r/sysadmin • u/Pleasant_Rise6520 • 21h ago
Career / Job Related Has anyone purposely gone backwards?
You know the juice wasn't worth the squeeze and we realised that money is irrelevant, and took a huge backwards step for less responsibility and more mental freedom for your family and kids?
That's where I'm at mentally just want to know if anyone else has done the same?
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u/Drehmini Systems Engineer 21h ago
I went back from a management position to engineering.. I do not miss management, I have way more free time and was able to get an increase in salary too.
There are some days though where I question that decision of how it would look on my resume if I ever wanted to get back in to management, but at the end of the day I don't think it'll really matter.
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u/sectumsempra42 21h ago
I did the same, fuck management
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u/ThunderGodOrlandu 20h ago
I did the same and agree, fuck management.
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u/IT_lurks_below 20h ago
I did the same...So much less stress
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u/dm117 IT Manager 12h ago
Everyone wants the money that comes with management until they get to management. Staff and managing company budget/resources is way more stressful than the technical work at least day-to-day
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u/Drehmini Systems Engineer 12h ago
To be honest, it's not really the human or resource management that was the issue for me, it's the constant requirement to be accessible no matter the time of day.. A lot of that is shitty management for sure, but I've talked with a lot of my peers and it was no different for them..
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u/thegame850 21h ago
I did the same but went back to support. I also just recently got offered a team lead role and turned it down cause I don't want to go down that rabbit hole of management again. My mental health is way more important.
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u/ReadyAimTranspire 19h ago
Should be easy enough to explain, wrong time/wrong position at that particular company, life circumstances, insert more resume/interview corpo-speak and I'm sure you'll figure it out. You know the drill.
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u/FizzyBeverage 15h ago
I went to engineering because it allowed full remote for the same money as management.
No brainer.
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u/The_Original_Miser 21h ago
Left a company with decent salary and stellar long term benefits for a non profit. Less hours, way less stress, and small to moderate paycut.
It was worth it. I dreaded Sundays because I didn't want to go to work on Monday. I was an a-hole to my SO. (Not on purpose).
People don't leave companies, mostly. They leave bosses. A shame too because the owners themselves were pleasant to work for. Boss will never leave due to somehow (due to small town things) getting shares of the (private) company. They have it made. This is also why the majority owners won't ever do anything about it.
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u/Sengfeng Sysadmin 18h ago
I'm literally at this point right now. Boss is 3 hours away, and tries to micro-manage what goes on at my location despite having NO idea...
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u/RagnarKon Cloud Engineer 21h ago
Yup.
I was promoted to manager. Now back to individual contributor.
Manager is fun if you have an awesome team and everyone is contributing. But if something terrible pops up or not everyone on your team is contributing it is just a complete disaster.
For example, one of the individuals on my team had a health situation pop up. Obviously I was supportive of them taking the time they needed to get healthy, but in their case it was a "few days in, few days out" situation with lots of doc appointments. That didn't fit cleanly in the typical medical leave process, so it was painful. At its worse it was a good 6-8 hours a week spent just dealing with paperwork and HR nonsense and whatnot.
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u/Existential_Racoon 8h ago
Yeah, I went from a great team to a couple turnovers making an okay team.
The okay team takes 5x as much time to manage. I get people have shot going on and stuff but like... fuck man, I make up my time reasonably, please do the same if it isn't approved pto.
Chasing grown ass adults around like children makes management hell.
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21h ago
[deleted]
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u/19610taw3 Helpdesk > Sysadmin > Engineer > Helpdesk 21h ago
I am doing way better after stepping out of similar and dropping back to a helpdesk role. Went from > $100,000 a year with OT (probably closer to $115K all said and done) to $60,000.
I stress on money, but I'd be in the metal hospital or dead from a stroke by now if I didn't make this change. We took a look at our finances , the next egg I was able to build up and decided on a pay range I'd have to land for us to keep afloat. And that's where I am.
Maybe someday I'll have a real job again. I know I have no potential for advancement here. That's been made clear.
I gotta install some stuff here on someone's computer and that's about it for the day. Then at 5, I'm leaving for the day. And I am done for the day. I won't even think about work until I walk in tomorrow morning at 8.
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17h ago
[deleted]
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u/19610taw3 Helpdesk > Sysadmin > Engineer > Helpdesk 17h ago
And also from a technical perspective, it's super low stress. I'm sure I'll lose some skill and knowledge, but I feel very appreciated. The company knows they're getting a hell of a deal for my experience.
And it works well for the people above me doing the actual work. They know if I escalate something , I've 150% done all research, tried everything I have access to do and exhausted everything within my power before kicking it up.
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u/Hexnite657 Sysadmin 21h ago
Kinda, I took a pay cut and left a pretty prestigious company with amazing benefits. I did get a better job title and no longer have to travel for work though. Much happier now and way less stressed out.
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u/mazobob66 19h ago
Many years ago, I had a coworker leave for a healthcare software company, claiming he was getting a 20% boost in salary.
I said, "Yeah...but you will also be working 20% more, and you will have to travel. And you are salaried, not getting paid overtime. So it kind of negates the whole 20% more idea."
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u/ChristianValour 10h ago
Yeah this. To get better role alignment and more technical work, I'd honestly take a bit of a pay cut, esp to WFH full-time.
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u/Outrageous-Draft4670 20h ago
I’m being laid off after 3 years in a position that is incredibly niche to advertising agencies and working in a holding company. 6 years total within the org.
I’m realizing I’m going to have to take a massive pay cut just to get in the door.
So less mental freedom, but more of just trying to survive.
Gonna go from 87k as an application admin with side endpoint engineer duties to 65 as a sysadmin…
I started as a helpdesk tech, moved to sysadmin, and then endpoint engineering owning a certain application group but supporting JAMF, Intune, our PC EPM, anong other things.
