“Make sure you’re entirely clear on what you are walking into”

Creative Career Conundrums is a weekly advice column from If You Could Jobs. Each week their selected panel of professionals from the creative industry answers your burning career questions to help you navigate the creative journey.

This week’s question:

“I’ve been considering leaving my current agency for a while. The reasons are many: incompetent management, almost no career prospects, no real learning opportunities, low team morale and a draining three-hour daily commute. A smaller agency in my city has offered me a position. The projects aren’t groundbreaking (neither are the ones at my current job), but I’d be leading my discipline (UX/UI) and I see long-term potential if I joined them.

The only drawback is that their budget can’t quite match my current salary. The difference isn’t huge, but it’s still there. I’m leaning toward accepting anyway because I value the improved work-life balance and the positive impact on my mental health. Should I simply accept or is taking a step down in salary always considered a hard no?

Is it wrong to accept a lower-paying job if it would improve my mental health and work-life balance?”

Shanice Mears, co-founder and head of culture & communities at The Elephant Room:

Firstly, I think you are doing the right thing by evaluating and reflecting on your options – it’s bold of you to be able to do that as you’re still continue to grow in your career. In short no, I don’t think that it’s wrong, because truthfully there is no wrong or right.

You’ve named quite a few things that you clearly care about and contribute to your work and the quality of life you want. Take some time to outline your pros and your cons just as you have above – it’s important you think about the things you want from your workplace and your career outside of money.

On top of this, I would consider thinking about the following questions if you took the lower paid job. Could you negotiate a raise upfront within 6 months based on review or feedback? Is there a way to think about your expenses that the business can support on, like travel? Or, if you have children, are there any childcare subsidies? Not all things are as binary as we think. There are ways to get what we want but we just have to be able to compromise, maybe on the smaller things.

I would also take the time to ask the potential job offer about all the things you’ve questioned in the role you have now – you need to make sure you’re entirely clear on what you’re walking into.

In answering your creative career conundrums we realise that some issues need expert support, so we’ve collated a list of additional resources that can support you across things that might arise at work.

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