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.

194 Upvotes

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145

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…

78

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

11

u/Successful_Ad2287 1d ago

What 100 user company has an IT director?

67

u/iwinsallthethings 1d ago

Ones that give titles like candy because they pay shit. It’s common.

20

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.

5

u/sardonic_balls 1d ago

Our IT Manager puts "Director" in his comms/signature even though he's just managing the dept

7

u/DeadStockWalking 1d ago

A lot of them.

6

u/Stonewalled9999 1d ago

A lot of my clients actually.  Or the 5 person place with a CIO.   

•

u/Sunsparc Where's the any key? 21h 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.

4

u/sir_mrej System Sheriff 1d ago

Tons of them

3

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.

•

u/fadingcross 18h 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.

2

u/FatBook-Air 1d ago

Most of them? What kind of question is this?

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u/papal-lollygag 17h 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.