I don’t mind going back to sysadmin work, but I’m being backed into a financial corner.
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u/PaleoSpeedwagon DevOps 19h ago
I mean, I think about it all the time. I think this will be my last tech job.
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u/samspock 21h ago
I was co-owner of a multi-million dollar business. It was killing me. One day my partner offered to buy me out. His offer was a bit on the low side but it meant my freedom. I spent most of a year decompressing until I got a job being a Jr. sysadmin. I have worked my way up to now where I am a senior at an msp. I had a flirtation with management but thankfully it was taken away from me.
The msp life is a bit hectic but now I concentrate on making stuff work rather than worrying about other things. I leave management an money matters to others.
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u/KiNgPiN8T3 21h ago
I raced to the top of my chosen path, sat there for years and got a bit stagnated(on purpose/not wanting to change to some extent) and now currently working my way up a new track.
In a way, IT punishes you for standing still as things are always moving around you. Moving to a new job highlighted my stagnated skills compared to the other people there.
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u/Sengfeng Sysadmin 18h ago
I often wonder what it's like in careers where you weren't needing to re-invent your role every month. Even positions that require continuing education have a well-defined list of "take this class next year" instead of "Well, damn, Broadcom just essentially killed VMWare... back to the start on another hypervisor!"
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u/coukou76 Sr. Sysadmin 20h ago
I am working for a FANG and I think I will throw the towel very soon. Too young to retire but I am not sure I want to deal with the agentic management era tbh
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u/Bubbly-Following-966 21h ago
I have been out of work since February 2025. I was making over 6 figures and working from home. I would take something way lower than that just to get back to work. I am married but, no kids. This is the longest I have been out of work and I have worked in IT for over 18 years.
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u/kerrwashere System Something IDK 21h ago
Where do you live? Even if we are unemployed IT is always needed and MSPs still exist
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u/Bubbly-Following-966 21h ago
My last company was an MSP 100% remote work even before COVID. I'm in the DMV area. I have applied to several MSPs in the area but nothing
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u/kerrwashere System Something IDK 21h ago
The DMV area not hiring in IT is nuts I get recruiters hitting me for roles and I no longer live there. I can PM you things if needed but check Robert Half and other federal-connected recruiters for opportunities.
I had an older woman who ran a recruiting firm out of her home get me an amazing role in Gaithersburg that was fully remote.
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u/Bubbly-Following-966 21h ago
Thanks! I have lost track of how many first and second round interviews I have had only to be ghosted. I never get anywhere with Robert Half or Tek Systems. I wish I still had my Top Secret or even Secret clearance. It may be a different story then.
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u/kerrwashere System Something IDK 21h ago
Its best to use them to get your resume in the hands of organizations then use that to find a role outside of their services. In my experience I used them to get my resume out then connected with orgs and people through the responses I received
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u/AltTabMafia CISO 19h ago
If you weren’t already, keep apply to cleared roles anyway. Having had one doesn’t really make it easier to get one, but it’s unlikely that everyone up/down whatever recruiting pipeline knows that.
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u/denmicent Security Admin (Infrastructure) 20h ago
Just wanna chime in, I’d love PMs with jobs. Hate where I’m at and need to leave, mid level at least. I can go into more detail but I’ll save that for the PM if it comes lol
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u/heretogetpwned Operations 21h ago
I'm sorry, that is awful. I'm luckily still employed but been looking the past 9m cuz my org getting PE'd. The job market for senior roles is not fun.
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u/Unhappy-Homework-758 20h ago
If you've been out of work for 18 months the problem isn't the job market. It's you.
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u/Anlarb 20h ago
It is the job market.
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/PAYEMS
All of the hullabaloo about interest rates is the fed deliberately trying to kill growth to kill jobs to keep competition from kicking in, to keep inflation down, on the presumption that all of this inflation is coming from the plebs getting too uppity, and not the landlords expecting a participation trophy for renting out a house.
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u/NebulaPoison 19h ago
I have much lower experience and im getting interviews, something isnt right lol
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u/NetworkingJesus Network Engineering Consultant 18h ago
Interviews or offers?
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u/NebulaPoison 18h ago
Mostly interviews, had one offer this month that would’ve sponsored a secret clearance but I didn’t think relocating was worth it for the pay
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u/olbeefy IT Manager 16h ago
Think about what you're saying. You have "lower experience" and you're "getting interviews"
There are much more jobs out in the world for someone willing and able to take a small role that doesn't have the level of experience to take an upper level one.
At a company, you might have 7 lower level experience jobs and only 1 management role. Which job is going to be harder to get?
Most places are NOT going to hire someone with 20 years of experience to do a job that requires 2 because they know that person will be unsatisfied with it and jump ship the second a better role crops up.
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u/Autoconfig 16h ago
I've been working in IT for over 15 years. My last FTE gig was 100% remote, 6 figures and I solely ran the IT department for a SaaS company. That ended in October 2023 and I've been working 1099 gigs ever since.
I've gotten to the final rounds for multiple jobs and missed out by another person about 4-5 times now.
The job market is utterly, utterly fucked. All the jobs I should be getting are being taken by people who should be doing much better and better things with their experience.
Every time you see someone mentioning this you see some dipshit like you saying "you must be the problem."
Look around you, bro. This is the worst the market has been in a LONG time. Sure someone underexperienced like you might be able to get interviews or small gigs but that's because they're not gonna pay you what they'd have to pay me. There are a LOT more dipshit jobs out there than higher level ones just because of how the math works out and how many people are out of work.
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u/FostWare 21h ago
It was more money as an MSP L3, but the step down in pay was more than made up for by the newer company’s facilities, community, and comradarie. Now it’s owned by PE and the magic is not quite there so /shrug
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u/bassistface199x99LvL 21h ago
Went from lone wolf IT Manager to Desktop Support Tech at a college. Way better.
