So I used to have a career working in banking and finance after graduating college. After several years and a few job changes I had moved up considerably and was making very good money. I hated everything about it. I hated working in an office especially.
I was being offered a promotion to a SVP level job with a salary of about $170k. I ended up telling them to pound sand despite it being a good job at a decent company.
I ended up taking a job in gold mining as a laborer. Needless to say the money was quite a bit less. After three plus years I have moved up considerably and make about $10 more per hour than when I started. I love my job. I enjoy going to work. I make roughly half of what the last banking job was offering.
The issue is with recruiters. I get contacted occasionally by recruiters trying to get me into an office and out of the heat. Do something easier with better hours as they like to put it. Except I love having 5 day weekends after 12 hour shifts and actually working hard. But besides that. I get job offers from them and they always ask what I'm looking for. I have to explain to them that I turned down a very high job title with a nice pay check to do what I'm doing. The reactions I get when I tell them what the pay would have to be to get me back into an office is often just a confused “but why?” Funny enough they are usually offering less than I'm making now. They think they are doing me a favor. You're not. You're confirming why I left office corporate work.
As a side note, banks usually have terrible benefits next to trade jobs. They have better PTO policies but the insurance is expensive. My last banking job was $780 per paycheck for family medical insurance. It's $150 now.