by we_paid_for_you » Tue Mar 19, 2019 10:03 am
Crunch the numbers first. For me, it made financial sense to leave and pay back the debt. My SF management openly told me they were going to pay me over $20k less than every other person in my role. The amount they were paying others was still less than market value, but that part mattered less to me as long as everyone in the same job was equal. They acknowledged without hesitation that they thought my additional cut was justified because I went through SMART. They told me they wanted to make me "pay back" my debt. Well, mathematically, that's exactly what would have been happening, plus quite a bit of extra. It would have been as if I didn't get the scholarship in the first place and had paid everything out of pocket, then took a random pay cut as a penalty for getting another degree (I already had a well-paying job I liked before SMART, I could've just stayed there). I crunched the numbers vs my market value, and it made sense for me to leave because I would be in the black after three years (I didn't have a huge amount of debt to SMART, but still 6 figures).
But they will come for the money. And they will expect repayment in three years or less. You could get a loan from a reasonable financial institution and pay back SMART quickly, then pay back the loan on a longer time frame. But do the math with the salary for the new job and make sure it's worth it. And also keep in mind that most jobs look shiny and dreamy from the outside, but that is the phase where they are trying to advertise it to you, and the reality of the day-to-day work may not live up.
As for the moral judgment on this thread... everyone has a different experience, and a lot of people are trying to impose their experiences on you. SMART has a 10% rate of students who get royally screwed over (that is SMART's number not mine). I know of at least three others who ran into salary situations like mine, and SMART refused to lift a finger on behalf of any of them. I agree wholeheartedly with the concept of loyalty, and of sticking to commitments. But the thing is: loyalty is what happens when you treat people well, and then they stick with you through your rough times because they know you are both mutually committed to each others' well being in the long term. Loyalty is not telling people they signed a contract, so they can shut the hell up and swallow whatever they're served no matter what. There's a 90% chance your commitment phase will go well, and as a result of that luck you may feel entitled to pedantically spout condescending tomes about loyalty to people online, but there's a 10% chance you will be one of the ones who gets massively screwed. This risk should factor into your decision about the offer you have now, in addition to the math about the finances.
When I asked SMART to help me with a transfer after my management developed some seriously abusive behavior (again, they openly admitted they didn't care because I had a contract, the stuff they were doing was literally illegal), do you know what SMART said? This is a direct quote: "well, we paid for you." That's not an organization that is an equal participant in loyalty.
Like the previous poster said: "you do you."
Crunch the numbers first. For me, it made financial sense to leave and pay back the debt. My SF management openly told me they were going to pay me over $20k less than every other person in my role. The amount they were paying others was still less than market value, but that part mattered less to me as long as everyone in the same job was equal. They acknowledged without hesitation that they thought my additional cut was justified because I went through SMART. They told me they wanted to make me "pay back" my debt. Well, mathematically, that's exactly what would have been happening, plus quite a bit of extra. It would have been as if I didn't get the scholarship in the first place and had paid everything out of pocket, then took a random pay cut as a penalty for getting another degree (I already had a well-paying job I liked before SMART, I could've just stayed there). I crunched the numbers vs my market value, and it made sense for me to leave because I would be in the black after three years (I didn't have a huge amount of debt to SMART, but still 6 figures).
But they will come for the money. And they will expect repayment in three years or less. You could get a loan from a reasonable financial institution and pay back SMART quickly, then pay back the loan on a longer time frame. But do the math with the salary for the new job and make sure it's worth it. And also keep in mind that most jobs look shiny and dreamy from the outside, but that is the phase where they are trying to advertise it to you, and the reality of the day-to-day work may not live up.
As for the moral judgment on this thread... everyone has a different experience, and a lot of people are trying to impose their experiences on you. SMART has a 10% rate of students who get royally screwed over (that is SMART's number not mine). I know of at least three others who ran into salary situations like mine, and SMART refused to lift a finger on behalf of any of them. I agree wholeheartedly with the concept of loyalty, and of sticking to commitments. But the thing is: loyalty is what happens when you treat people well, and then they stick with you through your rough times because they know you are both mutually committed to each others' well being in the long term. Loyalty is not telling people they signed a contract, so they can shut the hell up and swallow whatever they're served no matter what. There's a 90% chance your commitment phase will go well, and as a result of that luck you may feel entitled to pedantically spout condescending tomes about loyalty to people online, but there's a 10% chance you will be one of the ones who gets massively screwed. This risk should factor into your decision about the offer you have now, in addition to the math about the finances.
When I asked SMART to help me with a transfer after my management developed some seriously abusive behavior (again, they openly admitted they didn't care because I had a contract, the stuff they were doing was literally illegal), do you know what SMART said? This is a direct quote: "well, we paid for you." That's not an organization that is an equal participant in loyalty.
Like the previous poster said: "you do you."