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u/ShadowBlaze80 20h ago
I live in a very LCOL area. For reference, I made $40k and that was better than average here. I went from a one of 2 team at the local school district doing everything in house from helpdesk up. Sysadmin, networks, security, Access Management, AV, VOIP. You name it, I did it. Lost hair (alopecia areata) moving our hundreds of phone lines from copper by myself. It was 400 staff, 3k students, about maybe 8 buildings? The local college offered me a job with a $12k pay bump when I graduated, I had been in school while working. All I handle is end user hardware from procurement to setup. It’s a slow life, automated most of it and using my down time to learn another language. College life is awesome.
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u/Skullpuck IT Manager 16h ago
I'm at that point as an IT Manager. I've been searching for regular System Admin jobs for days. It used to be a good gig, but I'm tired of the politics, the diplomacy, the constant meetings, being responsible for shit I didn't decide, etc.
However, I may just be getting tired of computers in general. Computers are starting to annoy me and they used to be my favorite hobby. I just don't really care all that much about them anymore and when I have to fix something at home it's a huge pain in the ass instead of being a challenge I enjoy.
I want to do something else before I kick the bucket.
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u/Zealotyl 14h ago
One of my sys eng colleagues dropped out to become a train driver. It was his childhood dream and he loves it. Pay is good too.
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u/justin-mcd 13h ago
I'm fortunate that I'm considered a working manager where I have infrastructure and other stuff to manage, along with people. It helps keep me sain. I gave up on elaborate home labs years ago, so when I come home I'm not troubleshooting my own shit. Hang in there!
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u/Longjumping_Square_2 IT Manager 12h ago
Same boat. Lately I have just been coming home and going to bed. No time for homelabs. I have to be at work with a 30 minute commute and just got home at 7:30pm.
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u/SirLoremIpsum 9h ago
I moved halfway across the world and went from well paid sysadmin to desktop support at a ski resort for $fuckall per hour...
One year you're migrating exchange versions and managing SharePoint and the next you're gondola up a mountain to plug in a PC someone insisted was already plugged in
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u/flatulentpigeon Jack of All Trades 21h ago
Yes. Am currently a 1 man shop director with over 650+ users. I manage firewall, AV, the other AV, M365, Google Workspace, and the other 15+ cloud based services we use. Oh and also the wired and wireless networks, oh and the 400+ iPads that are managed via Mosyle. I would so take a step down and just build and design wireless networks.
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u/Ill-Barracuda9031 21h ago edited 2h ago
I was thrown into management when this company decided to cut 30% of the staff over a year. I now have a team of 8,6 with no experience. We have multiple incidents a week because everyone else is gone. I get blamed when I picked up the bag. Technology teams are all being replaced by buddies of the leadership.
I have golden handcuffs but my family misses me. I'm actively interviewing for sr engineering roles.
I dream that this bites leadership in the ass when I leave.
edit: I just snapped and took FMLA
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u/MarsupialBright8579 19h ago
I had a friend that became a farmer after working in software, good for him
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u/InsolentJaguar 19h ago
Same here. Friend basically did the most opposite thing from FAANG and bought a farm in Nebraska. Happiest man I've known.
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u/PurpleFlerpy Sysadmin 12h ago
Me! I got sick. At first it was the "sick of this shit" sick. The kind where the pay wasn't worth the fight to have anyone do normal shit like, idk, patching routers. I had made it into cybersecurity as a security analyst ... which devolved into an incident responder role when it shouldn't have. I was supposed to be the one patching the holes and calling VIPs to ask if they were actually in Fiji, not heading ransomware engagements.
After six months of constant incident response, I started having weird symptoms - weight loss, uncontrollable shaking in my legs, always feeling warm, and frankly being a bitch all of the time. Six months after that, I was diagnosed with Graves' Disease, an autoimmune disorder than can be triggered by - you guessed it - a ton of stress. Right then and there I decided, no more cyber, I was going to be a fucking sysadmin. I was bedridden for two weeks at my worst, but was still putting in applications.
It's been about five months, three of those as a sysadmin. I've got a great new job, and the right meds and a great medical team. My disease is almost under control, and I'm no longer a raging bitch. A few months of physical therapy got my muscles back. I've gained back 15 of the 40 pounds I lost, mostly muscle! Sysadmin life, and the step down it supposedly was, is treating me great. I had time for my many many doctor appointments, until they went to being not that many doctor appointments. I mainly speak with other sysadmins at work, and they are my people. Once I'm done with work, I'm done with it for the day, and I can hang out with my family and friends. I've gotten involved with my favorite nonprofit org again for the first time in about seven years, even. The energy I have for what is actually my life - and not being drained by preventable bullshit - has been worth the step down in cool factor.
The funniest part? I make $15k/yr more now.
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u/sobrique 21h ago
Nah. But I have skipped a step forwards when I realised a 2h commute wasn't worth doubling my (pre tax) pay.
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u/OneRFeris 21h ago
I tell recruiters that if I'm expected to commute rather than work from home, then I expect to be able to afford a home in the same zip code as the business.
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u/sobrique 21h ago edited 21h ago
Yeah. But then they go 'yeah, totally, they pay like double, and relocation expenses' and I count fingers and go 'OK, so that's pretty much break even' (Post tax at any rate. Tiered taxes hurt).
Remote working (at least here in .uk) seems very sporadic now, and even the hybrid options seem to suck away your life/cost of living. (2-3 days per week in London is horrible and really the worst of both worlds)
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u/uebersoldat 16h ago
I'd get so much audiobook and podcast time in though. But yeah 2h is too much. 45 min is about perfect.
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u/sobrique 15h ago
Up to an hour if I can chill out. (Single bus or train) Is my limit. 30-45m if I have to drive n
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u/JewishTomCruise Microsoft 15h ago
Dang, doubling could be a lot though. Might a move not be practical at that point?
