Career Taxes - What They Are and How to Use Them
Be aware of your tax burden.
Are you aware of the career tax you're paying right now?
Do you know what you're giving up to have the benefits of your current role?
You should, and it starts with knowing what a career tax is.
What is a "career tax"?
Career taxes are mandatory trade-offs you make for the benefits of your current position.
It's the price you pay for the best parts of your job.
You may not realize you're paying a price for your current role. You usually focus on what you get out of your job: the title, the pay, the learning, etc. Or you might focus on the opportunity cost of other positions: different title, more pay, more learning.
But you don't focus on the negative trade-offs you make every day that you sign-on to your work laptop.
Put mental energy towards your career taxes and you can use the knowledge to make intentional decisions about your career.
But first, you need to know how to identify them.
How to identify a career tax
Think about your current job.
Now ask yourself,
- What do I want more of in my career that this job doesn't give me?
- What am I giving up to have this position?
- What about this role frustrates me?
- What's worse about my job than other roles up and down the corporate ladder?
The answers are your career taxes, the things you're giving up to have your current job.
Are you okay with the answers?
It'll be easier to know after we look at some examples.
Examples of career taxes for different jobs
Here are different jobs at different levels and the career taxes associated with each:
- Data analyst. Less autonomy, less influence, less pay, more ad hoc work.
- Staff analyst. Less pay than managers, less influence, fewer job opportunities, more responsibility than analysts.
- Manager. More meetings, managerial responsibilities, less time working on individual projects.
- Director. More stress, more responsibility, fewer job opportunities.
There are also career taxes based on the company, industry, and team you're apart of. You should consider multiple dimensions when identifying the career taxes for your situation.
Once you have a handle on your career taxes, how do you use this knowledge?
How to use career taxes to make career decisions
The point of identifying career taxes is to use the knowledge to help you make career decisions.
If you understand the career taxes of your current role (and other potential roles), you can make a better decision about your next move.
This is what you can do:
- Identify the career tax for your current role
- Consider the career tax of different roles
- Decide which taxes you're willing to pay
Maybe you're happy with your current tax burden. Or maybe it's time to change your tax situation.
Either decision is okay as long as you're intentional and prevent your career tax from building up without you noticing.
You don't want to be overdue on your taxes.
You want to pay your taxes gladly because you understand and accept them.
What career taxes are you paying right now?