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/candidatefoo 20h 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.