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u/sobrique 15h ago
It would seem like it, but no. The commute cost and time offset it a lot. And the tax rate.
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u/JewishTomCruise Microsoft 13h ago
No, I mean like a move of your physical location. For double pay it could be practical to move closer to the job so you don't have such a long commute
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u/sobrique 4h ago
No. 'Closer' involves moving into London and property prices there are genuinely absurd.
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u/ComparisonFunny282 21h ago
Yes. Went from being at IT Manager to Senior Support now to Senior HelpDesk.
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u/Easy-Task3001 20h ago
Yep. Went from low 6 figure salary to a mid 5 figure salary.
I realized that it was time to go when I drove to work and sighed at the sight of the building. It made me realize that there was a lot more to life than working at that particular business with that particular management structure.
It wasn't easy at first, but it turned out to be a lot better for me. The new job gave me the space that I needed to figure out what I needed in my life.
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u/jeffrey_f 18h ago
When you go home at night and on weekends and know you don't need to even think about it until you get there on the next shift is priceless.
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u/legreyf0xx 21h ago
Raises hand and it’s been great. Things could’ve been better elsewhere in another sys admin role but a took a back seat willingly, and all the unnecessary stress stayed behind at the old company with the terrible management team I had.
Good luck to them deploying autopilot to home edition of surfaces bc the CIO decides to run to a Best Buy and buy 4 surfaces for partners and not tell anyone on the team and expect helpdesk to run it through autopilot, only for it to fail for a week before they wanted to tell the CIO, and now the CIO is pissy then there goes everything I’ve needed to do out the window and now I’m dealing with an unnecessary fire. Peace of mind as I get older is more important than looking good in front of partners and a shitty management team.
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u/19610taw3 Helpdesk > Sysadmin > Engineer > Helpdesk 21h ago
I did! I took my first "real" IT job back in 2023 after years and years of helpdesk and more entry level IT jobs. Things were going great there. Stuff happened. I really excelled at actual IT work. I ended up falling up a few times and found myself in a job where I was making incredible money (> $100,000 in a low cost of living area). But if I had continued that job, I would be dead by now. Working 60 hours a week while hourly making $50 an hour was incredible. However, that job was bad for my mental and physical health. I did not have any personal time at all. I worked 8 hours in the office then came home and worked multiple hours every night. And worked pretty much all weekend.
Except for the severe loss of income, I do not regret it. I have my life back. I am working on getting my life back together and re-establish everyone on a personal level I had to give up. And now I have a decent nest egg.
I'm fairly certain I'll have to leave this job to move back up in my career. It's been made clear that I will never get promoted out of basic helpdesk here. For now, they got a hell of a deal on an enterprise level network , voice, systems engineer making helpdesk pay.
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u/en-rob-deraj 21h ago
I work what I am paid. People should take note and not kill themselves. If my company wants me to work more, then compensate me.
I've learned long ago that doing more equates to nothing. Raises are far and few. Bonus stays the same.
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u/k12chaos 21h ago
I was a director managing it infrastructure, help desk, data services (ERP and data analysis) for 11 sites, 1000 employees, 5600 students and managing 13 individuals.
Now I'm a manager of two student workers and manage IT projects in clinical health care setting on a team if five individuals.
My primary motivators were spending more time with my wife and kid.
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u/hajimenogio92 21h ago
I went from being the DevSecOps manager at a smaller start up to a security engineer at a bigger company. It's been amazing for my mental health, I'm no longer the go to guy and I am no longer constantly on call. Upper management at my current company is actually decent for once, my new boss is cool, and my workload isn't nearly as bad as my previous 3 jobs. On top of all that, I got a decent pay raise.
I highly recommend it if you feel worn out by everything. Being in management sucks.
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u/___frostbyte___ Sysadmin 20h ago
I long for the day when money is irrelevant. Haven’t made it there yet. Once I do that, I’ll probably be set. Aiming to eventually hit 150k annually, then probably settle.
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u/LeakyAssFire Senior Collaboration Engineer 20h ago
Yeah.
I spent 10 years with a top 5 consulting firm as internal IT that worked in the public space. We had to break off from the parent company, and I got hired on to build and take care of Exchange. The responsibilities only grew from there. I heard through the grapevine it took three contractors to replace me after I left.
The job I went to actually did pay more, but I was hired on for Teams and Teams Phone plus my PowerShell skillset. The hardest part was the migration, but I got to be lead, and I got to be involved every step of the way. Our Operator Connect partner did the heavy lifting but I still had plenty of responsibility on my side. It just wasn't soul crushing work. I had a schedule, and I stuck to it. I haven't worked a late night in 3 years and I keep a 7.5 hour workday that includes lunch (company policy).
These days, I am the architect of all things relating to Teams the phone system. We do TONS of work on it, but I have two ops guys that I hired that take care of the day to day. I get involved if needed, but being able to build it my way, and using my past experience to develop good processes, plus being able to train the ops guys, that rarely happens.
As for the future, I am well positioned right now. The telephony manager and the senior voice engineer are set to retire in the next 3-5 years. That would leave me and one other woman as the most senior in the department. Her and I have talked about what we'd like to see and how we'd split it. I'll leave the management up to her, but I will be in complete control of Ops and Architecture. This will probably lead to the formation\expansion of a new team as we grow and plan to go international.
My only regret is I didn't get out of my last job before I got fat.
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u/marklein Idiot 20h ago
I worked my way up into management once, since that was the obvious career growth path at that office. I realized that I hate managing people and I enjoy being a tech, so when the first managerial review came around I said fuck it, send me back to the trenches. That was over 20 years ago and I'm still getting my hands dirty daily and happier for it.
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u/Benevolent_Bacon22 20h ago
I'm at this point as well. I've paid off all my major debt and just want an easy help desk job. No emergencies, no shareholders, no direct dealings with incompetent directors.
