Anyone aged 50+ quit their job and took a 50%+ pay cut for another job

  • Thread starter Deleted member 161415
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Prime-facia that above is spot on

It is I and only I who has concluded that I just don’t warrant the role and the concern (bordering on fear) of being found out that in reality I do very little of value add to earn my salary is stressing me out.

I do have a referral for a psychiatrist so perhaps should explore that avenue.
Listen I’ve ducked and dived, faked myself into a role that the younger me would have been amazed at. Thankfully I’m good at what I do and I’ve got a great team surrounding me (digging me out when needed).

Fake it, till you make it.

Now you’ve made it, stop being hard on yourself and enjoy the ride.
 
Thankfully I’m good at what and do and I’ve got a great team surrounding me (digging me out).

Thank you and good points.

It weird, when I had a large team cross UK (18 DR’s) I never felt like this, probably because they would dig me out as well and the vast majority of the role was either getting those people to the top of their tree, fighting for pay-rises / promotions for them and generally being in charge.
 
Fake it, till you make it.
Stop giving away my secrets! :eek:
E517D092-51A4-4F15-B8C5-7CC8E351ECD3.jpeg

:D
 
Prime-facia that above is spot on

It is I and only I who has concluded that I just don’t warrant the role and the concern (bordering on fear) of being found out that in reality I do very little of value add to earn my salary is stressing me out.

I do have a referral for a psychiatrist so perhaps should explore that avenue.

I know exactly what you mean about impostor syndrome. I feel it a lot, having been in the software development industry for over 30 years. Most of the technology I started with has since become obsolete. Although the problems being faced remain very similar, so a lot of the time it's a case of re-inventing the wheel, with newer shinier, cooler tech.

But as software development technology and processes has about a 5-10 year sliding window of relevance, you can see how fresh grads coming straight out of Uni know as much, if not more about current fashionable things. Like web frameworks. Cloud deployment. DevOps. Absolutely none of this stuff even existed back when I started.

And worse still, the salary discrepancy causes resentment, and tension.
These days I try and find roles that involve team members in a similar age bracket to myself. That helps because they're on my wavelength, and getting paid similar salaries. I don't really want to stress out about some cocky little 20 something trying to prove he's better at React or Java than I am, so should get paid as much as me.

But I tell myself that experience is worth a lot. I've been around for many years, and seen projects fail. That can teach you a lot. New starters don't have that experience.

Don't know if this helps at all OP, but you're not alone in feeling impostor syndrome. Stick with it, if you don't hate your job. Take the money and invest it, as others have suggested.
 

I had an issue with Imposter Syndrome once I started getting elevated/recognised/compensated at the top levels of my organisation. I got a professional coach (on the company) who worked with me through the year to help me recognise what I can do and just come to terms that I am very good at it.

A huge aspect though was exactly the 'everyone feels like an imposter at some point' realisation. 'Fake it until you make' it is also a good strategy, along with saying 'sure I can do that' then figuring out how later - the point is you know you will be able to figure it out.
 
But as software development technology and processes has about a 5-10 year sliding window of relevance, you can see how fresh grads coming straight out of Uni know as much, if not more about current fashionable things. Like web frameworks. Cloud deployment. DevOps. Absolutely none of this stuff even existed back when I started.

Technologies themselves come and go, but the fundamentals of how to build a scalable, supportable, secure, observable, maintainable, extensible system do not change - and the experience and wisdom to build these systems do not come out of Uni, but over time and after you've spent some time in the fire of reality.
 

Thank you
 
Technologies themselves come and go, but the fundamentals of how to build a scalable, supportable, secure, observable, maintainable, extensible system do not change - and the experience and wisdom to build these systems do not come out of Uni, but over time and after you've spent some time in the fire of reality.

I'm a grunt code monkey mate, I don't get to make these big architectural decisions. To be honest I like coding, it's what I enjoy. I just think I'm paid a lot of money for doing something which really isn't that hard.
Then I think to myself how much a bunch of blokes get paid to kick a ball on a field every Saturday, and don't feel so bad :)
 
Then I think to myself how much a bunch of blokes get paid to kick a ball on a field every Saturday, and don't feel so bad

Im the other way round, I think how much a cleaner or a care worker or a Barista etc, etc earns and it makes me worse
 
I'm a grunt code monkey mate, I don't get to make these big architectural decisions. To be honest I like coding, it's what I enjoy. I just think I'm paid a lot of money for doing something which really isn't that hard.

It's not just about the architecture decision makers - everyone involved is a part of making the software tick all the boxes.

Or to put it another way - if an architect designs a good system it is still very possible for the software developers to use bad patterns and practices that kill the flexibility and future-proofing.

