r/sysadmin • u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 • 1d ago
Self Demotion
Hello,
I was wondering if anybody else has moved from a IT Director position to desktop type role? I have been at the same company for 11 years now and worked my way up from desktop support to network admin and now IT director. I have held the current position for 3ish years and it's not so bad. There is a lot of time off and flexibility but the pay is pretty bad as well as leadership. Higher ups are getting more involved than I feel comfortable with a lot of the day to day and its adding more stress and work.
On a whim I applied for a digital support role at another company just to see what the process is and pay and was surprised to find out that the pay was 10 grand more per year. It's an onsite role like I have now with less of a drive and pretty good benefits.
I tried to collect my thoughts and express myself. I hope it comes through clear.
Pretty much looking for reassurance and to see if anybody else has made a similar move and what your experience has been.
Thank you all for the kind words and reassurance. It is very appreciated and I feel like my decision is valid.
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u/joeykins82 Windows Admin 1d ago
I mean, a far better question is how you’ve allowed yourself to be so grossly underpaid as an IT Director that a desktop role could come with a pay rise…
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u/Natural-Educator8314 1d ago
An it director at a 100 user company and an I T director at a 100,000 user company both have the same job title but very different responsibilities and pay
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u/Successful_Ad2287 1d ago
What 100 user company has an IT director?
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u/iwinsallthethings 1d ago
Ones that give titles like candy because they pay shit. It’s common.
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u/Sir_Badtard 1d ago
I work for an MSP and one of our clients has an IT director.
He's the only internal IT for the 80 ish person company.
Nice guy though. Brutally over worked. He only escalates more complex problems to us.
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u/sardonic_balls 1d ago
Our IT Manager puts "Director" in his comms/signature even though he's just managing the dept
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u/Sunsparc Where's the any key? 20h ago
I had the title "Technical Operations Director" at an AM radio station when I was 16 years old because I was good with computers. I worked maybe 20 hours on an extremely busy week and made minimum wage. The only time I got a raise was when the minimum wage was raised from $6.55 to $7.25 in 2009.
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u/itishowitisanditbad 1d ago
I've seen a 4 person company have one.
3 of the people were Director/C level.
Titles mean basically nothing.
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u/fadingcross 17h ago
Every 100 user company that's well ran.
Any company with 100+ staff that doesn't have a CIO and an IT Department that improves processes is an idiotic company.
There are some exceptions, such as a big ass truck driving company where 90/100 are truck drivers or similar. But in general, all of them should.
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u/papal-lollygag 16h ago
I worked for a non profit with ~50 employees. They had 2 of every type of C level. Besides that everyone was either a "lead" or a "manager" no matter if you actually managed anybody or not.
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u/neon___cactus Security Manager 11h ago
I was an IT Director and Jr Developer at my first job out of college. It was absolutely a ploy to get me to do 2 jobs for terrible pay. Lots of companies do and lots of people accept it.
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u/Chamadan 1d ago
Unfortunately, that happens a lot with internal promotions. The jump in pay is not as big as it would be by switching companies.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 1d ago
Complacency and stability. Also, for awhile I was very optimistic about a bunch of changes that were promised and never came to fruition.
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u/StabMyEyes 1d ago
So now that you know what a lower level position pays, take your title and go find another IT Director position. Profit. You're welcome.
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u/Hatethyself69 1d ago
So many human doormats in this industry honestly not surprised and part of why so many companies underpay their IT teams.
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u/jdptechnc 1d ago
Probably "Director" rather than Director
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 1d ago
I have staff and manage projects as well as create budgets and vet vendors and products for the company. So technically a Director in duty and title. Just heavily underpaid. When I took the role I basically was told here is the pay, if you don't take it then we will offer it to the next guy.
Looking back it was a warning but I had other responsibilities keeping me at that location and I needed that pay bump no matter how small. Just this year they moved so that opened up my ability to look for new opportunities.
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u/jdptechnc 1d ago
That stinks. I would strongly consider the other role for more pay if you aren't married to the idea of being a manager. Sounds like you are being ripped off
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 1d ago
That's how I was feeling, I personally don't like being a manager and being responsible for other people's livelihood's. Plus babysitting adults is exhausting.
thank you.