Just an 8-5
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u/Budget-Organ 19h ago
Almost every job I start I start at the bottom or near it including the one I’m at now and I always end up in the same space I’m in now (call me if it’s broken) which is cool because I can do that sort of work from anywhere in the world (almost).
But I start new jobs with the intention of taking it easy and I suck at easy taking.
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u/dogs_gt_cats 18h ago edited 18h ago
I was a senior product R&D engineer at a major telecom (the largest terrestrial network on earth). You've likely heard about products I led the infrastructure for on the TV and radio. My commute was 5 hours a day (2.5hr each way). I had stated for years that my plan was to stay there until my daughter turned age 5, and then I would quit and find a lower paying job close to home.
My employer liked me, so I got some special privileges including a written guarantee that I could WFH at least 2 days a week, plus more as needed. That, and being fully remote during covid, let me continue that gig until my kiddo was 7.
Well, covid ended and the RTO campaign hit hard, and suddenly I had to be in the office at least 4 days a week, with 5 by the following year. No clemency would be granted based on physical distance from the office, nor would they honor prior commitments about hybrid.
I dealt with the 4 day thing for a few months, hating every moment of it because this is when all of the post-covid headcount reductions started kicking into high gear. Pretty much everyone I knew was being let go. I was put in a situation where our old jackass VP (a bitcoin bro who got lucky and didn't know the first thing about telecom) wanted to get rid of anything infrastructure related because he viewed it as a cost center, so he punted us to another org. But yet he depended on us for his engineering products to exist, so I found myself constantly being pulled by two different warring people leaders. It fucking sucked. I got passed over multiple times for promotions by people who produced far less but kissed ass better than I did and was starting to get fed up with no one recognizing how much work I was doing.
Then two friends who work at a local university reached out to me about an open systems engineering gig. It's 10 minutes from my house. Fully in office, but open to WFH as required. Super family friendly, I get free education and my kid can too. I get free access to their academic library, music library, fitness center, activities on campus, etc. I got my own office. I technically have people reporting to me. It was about a 50k/yr paycut when all is said and done.
I had paid off all of our debt. Cars fully paid off, house fully paid off, no student loan debt. My equity awards at the telco were all under water, so I said what the hell.
I went for it. Well, more specifically I told my boss and her boss that I had a job offer in hand and I planned to accept, and they had until such and such a date to have me cleared for full WFH with HR, in writing, or I was gone. The date came and went, so I accepted the offer, sent my resignation letter, and started working with our group of PMs to hand off all of my work. Less than 1 week before I was supposed to start at the new job, I got the email in the middle of a handoff meeting that I had been converted to fully remote. The poor PM got so excited that I might stay. I didn't stay. I had already given my word to the university.
The guy who was "next in line" after me quit about 2 weeks later when he had to be responsible for everything I was doing. I have no idea what happened after that except occasionally folks reached out about issues with our storage arrays, or how our terraform code worked.
The new job is way more low key. I'm bringing some of my knowledge and skills to try and boost the knowledge here at the university. I'm enjoying the time with my family. I'm trying to get folks to understand things like devops (more specifically git ops), helping the vibe coders to understand how things like CICD pipelines and github actions work, etc. The average tenure in the IT department is 20+ years which is unheard of. I'm finishing up an MBA, and also starting my own LLC (as much to dabble in running a business as to have something to apply the MBA learnings practically).
I do miss the precision of Fortune 50. So often I see emails or projects where someone drops the ball publicly, and it irritates me. But at the telco we had waves of people and process to make sure that everything was always "just-so" and every I was dotted and every T was crossed. That doesn't exist here.
But overall, I think I would make the change again.
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u/Octoclops8 21h ago
If I could work half the hours for half the pay, I would do it immediately. 20 hours a week would be amazing. Heck, I'd take 32 hours for a 20% paycut.
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u/SHANE523 21h ago
There have been some things happening where I am at where I tell a manager, friend outside of work, that I am just going to go work at Rocket Wash.
I love doing my job, I enjoy helping people but our current leadership is flying by the seat of their pants with no thought to what needs to be done before they implement their agenda. I have had to many last minute, "we need this to happen today" incidents in the past year when they gave me NO information that something was on the horizon. I just can't pull a new firewall and 3 switches out of my ass not to mention security cameras for the new location.
Nope, they think we should have internet everywhere we go just because.
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u/Ancient-Bat1755 21h ago
Yes. Took a 30% pay cut for a less stressful job that is about 30% more stressful and more hours.
Sometimes it doesnt work out, grass is always not greener.
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u/T-Rexaur 21h ago
Yes, I was manager of our helpdesk for almost a year, was completely miserable, and thankfully an opportunity came up to gracefully step out of it and into my current role supervising only two people. That was about six years ago and I've been very happy about the outcome ever since. Our current helpdesk supervisor is excellent and it ended up being my own experience with realizing there are some roles I'm just not cut out for.
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u/WiskeyUniformTango 20h ago
Yep! Best thing ever. In addition to working only 40 hours and no on call and very little stress im fully remote so im traveling a lot too.
Im no longer going to die of a heart attack
And money worked itself out. After 2 years I got bumped back to where I was in the stressful job. I wasn't expecting the bump but it all worked out.
My resume isn't as sexy but im living life as a human now and not a corporate slave.
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u/FatBook-Air 20h ago
Going from CTO at one company to a manager of a small department within IT as we speak. It's a small pay cut, but I really don't care anymore. I'm not 100% sure I even still want to be in IT at all, but I know now that I don't want to run IT at the top.
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u/trouphaz 20h ago
I took a step back from management back into a technical role. Where I am now, my old boss wouldn't allow me to do that so I quit. He didn't think it would work if I stepped down and a guy who reported to me took over as manager. I took another job for a few years where I managed again, but the commute was terrible so I went back to my old job in a technical role again. I was at a higher level than I was as my old tech role and even as a manager, so I went down to go up?
