickets. Why not try to win millions? :)
What made me think it was worth it?
The budget says that I could put around $11,000 in the bank if I worked in America for two months. Seems totally worth it, right? Say yes, make some money, make good connections, etc.
I was ready to say yes, even though I was unhappy about the pay rate given the responsibilities and the seniority they clearly wanted if not needed.
Did you spot what’s missing?
I didn’t until I spent a week in Austria in mid-October 2024 to speak at a conference. Keeping in touch with my husband back home, I noticed how wacky things were. I also cried my eyes out on the flight home, thinking about being without him for two months. But we’ll stick to math for this article.
During my week in Austria, our dogs escaped every day. My husband cleaned the whole house himself, including doing the dishes and laundry. As I flew home from Austria, I thought about how distracted he was from his work. I wondered how many billable hours he missed because I wasn’t there to share chores, emergencies, and other things.
The missing piece is the value of my husband’s time.
I’m completely ashamed that I didn’t think of this. If I could defend myself on this one, I’d say that I normally get wayyyyy more than $53/hr, and he used to bill way less. But he’s been taking my business advice :) and now bills as high as $70 per hour, depending on the client.
He’d be making more money than me in these months. The value of him being distracted by crap I could take care of has a noticeable monetary value. It always did, but it used to be a much smaller number while I made a much larger number.
Math time!
- If Piermario is distracted an average of an hour per day while I’m gone (around 70 days, including travel), and he’s billing $70/hr, we lose nearly $5K. Around half of the money I’d be leaving the country to make is gone.
- If Piermario is distracted an average of two hours per day, and I can see that happening, that’s nearly $10K he didn’t bill because I wasn’t here to share the wackiness. That’s nearly all of the money I’d be leaving to go and make.
It reminds me of, “That’s a dollar I didn’t have yesterday.”
Many years ago, my specialty was working with eBay sellers. I once spoke to a seller who proudly told me that she buys items for $9 and sells them on eBay for $10.
I told her that I think she’s losing money. She said, “No! I’m making $1 per item!” I didn’t think so. I explained how she’d lose eBay fees on a $10 sale, which might be the whole dollar or even more. Plus the value of her time to photograph, describe, list the item, handle questions, pack it, ship it, etc. She’s losing money.
She defiantly told me, “No, that’s $1 I didn’t have yesterday.” She was sure that every sale generated money because: sale price minus costs of goods. She left out eBay fees and the value of her time.
It’s an easy mistake to make. We often undervalue our own time. This time, I made the embarrassing mistake of undervaluing my husband’s time. I won’t make that mistake again.
If they need me in America, I can’t take the job at this pay rate.
I could do this job from Italy. I shouldn’t have to be in America. They were allowing remote work from anywhere in America, and they would pay my corporation, which usually helps companies not care where I am. They’re just paying an Arizona corporation.
It brings us back to another conversation about remote work, though this time, it’s not a company forcing people into an office. I could have worked from anywhere in America, and I lined up the cheapest home and life I could. But it still doesn’t work, and it doesn’t scale. Working at this company longer for this pay could still be close to net zero.
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🐦🔥 https://lat.link Life After Tech is a book, exercises, coaching, community, and more. You are the phoenix. It’s never too early to plan what you’ll do when you’re done with tech… or tech is done with you. Or you want to add non-tech work outside of a tech career.