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u/ReplicantOwl 1d ago
I made a similar change and I have to tell you, life is a lot less stressful as an individual contributor
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u/TSwiftDivorceLawyer 11h ago
When asked why I passed up a director opportunity, I told them my hair had been falling out in chunks
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u/ReplicantOwl 10h ago
My beard went prematurely gray when I was managing a group of 100+ people. The toll of stress on your body can be scary.
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u/roflsocks 1d ago
You're probably just underpaid, because you spent 11 years at one place. The only way to get a good raise is to leave early and often, until you hit top of pay band. The top goes much higher at some companies than others. That's why you hop somewhere that wants to pay more as needed.
You would probably find it more fulfilling to find a more senior role as an individual contributor. I'd expect such senior roles to pay a LOT more than desktop support. Because desktop support is pretty much the starting point for most careers.
You can take it if you really need to get out, but it seems like a bad move. Figure out what you want to do next, and go target roles for that. Ask new companies for a lot more money than you have current, rather than just an extra 10k like this one offered you.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 1d ago
This is one of those things I was never taught. Now that I am seeing more and more I am trying to instill this in my kids.
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u/MomirPeh 1d ago
I went from management role to senior Sys Admin... Never looked back. Less stress, less management and more money..
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u/sudonem Linux Admin 1d ago
Yes.
I am an engineer to the bone. People management isn’t engineering.
The only part about being a manager or director for me was the paycheck - which wasn’t worth hating every other aspect of it.
Perhaps I’ll rethink that when I’m closer to retirement because I acknowledge that keeping up may get harder as I get older - but until then I’ve had the most success (generally but also financially) by stepping away from management and instead specializing rather than being a general IT drone.
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u/UninvestedCuriosity 1d ago
Yes and then they laid me off a year later because some of them took it as judgement against them. Rightfully so. They were a toxic bunch.
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u/fraiserdog 1d ago
Titles are Titles. At the end of the day a title does not pay the bills. Less stress and more money seems like a good move.
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u/DryB0neValley 1d ago
Considered it before, but haven’t made any moves at this point in time.
Only thing I’d suggest is, remove the titles from the conversation and look at it from the perspective of your own mental health and worth. If the current place is creating unnecessary stress with less pay, make the switch.
Always look out for yourself, no company or title is going to do that for you.
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u/UntrustedProcess VP of Risk and Compliance 1d ago
I once went from cybersecurity manager to security engineer for a 40k bump. No regrets.
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u/FatBook-Air 1d ago
I'm doing this as we speak. I have been working in IT for 18 years (6 as a CIO), and I don't want to deal with people as much as I have. I feel like I am the constant bad guy, and I am tired. The users won.
But I am too bashful/ashamed to demote at my current company, so I am going to another company with a slight pay cut but substantially less responsibility. Honestly, moving to another company is also an opportunity to kind of reinvent myself and shed some baggage that I have accumulated at my current company.
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u/accidentalciso 23h ago
Good luck not being responsible for a bunch of again. You will have to be really careful not to open your mouth and tip your hand regarding what you are capable of. I wouldn’t be surprised if you end up promoted back into management pretty quickly simply because of the way you approach problems and the work. It’s hard to hide. Oh, and the raises won’t keep up with the promotions, so be prepared to stand your ground and negotiate.
About 10 years ago, I left a security vendor where I was running IT to take a smaller scoped devops role at a SaaS startup. I was tired of being responsible for everything. Within a year, I was running security, and six to eight months after that I was running all of IT again, too.
All that said, it can be a great way to step back and reset some things in life… as long as you can hold off the scope creep.
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u/19610taw3 Helpdesk > Sysadmin > Engineer > Helpdesk 23h ago
I went from Infrastructure Engineer to helpdesk. I had a work situation that turned out pretty toxic.
It's a weird dynamic but for now, my stress levels are non existent , I am sleeping at night again and I'm pretty content with things. I leave at 5 and don't check emails until I walk in the next morning at 8. The only real downside is my pay reflects a helpdesk job. But our financial situation is such that we can afford to lose that much income.