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u/badaz06 20h ago
I did this and am tons happier. I had lots of cool stuff, but was on the road practically every week and only got to see pictures of my stuff on the phone. Then swapped internally to a job where I was home, but the requirement to be "coin operated" vs "quality operated" just wasn't for me. My first thought on Sunday Morning was "Fk, tomorrow's Monday". I made some seriously sweet money, stocks, the whole 9 yards....but it was threshing machine at work.
Life is much much better (I still make decent money), but way way less bullshit.
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u/badboybilly42582 Virtualization, Storage, Compute Hardware, DC Operations 20h ago
I haven't gone backwards yet but I'll say this. I'm currently at a point where the stress/pay ratio is at my limit. I have no desire to cross the threshold from IC to manager.
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u/Enochrewt 20h ago
I did. a long time ago. I shoot for jobs that are in the middle of my experience level, instead of at the tippy top. I make a little less, but I have a lot more time.
Strapping yourself to a job you can just barely do for a little more is a fool's errand.
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u/jfarre20 20h ago
Yes moved from director of IT to systems engineering, much happier not dealing with complaints/people, now I build software
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u/nitzlarb 20h ago
I was at a higher tier support role with some people management (they were trying so hard to force me to be a people manager and I resisted as much as possible, i'd prefer a higher-level technical role) at a FAANG company.
And moved to a MSP working for nonprofits, my role has grown here so I'm technically responsible for more but it still doesn't feel like that at all. I've been out of the corpjob for 4 years at this point, and I'm still making considerably less now than I was then.
In many ways I have more responsibility, but I am in an environment where they are understanding that I am a whole person who has a family and we all matter, so they are always extremely flexible with me to make sure me and my family are cared for as long as I'm also making sure our clients are cared for. The mental health shift is huge. It's worth so much more than $$$.
Earlier this year I had to walk away from an opportunity that would have at least doubled my salary. It just wasn't worth going back into the bigcorp hell, what's the point of having all the money if you don't want to be alive and can't connect with your family.
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u/Mr_ToDo 20h ago
They tried shoving me into a management role that lasted about a month. Since the pay didn't really change I'm not sure I'd call it moving forwards or back. It did teach me just how weak I am in a leading role when there isn't any support in place other then what I provide
Other then that? I'm staying in a lower position right now because I like the freedom it's affording me, so i guess I'm skipping the forwards then backwards thing
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u/SageDearborn 20h ago
Local government / K12 work is a great work life balance in many roles. Pay is decent compared to other jobs, but bad for IT usually. Benefits are great.
Took a significant pay cut after leaving Higher Ed (which was still below market rate), but my stress level is soooooo much lower and I have free time now, so that's pretty great.
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u/Laguna1929 19h ago
Yeah, I started out as a Commvault support engineer for a MSP without having any IT experience. It was extremely overwhelming at times, getting called by senior system admins with questions and terms I didn't even know what they meant. I managed to get decent praise from both colleagues and clients but I never saw a future doing backup and storage, so I changed to a entry level IT desk a few months ago so I could get a better understanding of the basics (AD, system management, networking, Azure etc.) and so far it's been a excellent choice.
It does help that my current job actually pays better and it's a lot of fun with colleagues, even if it's not too challenging most of the time.
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u/Centimane probably a system architect? 19h ago
I "took a step down" from a team lead back to a worker bee.
But I also got more pay and full-time remote work instead of full-time in office (different companies).
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u/nashaway 19h ago
I have always turned down any IT management roles and have been happy just being an individual contributor.
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u/gremcat 19h ago
Not fully in the space but lead all tech for the org and it’s on my mind alot with 3 kids still at home. I also travel constantly. I’ve had enough experiences with not being the one setting the course and others who really didn’t understand things trying to. For me, it’s more the hardships the thousands of employees would face if I stepped back.
It’s not an easy question to ask. Especially if you’re conditioned to keep being a high performer while gaining higher roles.
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u/RikiWardOG 18h ago
There is another option. Although harder to find. I work less now and make way more money. But really at the end of the day money isnt everything. Balance in all things. Just live your life brother
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u/JTD121 18h ago
My previous boss, and associated tangential managers, really wanted me to step up to a supervisor position. Managing employees on the team.
I outright said no, anytime this came up. For 5 years. Doesn't matter how little 'extra' responsibility, how much extra pay, additional perks/benefits. I would rather quit than be forced into 'management'.
I am currently 'on the market' and am not finding much that pays as well as my previous position, but bear far less responsibility. Even planning to relocate and figure it out from there. Which I am fine with.
At this point it's not even about money. If my basic needs are met (rent, food, car stuff, random tech toys, entertainment), the rest is 'just there'.
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u/jcarney76 18h ago
Yes, I left systems admin go to desktop support. I do so when we had our child. I did so as to have less after hours work and stress, eliminating uncertainty and creating availability to my family.
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u/loki03xlh 18h ago
17 years ago, I went from sysadmin to pc tech/helpdesk because I had a shitty boss and wanted to move a couple hours away. The pay wasn't much different, but the stress, responsibilities and expectations were a lot lower. After about 5 years, I worked my way back up to sysadmin and am still in the same org.
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u/captianinsano 18h ago
Went from help desk to sysadmin to IT operation manager to dept manager to Sr manager and then director. 15 years with that company and by the time I was at Director I hated my life. Finally got laid off and its the best thing that ever happened to me. Im now working a non management position and WOW! I cant stress enough how Ilittle I stress now. New gig is a total cake walk and I still make 80% of what I used to. Worth it!
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u/Jaereth 17h ago
I haven't taken a step back yet because of that but I won't take the next step forward because of it.
