Got offered a lead role in Phoenix but the pay is way lower than my current job

Honestly, my boss pulled me aside last Thursday and said they want me to head up a new project team starting next month. The thing is, the salary they mentioned is about $15k less than what I make now as a senior dev. Ngl, I want the title and experience but that's a big cut. Has anyone taken a lower paying promotion and did it work out long term?

3 comments

3 Comments

emery_young131mo ago

My cousin took a 12k pay cut for a manager title at a startup. Two years later she jumped to a FAANG company making almost double her old salary. The title change totally opened doors for her.

jenniferw821mo ago

My friend did something similar, took a lower paying team lead job at a small tech firm. He went from fixing bugs to running whole projects and hiring people. That experience got him an interview at a big bank last year, and now he's a director there. The title shift was everything for his resume.

adamgreen25d ago

emery_young13's cousin story is a real world example of how the title bump can snowball into bigger money later, and I've seen that pattern play out for a few other people in my network too. Take the pay cut if you can stomach the short term hit, because that lead title on your resume tends to rewrite your career path completely within a couple years at most.