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So, as some may know, I'm a postdoc in genetics at a small german university and in my early 30s. Originally I studied applied math with a focus on medicine/biology. I work with large (bio) data banks, and code a lot, especially high-throughput on our cluster, but obviously more natural science-style scripting than proper programming. Anyone in the space will know the wide gulf between these, though I have some experience in the latter as well (but rather from hobby modding than from work).
My wife wants a bigger house and while we can afford it, our buffer margin will be a lot smaller, in particular we will actually go into the negative during the first year if we should have a third child (and we both want it - it's one of the reasons we want to buy the house), or if one of us loses their job. Currently I'm looking through our expenses and ruthlessly cutting everything that can be cut, but we've both always been rather frugal in most ways, so it's not a terribly large amount. The biggest point is supermarket, but my wife is not really willing to cut there since it's mostly due to healthy food.
So I'm again considering a job change, both for more money and for security reasons (while my prof has made no noises so far in that direction, I still technically only ever get prolonged for a year each time and could get cut anytime his money runs out). Any recommendations for directions I should look into? Fortunately, one of the largest german cities is in commuting distance. My current ideas are: 1. data scientist, ideally medicine/bio adjacent, possibly remote, possibly international 2. trying my luck again in the pre-implantation genetic testing industry where I have worked for a short while, which would pretty much have to be remote international 3. actuary or other insurance/bank statistical work 4. becoming a regular gymnasium teacher in math/bio and going for that sweet civil servant status. Mostly an option if I lose my position though, since the income is almost identical if not a little lower 5. trying to go into finance - I've been asked by headhunters during my doctorate but back then I wasn't interested. But I'm unsure how realistic it still is. 6. simply doing some extra tutoring on the side.
In general my biggest constraints are that we decided not to move any time soon, and that I share child duties equally with my wife, so going high-powered career right now is not realistic. Might be different in a few years, though. Several of the options, such as actuary, would require me to get some additional credentials, which obviously I'd like to avoid. Also, the job situation in germany is a bit rough atm, we even actually have some nice local biomedical companies in our city I'd be interested in but they aren't hiring at all.
May I ask how much you make now and how much you hope to make?
I'm an europoor, so just making 65k. Due to the stupid way german taxes/insurance are calculated, this is roughly equivalent to an international pre tax income of ca 77k, and my actual income is around 40k plus a little christmas money and tax payback, I think around 42k overall.
I honestly don't have a clear expectation on how much more I want, it highly depends on the difficulty of the switch and the security of the new job. Just a few extra k per year would already make a substantial difference, doesn't need to be crazy.
Ouch. That's half my actual income. My wife stays at home, though.
There's a few caveats that make it better. First, my prof doesn't control my working hours at all and my de-facto hours are honestly substantially below full-time. I have a few friends who are paid substantially better, and most of them have de-facto working hours so much higher that it's a wash in terms of pay per hour. I could have gotten better paid work in past, but the employers have been clear that they'll be much more strict, so I decided against it due to the kids. Second - though it's partially a result of the first - my wife also works, and her income is identical to mine when full-time, though it's more volatile and sometimes she has to go part-time (which pays more than half due to tax reasons) due to the more insecure financing in her group. So our family income varies between roughly 65k and 84k.
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