Title: I&#x27;m contemplating a career move down and an wondering, if others have gone through the same, what their experience has been.<p>Background: I work as a senior PM in a big tech company. The pay, without being out of line with the market, is more than I ever thought I&#x27;d make. I owned my house outright at age 40, I go out to eat whenever I feel like it, I get to travel a few times a year. I&#x27;m pretty happy about my life day to day.<p>But then I still think of my job as challenging and sometimes stressful. I look at some of my lower level engineering peers that are &quot;stuck&quot; in their careers (5+ years at the same level, no management responsibility), and honestly I feel like they have a pretty blissful life. Maybe I&#x27;m idealizing, but I feel like they can just think about how to build something, get it built, and move to the next thing. Not have to deal with recruitment, management, strategy, etc. Show up and fix the bugs.<p>I used to be a SWE and have kept my skills current, so I&#x27;m considering a move back and down from senior strategy and product work back to engineering IC work. This would likely cut my pay in half, so I&#x27;d have to do away with some luxuries, but I feel I could manage it financially.<p>Yet I also have a strong instinct against doing this, because it feels like self sabotage according to the standard definitions of a career. I worry about having regrets and endangering my family&#x27;s financial safety.<p>Any folks who&#x27;ve gone through this and want to share their advice?
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