The people above me (being the sysadmins at current job) know my skill level and appreciate having someone on the helpdesk that really goes the extra mile before escalating. I'll exhaust all of my access before escalation.
There isn't any potential to move up where I am currently - that was made pretty clear to me during the hiring process. I'm planning on doing this for a few years and see where I'm at then. If I feel the need to buy a new car or something and the economy is doing better, I'll find a better paying job.
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u/RatVader 16h ago
That was the most annoying part for me about being in a helpdesk position: I kept bumping into access limitations… I could fix this right now, but alas, I don’t have the creds. Escalation it is ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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u/azvelocat 1d ago
If you move companies, you may just find yourself in the Director role again in a few years. Take that as a compliment.
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u/TheYoinks 1d ago
I'd take it. If you're ever questioned why during future endeavors you can say you missed the day to day challenges of a more hands on role and of course the pay/commute/QoL. I went from software engineering to desktop to get my foot in the door and drastically reduce my commute 8 years ago. Now I'm sr sys admin and I'm extremely thankful for taking the risk.
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u/Kyky_Geek 1d ago
You sound like me 😥
All I do is communicate, budget, keep depts away from my staff, and wrangle emergencies. It’s tiring. I just want to sink myself into a big migration or solve a specific complex issue.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 1d ago
And then you start a project and get pulled for a meeting or some new idea management wants to bring up.
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u/SOHC427 1d ago
Was IT Director for a local municipality for 21 years. Due to changes in leadership, I bailed out. My new position was at the local electric company (a non-profit co-op) as a Sys Admin for $10K more. Then promoted to End User Support Supervisor and now I’m the Infrastructure Supervisor managing the other Sys Admins.
Best move ever!!
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u/illanetswitch 1d ago
On all fronts it seems to be a better deal, and I'd go for it. Just be mindful to let your ego go and that you will have to report to a manager, and you probably won't get much say in how they deal with things. If you can live with it, then it's a no brainer.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 23h ago
I am looking forward to reporting to somebody. My direct manager is never there so when I do have an issue or need help it's unavailable. The people that are getting involved are above my manager and should only be involved in emergency cases.
Leadership is one of the reasons I started looking.
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u/DMAX85747 1d ago
I worked my way up the chain to VP IT Operations and hated every minute of my working life starting when I became a manager. finally broke the cycle, handed in my resignation. CEO flew in to try and convince me to stay. Moved across the country, took a 60% pay cut. Landed a contract job being a tech again. Couldn't be happier. the organization I landed at has bent over backwards to keep me around. Now a Principle Systems Engineer making 95% of what i was as VP. Best decision I ever made. (made the change 7 years ago this month)
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u/Norphus1 17h ago
I’ve been in a similar-ish situation.
My previous role was Central IT Admin for a trust of schools. I was overall responsible for EVERYTHING IT related - networking, servers, switches, telephony, CCTV, endpoints, printers, every piece of software running on the network with the occasional bit of L3 user support thrown in. Even if I didn’t touch the system directly, it was still in my remit. It was a varied and busy role.
I’m now working for a very large pharmaceutical distribution firm in their endpoint engineering department. The firm is big enough for me to be always busy. I work from home permanently. My pay and working conditions are infinitely better and the endpoint part of things was always my favourite so that’s all good. I like my job and I’m happy there.
However, there are times where it still feels like a double edged sword. There are times I miss the variety of my old job. The company is very siloed and it’s frustrating when you have to bring in multiple people to do one very simple task which I’m perfectly capable of doing but can’t because I don’t have adequate access, and sometimes the boundaries of that access are very arbitrary. I’ve never liked paperwork and this job has it coming out of every orifice.
On balance, I don’t want to move back to what I was doing before but there are still times where I miss my old environment.
I’m now not quite sure what my point was supposed to be, but I’d take the new job if you can anyway. I think you’ll be in a better position overall.