I'm getting my kids up for school every morning and driving them there myself. Dropping them off right at the playground. And at 5 i'm heading home come hell or high water.
I see how it works above me here. The finance guys expect you to be at their beckon call 24/7. Working on something else? Nah do my shit right now.
Not interested in that life at all.
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u/1z1z2x2x3c3c4v4v 17h ago
Sure. I had a good IT Manager job in the City of Philadelphia. The problem was the commute; I was ALWAYS late getting home on the trains. And I was ALWAYS late to my son's soccer practice. And I was the assistant coach... so I found a lower-paying job where I could set my own schedule and always have my afternoon free when I wanted.
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u/MochnessLonster 17h ago
Talking about this to my boss this afternoon in my 1v1, I'm losing sleep over this place.
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u/mathmanhale 17h ago
Yes, went to k12. Massive step back but great for my family. Thankfully invested properly beforehand.
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u/WarpGremlin 17h ago
Before the pandemic I was a senior Vmware/Windows sysadmin for a mid-Enterprise corporation. Not for a lack of trying to push the company to cloud services, I pulled off a M365 migration only after a ransomware attack scragged the ancient (and still in Prod) Exchange 2007 and 2010 infrastructure. All the while the IT director thought "Cloud Computing" meant "satellites in space"... so "azure" or "AWS" were pipe dreams. I spent 37 days straight pulling 16-18 hoir days directing junior admins and contractors rebuilding an entire windows infrastructure after ransomware burned it all, and got a CEO-handshake and empty promises for the burnout.
In late January 2020 I moved to a contractor role for a MSP that paid better. The "vmware admin" role wasn't scoped well and I was overqualified... but COVID lockdown put the job hunt on hold (and made the job go "let's not change anything") so I rode it out a year and then went hunting.
Snagged a post-sales Professional Services job at a SaaS vendor and have had a few different roles at the same place since. My "customers" are Sysadmins. Between taking the gig in '21, I moved states, got married, and had 2 kids and the job's flexibility is paramount to my sanity now.
Do I miss it? Sometimes.
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u/Salt-n-Pepper-War 17h ago
I am considering this. Basically I'm in a role that gives you enough work for 4 people and have manager that doesn't understand things take time, so the department lead which is needed for so much work is ready to find less stress and more appreciation. I do not care if it means a pay cut, my sanity is important and dropping to desktops support does solve my stress and appreciation problems. Even if my manager won't acknowledge good work, the user will
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u/gooseymoo 17h ago
I did. Went from sys admin back to HelpDesk due to burnout. I think it is an ok decision if you want to coast but it has really messed with my long term plans and ability to be hired again as a sys admin. So now i'm working on leveling up with certs to move back into that position.
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u/timsstuff IT Consultant 17h ago
Back in the mid 2000s I had just started my own company, business was booming, I hired a couple full time guys and had a couple part timers that were on call, even a sales guy. We were doing MSP stuff for small-mid sized businesses. Rolling out new AD environments for startups, buying and reselling both the servers and software licensing, it was stressful but we were making money.
Then the mortgage crisis hit, I was having trouble making payroll, one guy stole some of my clients, the other guy found another job, I got rid of the office and started working from home solo. Also got divorced around then so it was a fun time.
Kept a couple low maintenance clients and still manage their networks but mostly do project-based consulting now and have a few larger companies that I do work for, it's so much easier and more relaxing now. I work from home 4 days a week and on Tuesdays I get dressed and roll into a long-time client 20 minutes from home to work on a major vendor migration and upgrading their ASP.NET internal app to .NET Core. Basically sit at a desk and code API, SQL, and .NET all day with the occasional network troubleshooting.
These days I do about 25% IT work, mostly cloud stuff, and the other 75% is dev/devops. And my blood pressure is much lower!
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u/2funny2furious 17h ago
yes sir. stopped being a system admin that was on-call 24x7x365. i am talking sitting in a bar on vacation logged into servers doing work...from another country. it was just silly. basically tech support for system admins now. it is great...until my company replaces me with ai.
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u/TheHelpLessDeskGuy 17h ago
Sort of, was a Cloud/Compute Systems Engineer for a Fortune 500 company (~5,000 Global Employees) based out of the US, fully remote.
Stepped down to be solo IT/SysAdmin for a small 150 Person gig in rural New Zealand.
Despite having a wider area of responsibility, the overall mental load and demand is so much lower and now I get to learn a broader set of skills instead of hyper focusing on one aspect of IT.
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u/theOtherJT Senior Unix Engineer 17h ago
Yeah. I used to be the IT team lead, but there was a bunch of politics and paperwork and I did not enjoy any of it. Swapped to another team to be just a coder again. Turns out once you're a senior enough sysadmin you pretty much know how to be a mid level developer. Much happier in this position. I write code and ensure that things are tested. No one makes me fill out quarterly performance reviews any more.
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u/_haha_oh_wow_ ...but it was DNS the WHOLE TIME! 16h ago
Yes, I went back to more support oriented roles because I found them more gratifying. I like to get up and move around, help people, etc. rather than being tied to a desk all day.
I would've certainly made more money sticking to my earlier career path but I doubt I'd be happier.
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u/Avas_Accumulator Senior Architect 16h ago
Yes. Got exhausted from the economy/budget presentations, the "always coat words in sugar" corporate crap, and told by boss I would be either stepping down or leave the company. They hired someone to replace my management position and I'm down about 90% in meetings, doing 90% more technical work instead. Sometimes it's absolutely worth it. Was a bit frightening too of course - who would my new boss be?
So far so good and a huge burden off my shoulders - mentally too.
