3 ms·

An inspirational story that anyone, at any level, can always reinvent themselves given time, patience, and a plan. That said, "demotion" doesn't seem like the r

• charlesu 6y ago
  Does it say she kept her old salary? The going rate for a design director is probably a lot higher than that of an entry-level software engineer.
  • mooreds 6y ago
    Came here to ask this. It doesn't say, but I think that'd be a key part of the "frank discussions" she had with her manager.
    • emmanueloga_ 6y ago
      Perhaps that's the explanation for the controversial "demoted" word ...
• kristinamay 6y ago
  Hi! Blog post author here. I didn't keep my old salary, nope. I took a substantial pay cut in order to do this.
  • kodah 6y ago
    Ah, so not a lateral move. Demotion does make sense in that case, though, I wish that outcome would be different. It seems like whatever skills and experience you bring with you would still be relevant, even in an entirely different domain.
    • kristinamay 6y ago
      I was prepared for that and expecting it. I also didn't start at the very lowest rung of pay for this role: they took into account my years of building up knowledge about our product and other non-programming skills like communication and design in determining my new salary.
  • nonamenoslogan 6y ago
    Thanks for your insight. I'm at a similar crossroads currently and leaning toward staying in my current role. Basically about 14 years ago, I left a Fortune 500 company where I was a Network Administrator for a decade to go to a University and took a large pay cut to become an IT Analyst. Primary reason was wanting to get another degree, cheaply. After 7 years as an Analyst, I was promoted to manager of the team. After 3 years of that, I realized I wasn't good at managing people and I was a "do-er," and left from managing (with a HUGE paycut, again) to go back to Analyst in county government. Fast forward 3 years and here I am, being asked to be an Interim-Director as the director here is now retiring and I'm the only one with management experience. They are then in turn 'encouraging' me to apply for the full time director position, saying how I'm the most qualified and despite the "promote from within" policy, they want me to go up against external candidates to "earn" the job they asked me to interim. I've wracked my brain for a week now--I'm an engineer level do-er, I'm not a manager, but 22K a year is a NICE increase and I want to buy a home. Part of me says "thanks but no thanks, I'm not going to apply for a promotion to a job you obviously think I'm qualified for but won't offer out-right if its going to be a massive paradigm shift AGAIN for me," and another part says, "Dude, you're so dumb if you don't apply for a job that pays 30% more than you're currently making!" I've got a couple weeks to decide--money isn't my driving factor, the ability to "turn off" at the end of the day is.
    • kristinamay 6y ago
      If you know you don't like managing, then no amount of money (okay, unless it's comically large) will make you like it. You even said it yourself - money isn't your driving factor.
• thebean11 6y ago
  > Director to general population is technically a step down, but more realistically this is a lateral move. What makes you say this? An entry level SWE is lateral to a director who is presumably multiple rungs up on the org chart?
  • kodah 6y ago
    It could be considered a lateral move if she retained her pay, but she responded to my comment saying she didn't, which is unfortunate.