The title pretty much explains where I’m going with today’s post. The reality is it’s a subjective question that has no right or wrong answer since it depends on where you are in your life, and what is most valuable to you at that given time. For example, I’m not married (yet) and I don’t have a family to support.

As such, I’ve had the flexibility to take jobs based on a variety of variables, salary not necessarily being the most important. To clarify, I’m not saying salary isn’t important, it is, but that if a situation ever presented itself in which I had to pick between two roles, one of which was a better fit, one of which paid more but offered less future or growth opportunity, I have been fortunate enough to be able to not have to evaluate based on salary all things being equal.

I bring this up because I’ve seen people throughout my career follow the money when they didn’t necessarily have to. Again, everyone’s situation is different so it’s hard to judge anyone, but if you do find yourself in a fortunate position where you can choose, I personally put the high responsibility/ exposure/ challenging roles at the top of the list because I believe in the long-run. The more you can grow and push yourself early in your career will help set you apart from the rest of the pack down the road. This, in turn, will lead to commanding higher paying roles with greater responsibility.

-Alex