A big thanks to this sub for giving me the push to get away from my current role and look at other opportunities.
I've been offered a new role paying just short of £10k more (as I won't have to pay a mandatory fixed amount into my pension fund with this new role and can set my own percentage, my take home will definitely be increasing!) for a role that offers more development in the skillset I want to develop, but have been unable to due to the nature of my current role. I've resigned from my current role and going through my notice period, before looking forward to two weeks off then moving into my new role.
Getting away from public sector feels like the best choice I've made in a long time. I'll always say it helped me get my foot in the door and develop my skills to this point, but for anyone under the age of 40, public sector is not worth hanging about in from my own experience, the pension is about the only thing making it worth it nowadays but why waste away at a place in hopes of freedom in 30+ years when you might drop dead tomorrow? It's mostly a bunch of middle management constantly patting each other on the back while the world burns around them, with very limited scope for raises/progression. To earn what I'm soon to be earning in my new role I'd be looking at either 8 more years in my current role, or hope for a position to open up above me and then still wait another 4-5 years for pay to match.
On top of this I have a consultancy company now sitting in the wings hoping to snap me up once I've developed more commercial experience (I didn't make it past their second interview due to experience, the company recruiter did tell me they were very happy with and enjoyed the interview itself) with a catch-up and possible opportunity to apply again on the books for August. I've also found new motivation to continue on with my own game design project in my own time!
Hopefully in a years time I'll either be sitting comfortably in this new role, or working my way to a full consultant role with this other company, as I very much doubt my game will have reached fruition by then as a one-man band.
It was this sub that made me realise my own value, and this has only been solidified by the interviews and applications I've made in the last few weeks. May you all have the best of luck in finding/pursuing your dreams and not letting “the man(agement)” beat your soul to dust. (And yes I know not all management are bad before that gets chucked this way – My current manager and his manager were mentors previously and fantastic chaps who I hate to leave behind during the trying times we're currently facing – It's senior management upwards which are 90% of the time sociopathic whack-jobs who couldn't manage their way out a paper bag if their lives depended on it…)
For now, I'm whiling away my work time at my current role, most of it spent browsing this sub, looking forward to getting away from this stifling environment.