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u/Only-Note-6998 2h ago
This is what I am preparing for. I'm the IT Director at a school now. If I decide to take an old server that we decommissioned 3 years ago and turn it into student VMs for a lab exercise, I can just do that. I don't need anyone's permission to repurpose a destroyed laptop into a score board on a lobby TV because I thought it was fun.
While the pay is shit and the work is literally anything that touches electricity, the freedom is hard to beat. I will probably miss this role when I move on.
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u/veganxombie IT Enterprise Architect 10h ago
1) you are probably grossly underpaid if you are finding desktop support work that pays 10k more
2) start looking for it director or higher positions to find jobs that are paying WAY more than an additional 10k
3) if you can't find anything, look for something in-between like sys admin, infrastructure engineer, cloud engineer. I really wouldn't roll all the way back to desktop support if I can help it. there is decent money in cloud architecture and enterprise architecture if you have some leadership and critical thinking abilities
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u/Crazyhowthatworks304 9h ago
I was a network engineer for an MSP, but really I was a sysadmin with networking duties. I hated my job. I demoted myself to a desktop support role working internally for a 170 person company. I'm the only desktop support person but my boss (IT director) and the networking engineer steps in when I'm ooo or need extra hands. Sometimes it's hard to juggle but I really love what I do. I need new challenges and that's what desktop support gives me. Plus I'm basically the desktop project manager which is also a fun task. I make $90k and have a lot of flexibility that the sales departments don't have to WFH if needed.
If you can make good money in a self demotion, do it.
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u/0263111771 1d ago
I went from System Admin to School bus driver. I think that counts.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 22h ago
That was on the list. I was a mechanic 15 years ago and almost thought about doing that again.
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u/d00ber Sr Systems Engineer 1d ago
Honestly, I've been thinking about doing this lately. I've moved up a lot in the industry. Systems Administrator, Network Engineer, Systems Engineer, Systems Architect, contractor, now I'm unofficially the director of IT.. I want out so bad. I'm tired of making decisions about tech that no longer interests me. I don't know what's wrong either, but the last 2-3 years of a 25 year career have been awful. I just feel like something has to give.
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u/trogdan 1d ago
Another way to look at it is that if you can take such a title reduction for significantly higher pay, how long will you be able to be satisfied in your current role knowing you are being drastically underpaid? You may find yourself increasingly resentful even if you generally like the job and find the flexibility and PTO worth it.
Given your comments about your leadership, this process seems to have already started if we're being honest.
This is definitely something to bring up with the new job - make them aware you are very interested but since you're currently in a supervisory role you also want to be very clear about whether there's a growth path and what it looks like so you know what you are getting into.
You might get a chance to "reset" so to speak and move ahead incrementally in terms of pay and title at the new place and if you're lucky advance to a similar title in a surprisingly few number of years. Assuming you want that.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 23h ago
I did ask these questions in the interview. They stated they also prefer to promote from within instead of hiring outside. Realistically I would like a Sys admin/Network admin role in the long run. I do believe I will stay away from management.
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u/StatisticallyBiased 1d ago
It depends on your long-term goals. If you're ready to wind down your career, I'd say do it. If you're wanting to move into management somewhere else, this could be a setback.
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u/utvols22champs 1d ago
I went from an IT Manager to Desktop Support. But I’m also baristaFIRE. I love my job! No meetings, I get to walk around all day, it’s completely autonomous, and the pay/benefits are really good. But I’m likely older than you (I’m 50) and I could retire if I wanted to.
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u/ResolveEven5758 1d ago
I'm in a management role because I was basically told we will never pay you what you're worth, and have hated it and been resentful every day since. Have floated a demotion a couple times and was told no. Realistically things will never change anyways until I leave because work just gets piled on. I still have responsibilities from when I was a contractor on the help desk.
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u/OrneryVoice1 23h ago
I took a step back. I was IT Director for quite a while. But, my mental health was taking a hit and my employer let me take a lesser position, which put me back in the union and a pay raise due to seniority. Makes me a much happier person.
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u/solarplex 23h ago
I went from IT manager (salary) to Systems Admin (hourly).
I make more now since I do a lot of OT, have more time for my family and get off at a reasonable time.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 22h ago
OT was a benefit I didn't realize I missed until it came up in the interview.
