Ask HN: Have you ever taken a pay cut in order to switch roles/industries?

I took a low-five-figure paycut when I joined the United States Digital Service[1], but that's pretty expected. It's not the sort of job you do for money.

It was incredibly worth it in terms of personal fulfillment, sense of purpose, and life-changing perspective. Economically, though, certainly not.

[1]: https://usds.gov

Not to switch industries, but I once took ~10k cut to go to a company that offered more than double the PTO time, and it worked out great for me back then.

I don't think I'd take any kind of cut now, and I don't think I'd advise anybody to take a cut anymore, as things have gotten so volatile in the job world.

It all depends. If it's right for your life, it might be the right thing to do. If you've got family and bills and loans, maybe just tough it out.

Not switching industries or roles but went from a FAANG to a regular tech company close to my hometown. Took a paycut but I am single, no house, no debt and no kids so it hasn't affected my lifestyle one bit, on the other hand my current job is much less stressful, more vacation time and easy going which has improved my overall quality of life. Would do it again.

Not a switch, but I had two choices for my first job, and took the lower paying one by 10k that was closer to the field I was interested. Totally worth it, since I keep up with that first industry (computer modeling) as a hobby even though I later left, but pure money-wise it probably set me back a couple years of scaling.

I took a 5% cut when I went to management. I'm taking a 30% cut going to a start up as a dev (no RSUs). I'm looking to be excited again. It would be financially smarter to stay at BigCo, but I want to enjoy the ride to retirement even if it takes longer.

Went from finance to ML academia. Worked out reasonably well, was a breath of fresh air after a very corporate environment; but I might possibly go back again in one way or another.

I took a 50% pay cut to go quasi-entrepreneurial in an area that interests me and allows me freedom to explore and pursue my interests.

Exciting, stressful and financially very very uncertain.

I was obsoleted out of a system administrator job. I later took up a job making gears, which was interesting, but a 50% cut in pay. It was clearly a mistake.

I left for a job with half the salary. still not like I'm hungry for bread. much happier here now :)

I went from a mid-six figure salary to basically zero because I wanted to do a startup. Unequivocally worth it.