#CareerAdvice #StuckInCareer #HighEarnerProblems
Hey Reddit fam,
Feeling a bit stuck in my mid-career, high-earning role and could really use some advice 🤔 Here’s a snapshot of my situation:
– Senior post-sales support engineer at a medium-sized End-User Compute company
– $200k/year OTE, fully remote, in an MCOL area
– Limited growth opportunities, skillset may not be as marketable
– Considering transitioning into Cloud Platforms/DevOps/Scripting/Linux
So, the big question is: Do I ride it out in my current role, beefing up my skills on the side? Or take a pay cut for a potential long-term gain? Has anyone else been in a position like this?
Here’s what I’m thinking could be a solution:
– Network like crazy in your desired field 🌐
– Volunteer for projects in your area of interest to gain experience 🛠
– Consider part-time courses or certifications to upskill 📚
What do you guys think? Any advice or experiences to share? Let’s help each other out! 🚀
I think you should stick it out in this position because honestly, I don’t think there will be much of a workforce with the impending robot revolution powered by AI. After I get to the SOC in my company and move up through the ranks, I’m not studying any further or anything as it’ll be a moot point. Hopefully I can retire early and see the world evolve from a comfortable spot.
Also, if you want to quit because it’ll lead to a happier life, then definitely do so. As someone who was slaving making 100k with OT at a helpdesk, I don’t feel any more fulfilled having earned more money.
Edit: Adding your age may help more in this context. I’m almost 30 and am too far into IT to switch now.
As someone who spent some time making more than you, I can tell you that eventually, you may want a slower change of pace. In exchange for that, you take a bit less money but you are infinitely happier. I do some pre-sales engineering, mentorship, and a little bit of solution delivery. Its a great mix, and I am done working by 4:30pm everyday. No more late nights or weekend work.
Being able to take a step back and take a less stressful job requires you to live below your means. My wife and I don’t own boats or planes. We have no debt. Our house is paid off. We invest a lot of money every year in prep for an early retirement. Yes, if I was making 250k+ a year, we could retire a year or two earlier, but I still find IT very enjoyable.
We can trade
You want to make experienced cloud guru salary without experience as a cloud guru? Yes I see your problem
Your salary seems to be in line with the people who do similar work at my organization. Most of the senior level ICs make between 180k and 220k. However, there seems to be few jobs out there to get. My organization is in a hiring freeze, globally. We cannot backfill…this time last year we were hiring.
You may want to ride this one out…get some more certifications…while simultaneously look for another role. My guess is a bit after the US election, the job market will improve and hopefully the economy will gain a little strength…which means more hiring in the white collar space.
Stick it out for now, cause the induction I am getting is all those “record profits” that companies keep telling their sharey holders that they earned…. Yeah those are likely not very real. We are about to see the reconning of companies basically being allowed to do creative book keeping.
Brother you hit the jackpot.
I would try to learn something so you’re prepared if you get fired or the company goes under.
The future of EUC will continue to change but will leverage more remote desktop and BYOD in my opinion. Especially with the expansion and implementation of Zero Trust into more enterprises, but the good news you can pivot skills. We’re basically parallel pay and career wise it seems like.
For EUC, you can focus on networking, data center or infrastructure which is what I’ve been doing. My first engineering role was as a MDM engineer and then got merged into Infrastructure. I’m about to be laid off from one of the companies you mentioned, and I’m staying on infrastructure but skewing Linux with the goal of heading into enterprise architecture.
Most of the recruiters and interviews I’ve been getting are around Cloud, Linux, or Infrastructure. The skills of understanding what’s in the data center or deploying new solutions especially from an end user perspective gives some great strategic options. Your experience on the sales side really makes me think you may be a good candidate for an architect or principal role.