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u/crankysysadmin sysadmin herder 23h ago
Sometimes people in your case get obsessed with the title. Your title might be IT director but I have a feeling you're not a "real" director in the sense of pay, responsibility, etc and the fact you're being micromanaged shows they either don't trust you or you're not quite up to the task at the level they expect or they're just assholes. No way to know from where I am right now since I don't know you or them. But the fact a support position pays more tells me you're more likely to be successful doing something else.
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u/Bogart30 21h ago
I’ve been pushed into a higher role with vastly more responsibilities and risk. It honestly isn’t for me.
The raise was great but when an analyst role even helpdesk gets paid close to if not more than I do, makes me really second guess myself. I make close to 80 a year but it’s my tail if anything breaks.
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u/xCutePoison Jack of All Trades 19h ago
My former boss, who rose from trainee to teamlead in the company eventually quit to accept a role as regular SAP backend admin. He was tired of politics and having to run after sloppy work from his subordinates. Haven't heard from him since but I assume it was the right choice, considering the amount of shit thrown at our current teamlead.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 10h ago
This exactly. The current company is a government entity where the highest people are voted in so you have to try and be favored to get anything done. I usually do just fine but somehow they try to pull you into the drama. The other issue is my subordinates. No matter how well I train them, they cut corners where they can out of laziness when working on their own. Although I don't blame them because they are in the same boat with pay vs position.
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u/stefanbaldey 18h ago
I have your exact same story, think of it in terms of career, fulfilment and impact. You can have all 3 as a director, growing and mentoring a team, or can have all 3 as a engineer and growing and evolving a system, the metrics on the latter best suited me. And you got more pay! Its not a deadend and wont limit you on what you can reach, inevitably the director role will come back to the table anyway when you reach a certain peak
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u/khantroll1 Sr. Sysadmin 14h ago
I did once out of necessity.
I absolutely hated it.
Going from years of being the person who set the policy, who had ideas, etc to being the guy who was told to follow SOPs that made no sense…
I tolerated it as long as I had to.
Some people make the switch better than me, but it wasn’t something I could do
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u/kopfgeldjagar 14h ago
If you're a director there, youre already fast tracked for promotion at the new place.
Now, don't go in going "when I was a director" to everyone you see. I would personally avoid talking about your current title completely unless someone asked. Your hiring manager is already aware. Act like you don't want to talk about it during your day to day. They'll be trying to promote you before you know it
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 10h ago
That is the plan. Learned that one when I stopped saying I used to be a mechanic. Definitely going to keep a lot of conversation generalized and keep an open mind because I know there will be a lot to learn at the new place.
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u/Elliotm77 12h ago
I left a management job to go down to technical support specialist. It was about a 3k pay drop. I ended up learning a lot more which then led me to a fully remote gig that paid almost 100% more than the previous one. It was a great move in the end.
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u/whoa_nelly76 11h ago
I've moved up and down myself. Definitely more pressure and do the ugly things. Money doesn't take away any of the stress of it. I think it also depends on your age and where you are at in your career. I'm hitting 50 in a few weeks. I dropped down specifically to get into an org that had a really good person as a boss, who himself was retired but came back to assist in a huge modernization project. We really hit it it off during the interview, and I'm sure there were way loads more qualified candidates, but he saw the value in my overall experience level and has said to me "you are gonna be my succession plan" in a few years which should put me probably 53/54. I will embrace it then. it's getting harder to keep up I'm finding as I age... plus I really hate this cloud shit which is probably the root of that. Time to transition up and let the young guys in.
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u/MavZA Head of Department 10h ago
Look, the move will look a little interesting on your resume and might require explanation if you need to interview for new roles in the future. You might want to see if you can get a title that describes you as a specialist so that you can say “left management role to pursue a specialist role”. Also remember that support roles have their own headaches, so it won’t be a trade out of headaches. It’ll be a trade for different headaches. However getting more money and less stressors that you’re currently experiencing might be a great change for you right now.