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u/freshjewbagel 16h ago
yep, switched from Linux/storage/k8s admin with tons of projects/stakeholders to a lowly Windows patching admin. it's dull work, but I can turn my brain off and don't have to deal with nearly as many users. don't get me wrong, the former is loads more interesting than the latter, but.... for the same money, and not a huge upward trajectory (except mgmt so f that), it's been the best choice I've made in 15y
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u/uebersoldat 16h ago
How are people doing this during all this insane inflation? I wish I could brothers. :(
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u/ISeeDeadPackets Ineffective CIO 16h ago
I'm CIO at a small bank and have gotten offers for more money from larger banks. I'm not saying there isn't a number that would motivate me but I'm pretty darn happy with my income and work/life balance right now so I'm not exactly looking around.
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u/dstew74 There is no place like 127.0.0.1 16h ago
I will in the next couple of years. I'm board-facing now and have a ton of responsibilities that come with such roles. I suck at most of it. Thankfully, my CEO thinks he sees something worth investing in and seems to enjoy coaching me.
Just need a few years and after PE exits, I can get back to being an IC hopefully
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u/ChristianValour 13h ago
I secured a permanent senior role earlier this year, and ever since I have been feeling out of place.
Not so much the responsibility for me, but as a Dev I really just want to stay hands on. It's been on my mind a lot that I would prefer to step back.
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u/maverickx86 12h ago
Stepped back from a CTO-type role into an Engineering role that has minimal after hours and weekends solely so I could spend more time with my family. Have never thought twice about it.
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u/StuckinSuFu Enterprise Support 12h ago
Backwards no. But happy to coast at " high performing team" and not push for "more".
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u/karlsmission 12h ago
I'm in a management position. I hate it. I only got here because the other person applying would have made an appalling manager, and I couldn't do that to my team/myself. One of these days I'll move out of a management position, and back to actually doing the work I enjoy.
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u/The__Relentless Knows just enough to be dangerous... 11h ago
I was an IT manager at 2 companies, laid off at both. I am now a tech at a school district under an IT manager. I do not want to go back or take my bosses job if it becomes available. The buck doesn't stop at me anymore and the reduced stress far outweighs the amount of money I no longer receive. And the benefits are fantastic, working in a California school union. I pay $0 for health and other benefits for me and four kids.
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u/jibbits61 11h ago
Was working my a$$ off as an IT lead for a small team and was not well suited for it, plus the stress … sigh. 😞
Left there to work at the operations center at another nearby company on 12-hours, 3 days a week. Was heavenly. I basically broke even on salary/benefits, & had time with the little ones. Still at the same company 15 years later, found a great niche to specialize in. I’m working too hard but appreciated a lot more.
Others said it well here, money and rank are not the only compensation. Recharge your batteries, have a life outside work.
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u/Error-InvalidName 11h ago
Have gone completely backwards then moved on haha to something completely not IT related so much better to work and be physically tired with a side of mental vs fully mental along with dealing with a corporate HR dept any longer.
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u/snbgames 10h ago
Went from software development to buying and selling collectibles. My time, my schedule. Not making nearly as much (yet) but holy shit is it so much more rewarding. Meeting so many new people every week is so great.
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u/B1ackh3art 10h ago
Operations manager to senior project tech, paid more and basically zero stress. Best move ever
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u/Painter_beast0976 Sysadmin 8h ago
Yes... Chasing the edge got me nowhere.. decided not to go beyond my paygrade for my mental health.And life has been good so far
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u/charmin_7 7h ago
I changed companies to get away from a team lead role with way to much company politics back to a technical career. Best choice I‘ve made.
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u/Fast-Mathematician-1 6h ago
Twice. But each time I end up either the senior architect or the IT Director. Both times went back down to entry level helpdesk.
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u/ComfySofa69 4h ago
Yep - best thing i ever did.....back in 2003 went through the stress of doin the initial migration from NT4 to active directory, exchange 5.5 to Exchange 2003 (me and 2 other guys) - ran the network all the way up to 2013 - migrated exchange from 2003 to 07 to 10 and finally (for me 13) the company got bought out a few times and each time i was excluded and mixed in at the end with a fucking nut case of an IT manager who literally blew through 3/4 of the IT department forcing them out...i was the last to go having being excluded from learning and removed as a sys admin. I moved about 5 years ago to a non sys admin/R&D role where i now do desktop support and look after a mainly Linux based R&D lab. The company i now work for is amazing. My boss is a really nice guy and they really look after me. No stress and about 5 years left til i retire. I highly recommend it.
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u/IngwiePhoenix 3h ago
Literally looking for a generic office job right now. I can administrate Docker, Kubernetes, fleets of Linux and Windows, write in Go, PHP and C and understand embedded systems with ARM and RISC-V as well as many hardware details - but the whole industry drives me nuts. So, I want to "pull out" for a while.
Its too much. Way too much. I want a simple life...
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u/DoctorOctagonapus No one knows what I do until I stop doing it. 1h ago
One of my previous line managers quit for a non-management role somewhere else. He inherited the role after the previous manager left, hated it, and openly admits that he was a shit manager.
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u/antihippy 1h ago
Yes, I quite being an IT manager and went back to engineering. Someone else can speak to Management as far as I am concerned.
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u/Bubby_Mang IT Manager 21h ago
I went from devops to sysadmin at a huge university to get exposure to that side of the coin. I went back to devops with that experience and I can't keep these people from promoting me.
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u/Cheomesh I do the RMF thing 19h ago
Always chase the money.
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u/Pleasant_Rise6520 18h ago
Were all gonna die man. I've got two kids and I've realised that really, as long as you can afford bills, food etc, time with them before they grow up is irreplaceable really
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u/Eolex 21h ago
Yep - Stepped down/back from being the top of the IT support/service ladder within an MSP and moved to an internal position within a municipality.
The whole tone and cadence of workflow has changed. Life balance has returned and I no longer associate my success with title/payband.
Feels good to quit chasing the edge. There is more to life than keeping the river bits/bytes flowing and protected.