It reminds me of the 'quote' "If you ask me to solve your problem and I look at it and in in five minutes make the change needed - you aren't paying me for five minutes work, you are paying me for the 20 years it took to know what to do"
 
Oddly enough, there is a project at work which may not succeed because the directors and other none technical types decided which special camera was going to be designed in without engineering evaluating it first.
Guess what has happened.
 
It's not just about the architecture decision makers - everyone involved is a part of making the software tick all the boxes.

Or to put it another way - if an architect designs a good system it is still very possible for the software developers to use bad patterns and practices that kill the flexibility and future-proofing.

It reminds me of the 'quote' "If you ask me to solve your problem and I look at it and in in five minutes make the change needed - you aren't paying me for five minutes work, you are paying me for the 20 years it took to know what to do"

I think you probably have more influence than me, and I think you're smarter, so people listen to you.
 
Oddly enough, there is a project at work which may not succeed because the directors and other none technical types decided which special camera was going to be designed in without engineering evaluating it first.
Guess what has happened.

Happens a lot.
 
Final Salary pension do people still have those?
Yes, especially in some areas of public sector. I was lucky to get in just before the company switched. I still get the feeling they will try and switch us.
 
Imposter syndrome is certainly something I've known in the past and its very unpleasant when it strikes though your challenge seems less about your ability to do the role, which is typically what the syndrome is and more about what value the role itself has.

As others have said, it would be good to understand your current position better and really what your thinking of. With the comment that £50k is well paid I am guess you aren't in London/South East? You say a 50% payout to go to a supermarket but that means you are thinking management roles?

I'm not in a position to take the pay cut yet, and Im early 40s still, but once the mortgage is cleared etc I would also like to go back to a simpler job though I'd probably stay in insurance and go back to be a claims handler... the only problem is the London factor again so no contact centre personal lines here and what is here is much more specialist with salaries to match.
 
I was once in charge of a shift of 30 and made 180/week after tax and travel. You really want to throw away an easy life for that?! This was some time ago, so that figure would probably be close to double that now, but still, I had a lot of responsibility for someone considered a low skilled worker.

In the nicest possible terms - get a grip!

Take some of your vast amounts of free time and start retraining.
 
No need for the gif tbh, I’m just curious about the perception of what is well paid/very well paid. I’m not asking for copies of their P60’s to start a pissing up the wall contest.

Clearly UK location, overseas working, tax breaks, industry vertical, age experience etc can all have a bearing on this.

Edit £150k for a Headteacher.........wow!
£150k maybe for MAT head, I know my kids primary school head was on less than £50k and she was near the end of her career and probably working 70+ hours a week and not much less during holidays. But then again she keep her hand in and used to teach and knew the name of every one of the 320+ kids.

MAT head is an admin job more like running a business, to be honest I don't think they even need to have any teaching qualifications.
 
I have to say I understand how OP feels about coasting. I probably only put in 1/2 the effort that I could because of experience and knowing the company.

But two things, first I worked damm hard to get were I am doing a hell of a lot of unpaid work at the beginning of my career and second if they wanted to replace me they would really need two people which would cost more. But flip side, I've passed up on the chance of promotion many times, it gets mentioned every year at appraisal why I don't want to move further up the tree. I don't need any more money and almost certainly don't need the hassle as I am lucky to not have anybody working under me any more and a promotion would mean people management again.
 
I think you probably have more influence than me, and I think you're smarter, so people listen to you.

I too once thought like this - but you probably like I was are selling yourself short. It does take a lot to overcome the fear that others are 'smarter' or 'better at influencing' - good coaching/mentoring is invaluable - hopefully you are getting this from your manager or others.

Some of the big 'leaps' in my career came when I saw a solution that other people didn't - by some combination of luck/judgement/experience - I made sure to double-down on those successes to keep the momentum.
 
Thanks to everyone - Have just re-read through and concluded (short term plan), that between now and Nov 30th I am just going to coast and not worry about it.

Realistically, I can resign tomorrow or carry on and not give a dam, the worst thing that can happen is test they sack me for not doing anything. However, that won’t happen as cases like that always (at worst) end up with the option to resign instead.

whilst I don’t need the salary (Always lived well below my means) I do need an income so I hope I can adjust to the “not giving a dam approach”
 
Do you feel like an imposter as if a problem arose you don't think you could fix it, or that simply you have judged the workload to be too low for the salary?

Also have a think about people who are "on-call". They get paid whether they work or not, just for having a phone switched on. People are put in positions based on their ability, and it seems you may well be underestimating your ability. Companies won't give money away for nothing. If they think having you there not working 100% justifies your salary, just go with it. Sometimes security/insurance against something going wrong is worth more.

It may help if we knew the area you worked in. Chances are there others on here in a similar role who maybe have been through the same thing.
 

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