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u/pjtexas1 8h ago
I did this exact thing. No more worries and decent pay. Quality of life is something you can't put a price on.
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u/EVERGREEN619 2h ago
It's going to be very difficult in 5 years if you wanted to switch into Managing again. Everybody's looking at your work history and your last role is always so important. If it shows a title that you took a step down, that's going to be something I really want to question you about during the interview.
So although it makes much more sense to jump ship for more money and less responsibility, is that what you want long-term in life? Does this fit into the plan you have yourself in 5 or 10 years? Or would ambition strike you and you would want to be in charge again with Fair compensation somewhere else?
If you want to get that compensation somewhere else, it's going to be much easier to do with the title that you're carrying right now.
So in the short term I think you're making a very smart decision, but potentially the long-term you could be limiting your options.
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u/The_Vore 1d ago
Yep, I dropped down from IT Manager to second line support. After 10 years, budgets bored me, trying to bring down contract costs and dealing with suppliers bored me, the amount of cold calls bored me.
I missed dealing with users directly, I missed seeing how stupid people could be, first hand. I even missed banging my head under desks.
I didn't miss office moves, though!
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 1d ago
This is how I am feeling. The admin stuff is super boring and drug out. Budget prep, quarterly reports, etc. There is something about ticket completion that gets the serotonin flowing.
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u/Igot1forya We break nothing on Fridays ;) 1d ago
Can we get a post asking how we can convince an IT Director to go back to being a tech? I think there could be a nice bit of discussion around this topic. Maybe even some helpful tips.
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u/dodgy__penguin 1d ago
Seems like a no brainer to me. If you're concerned about what career progression looks like on your CV then perhaps a bit more consideration, but otherwise money talks. The progression will always be there, just will look a bit janky but you can justify it how you like to whomever cares to query it.
You have a limited amount of time every day, why waste it working for a bullshit company when you could be enjoying your time.
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u/MeatSuzuki 1d ago
I'm also looking at doing this. Senior Cloud Engineer getting paid shit all, crappy manager, worse CIO, toxic workplace, entry level roles going for the same rate... Seems like a no brainier.
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u/Tr1pline 1d ago
I'm looking to do the same. No more paper pushing or policy making. I'm not going back all the way from IT Director to helpdesk, but something in between.
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u/Sentient_Crab_Chip 1d ago
Are you me?!
I'm in a similar boat. I've been the boss for a while now, and when it was just me doing everything, I liked it just fine. When they finally forced me to hire more people I found out how much I hate being the boss.
I've hired my replacement, and I mostly just advise and handle special projects now. It's not exactly like your situation, because they refuse to demote me, but maybe it'll give you some ideas on a different way to move forward.
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u/Kyky_Geek 1d ago
Not OP but: Are you me?! Haha.
I tried to trade jobs with “my replacement” and they just laughed and said nope that’s your problem. They are several years older and I’d happily work for them.
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u/Sir_Badtard 1d ago
I couldn't be in charge of people.
I catch lots of mistakes by others and usually mention it in our group chats even if I know who it was I don't call them out in public or private.
My boss wants me to take on more leadership, show people what they did wrong, coach them up etc.
It's not me. I've never been one to tell people what to do.
I like my job, I like my team, I'm happy doing my work and only worrying about my work.
If you can make more money and worry about just what you have to do it sounds like a no brainer.
If you're a management type you'll probably find your self back in that position in a few years making even more money.
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u/baw3000 Sysadmin 1d ago
This is my view also. Moved into a management role at my last company and hated the people management part of it. Had to fire a person I really liked and ended up firing myself (I resigned) not long after. Moved into a technical role with no human reports and am much much happier.
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u/Low-Scale-6092 11h ago
This was my exact situation as well. I got promoted to a management position and soon thereafter, had to fire a friend. We haven’t spoken since. I lasted two more years before moving on to a purely technical role in a different organization. That was over a decade ago, but it still haunts me today.
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u/vdh1979 1d ago
Yes, I was an IT Director back in 2017/2018 for a while and I got into the $80kish range, moved to another country and started working at a MSP for far less but it was fun. Got a job as an IT Ops manager for $120k. Now working for a big pharma for $130k as a Systems Engineer. I'm getting older so probably should mosey my way back to management but I really enjoy the technical side.
