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You are making a great living, you are very good at what you do so be satisfied. Find a hobby or something else to give you whatever fullfillment you feel is lacking from your career.
Very few people have jobs that they love 100% of the time. There is always something wrong with it, even if you enjoy it to a degree.
Your Pay is good, the coworkers are good, and the job is secure enough. Those are all pluses.
There is no guarantee that you would even enjoy a different career.
I know a teacher that worked for fifteen years in a very lucrative business. He got out to follow his passion and teach. (I don't have the heart to tell him he won't be getting his social security due to entering the Texas public schools, and he will only get 1/3 or so of his salary when he retires from teaching per year. He wants to retire after fifteen years or so.) He is fairly happy, but it wasn't what he thought it would be.
There are other sales jobs that can earn you similar figures. You are right to think that you will be stuck in this career if you don't make a move soon. Look at industrial, medical equipment sales, even stuff like chemical sales, etc that can be very lucrative.
Why not stick with it? Move into management and really learn the business. Then, buy your own dealership. Doesn't matter what you're selling, if you're good at it, go all the way.
I had a job that paid me $175k and they couldn't pay me more to stay. It's not just about the money. When you are that profession that everyone around you is making at or around the same amount you just don't care about the money so much. If your job makes you feel miserable no amount would keep someone with a sane head there.
As far as the job itself goes, it's not too bad. I'm obviously pretty good at it - I deal with extreme micromanagement and being outside in the winter and summer blows but I've learned to deal with the elements somewhat - it's still horrible in the winter when we get big snow storms and you have to get all the snow off the cars. My coworkers are awesome. The benefits are okay - I get 401K and health insurance
It seems like you might enjoy the job minus a couple negative aspects that all jobs have anyways. You make a boat load of money in my book. Making 100k at alot of places does require jumping through hoops such as working 60 hours a week, kissing butt, and still getting micro-managed.
Family says that since you have a college degree you can do better? I bet they are jealous. You are providing a very valuable service and everyone will need cars. I think the only big step up from where you are at is to be the person who designs and engineers cars. You might be able to swing a manager/lead salesmen position to where you don't have to scrape snow.
I would stick with it as long as you can unless you become completely unhappy. Once you have had enough maybe take one of those lowly 50k jobs and retire early.
I never thought of myself as being a car salesman forever but I don't know what my other options are. Every job in every other industry I look at, it's the same 40-50K nonsense and not only is it nonsense, but they want you to jump through 50 hoops just to take a 100K paycut. I have a college degree and everybody says I'm wasting my talents selling cars but I just don't know what else I can do
Too many people today, think you need a degree, and work within that degree. That is crazy thinking. The key is to do something you enjoy and can make a maximum living. If working within your degree, would cause you to take a $100,000 a year pay cut, why would working within your degree field be that important if you enjoy what you do. To heck with what everyone else thinks. I worked in sales all my working life. Lived in very nice areas of town, supported a wife and 5 kids, and we sit well situated in retirement today. I could never figure out why people that were not doing near as well as I was, thought I should get a better job with more prestige for half or less of my income.
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Should I just say **** it and sell cars for 20-25 years to try to save enough to retire?
You will probably within a few years do as I did, and move to other fields of sales, with even better pay and benefits. In the meantime, keep selling lots of cars, which makes you more attractive for other even better sales jobs.
I started doing it about 3 years ago and I made pretty good money right away. My first full year I made around 70K, my second year I made about 100...this is my 3rd year and I've become the absolute best version of myself to this point so I'm on track to make 155-180K. Honestly I don't know what the limit is as far as growth goes because I do get better every day and I work at a great dealership. I'm hopeful I will start to get more and more repeat and referral business down the line because I've only been at this place for about 2 years.
I never thought of myself as being a car salesman forever but I don't know what my other options are. Every job in every other industry I look at, it's the same 40-50K nonsense and not only is it nonsense, but they want you to jump through 50 hoops just to take a 100K paycut. I have a college degree and everybody says I'm wasting my talents selling cars but I just don't know what else I can do
As far as the job itself goes, it's not too bad. I'm obviously pretty good at it - I deal with extreme micromanagement and being outside in the winter and summer blows but I've learned to deal with the elements somewhat - it's still horrible in the winter when we get big snow storms and you have to get all the snow off the cars. My coworkers are awesome. The benefits are okay - I get 401K and health insurance
Should I just say **** it and sell cars for 20-25 years to try to save enough to retire?
Well dude you are making more than senior airline captains I work with with who have 2 decades+ experience, who did college, plus flight training, numerous industry certificates and ratings, medical exams every 6 mos that can cost our career, plus at times extreme schedules and stress with great responsibility, with very little time home. Yeah, stick it out, plunk it into retirement and investments. You've got a good job, don't throw it away. Keep your eyes open for something better (ie advancement) of course, but don't take a step backwards.
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