Ask HN: Should I leave a high paying first job within the first 2 months?

If you have good software skills and can communicate effectively, the job market is really, really hot right now. Life's too short to spend it doing something you hate.

Better to leave now than to string the company along for a while and leave with more depending on you.

Also: if you're going to post a question like this, I'd suggest not doing it with a Hacker News handle that looks like a real name. Consider if your employer read this post before you told them you were leaving, or worse yet if you decided to stay.

Better to leave now than to string the company along for a while and leave with more depending on you.

One thing I learned over the years, there is no large company that truly depends on an employee. The machine will keep on ticking, even if it has a little bit of difficulty for a short (relatively) period of time.

To the OP: If you can handle your existing financial responsibilities with the change, then by all means go for it.

I wish I had followed it as much as I believe, but... if you do what you enjoy/love then enough money will follow.

Like you, I got sucked in to a job with the salary and then after getting married the spouse wasn't comfortable with taking the chance on leaving.

EDIT: As far as your friends go.. They are not the one's living your life. (yet another one of my mistakes).

I completely agree with the last line here. All too often I hear about people saying "I will miss my friends/coworkers/boss/family [if I leave my job]". Life is too short, and they'll move on. Just do it.

Make the move and switch. It's always more important to be happy about your job than to have money. Remember that you spend 5 days a week at work for about 8 hours so if you don't like being there, every aspect of your life will be badly influenced because of all these bad feelings you have towards your current job.

I was in a situation like you not so long ago : Right out of college I got a good paying job (probably not as good as a bank) but after a year I started to hate my job. I promptly switched to a small startup and I asked to work 4 days a week so I can do some freelance work on the side. I love my startup job and I love doing freelance work and I hope to be able to switch to full time freelance sometime in the coming years. Overall, it's been the best decision I have ever made in my life.

It's always more important to be happy about your job than to have money.

Not necessarily true. It's more important to be happy about your life than to have money. But sometimes working at a job you dislike can bring a net happiness increase. Two ways this can happen:

1. The income prevents a financial disaster.

2. The income allows you to save or pay down debt so that you can eventually achieve other important goals.

Most are going to tell you to leave and not knowing your thought on what you really want to do I am hesitant to give that advice. If you are OK with freelancing then sure jump, but if freelancing is just a notch better than what you are doing now, then why not use this position as a spring board. Look at the high pay as a spring board to give you runway on your own ventures. One of the hardest kinds of capital to procure is seed capital. So if you plan to pursue your own venture then I would say stay, save a much as you realistically can and then use that money to support yourself in your own ventures. So my recommendation would be, if you are going to freelance leave, if you want to start a venture, put the time in and save.

I have no idea why I applied for this current job, but I thought it was something I should do after all my peers all did

That is rarely a good reason to do something. I would say leave now...jobs you hate now rarely get better later. I left a job after only 3 months even though it looked like a dream job - sexy startup, free fully-stocked kitchen, half-day Fridays, free "Cadillac" health insurance, 4 weeks vacation and bonuses in excess of 100% of base salary. I just didn't agree with how they ran their business. I just happened to immediately find a better job, but if I hadn't, I would have gone the freelance route until I started my own business.

Everybody hates their first year (or 5) at a top tier investment bank. since everyone is telling you to bail, ill tell you to bite the bullet and quit only after you get your bonus...or even your second one. most people I know take jobs at firms like yours because of what they can do after they leave...not because it's the greatest job in the world.