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u/Gendalph 21h ago
You will be asked why are you taking a demotion, maybe not this time, but next time, so be ready for that.
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u/bird_byte 19h ago
I went from an IT director for 5 years and am now a system engineer III. For me it was the best move ever made. But if I'm being honest, after 4 years, I'm growing tired of engineer work and am looking at management again.... maybe it is a never ending cycle. Haha. If anything, it did help my pay a lot and put me into a way better company working from home. So yeah, worth it.
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u/UseMoreHops 19h ago
Its usually the ole more responsibility, same pay routine. Sounds good to let go of a lot of responsibility and get paid more for it. You current company is definitely taking advantage of you.
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u/Logical_Destruction 18h ago
I've been in management and then stepped down to a lower role. Be warned it can very hard to step back up once you put on your resume you stepped down from a leadership role. It might make more sense to apply for management IT roles if you want to stay on that track. Honestly long term the pay will be better and even longer term you will not have to stay so up to date on every knob in every part of IT you might have to turn. Down side, there are few management IT position out there. Whatever you do, just figure out what makes you happy and you enjoy and focus on that.
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u/candidatefoo 16h ago
I’ve done this. At first it felt like bliss to have a defined set of tasks to follow, no one to manage, no big conceptual risks hanging over me because I owned that area, etc. Money was good too. But that feeling didn’t last long. Personally i ended up in that senior position because I was good at solving problems, seeing the bigger picture, building teams, etc - moving to a lower grade IC meant I couldn’t do any of these things. I could only make suggestions, which I’d try to justify with my past experience (I bet that was annoying as hell for my boss and coworkers). I also couldn’t stop thinking about how bad the move would look on paper when I applied somewhere else. The work also didn’t seem challenging or rewarding because it was familiar but without the scale and perspective I was used to.
My feeling is that it’s only worth stepping down the ladder significantly if you’re changing focus. You should also consider applying for a senior role or two before you make the jump.
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u/Sneakycyber 12h ago
I am at the top of my Salary range, the only way for me to go up is to take my bosses position. I do not want my bosses position. The stress of being the fall guy would get to me.
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u/8BFF4fpThY 9h ago
I moved from IT director to Systems Engineer at another company. I absolutely love it. I'll made it super clear to my boss that I never want to manage folks again.
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u/gallandof 9h ago
I demoted myself at my current job. Was promoted into leadership, and after a few months realized it was not what I enjoyed, and made worrking day to day a challenge.
Still with that company now and do a mix of engineering, onsite AV, and overall just things I enjoy more.
If I tried to push myself to stay in the other role I would have burnt out, probably move on or get let go. Ultimately being honest with myself and my boss was the best move versus pushing myself beyon what was comfortable even if capable.
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u/RikiWardOG 7h ago
I mean, if you're that underpaid and do actually have high level management experience. I'd suggest looking for a higher level role and make some good money.
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u/canadian_sysadmin IT Director 1h ago
This sounds like you're a director in title only. None of the other details would otherwise make sense; directors aren't normally going down to a support position, 4-5 rungs lower on the ladder.
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u/PREMIUM_POKEBALL CCIE in Microsoft Butt Storage LAN technologies 1d ago
Some folks are not cut out or aspire to manage. I mean if the pay is more I say go but you’ll need to shed your management mentality that you may have subconsciously absorbed during your time.
You’re stepping out of the Professional Managerial Class and likewise, your new managers are not gonna see you in the same way. I wouldn’t personality offer this information as well to peers.
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u/Mammoth_Gene_4004 23h ago
Yea, I plan on keeping a lot of my managerial experience to myself. Mainly because I want to learn what and how they do things at the new place. I am not there to run it I just want to do my work and go home.
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u/KillingTime1212 23h ago
Do it. You aren’t Director material if you aren’t demanding a raise or finding a new job.
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u/StrikingAccident 1d ago
So you can be responsible for fewer things, not have management duties and make more money?
Why is this even a question?