Winding down in career

I'm 53 and also in IT (databases).

I know exactly what you mean.

Have you considered contracting ? The uncertainty of it doesn't suit everyone, but you could earn a years salary in 6 months and have long Summers.

Very hard to downscale when you are at such a career skill level. I was in a kind of similar situation it was not the stress but the workload that was catching me. I had outside investments that added to the workload. I was lucky enough to get a redundancy package that made it viable for me to go three years ago. You never miss the work you miss the camraradie and the challenges. Finiancially you can live on a lot less than you think. I am lucky to be busy enough with by other investment mainly farming.

Not sure what way recruiters look at things. if you have the skill set then its a matter of selling youself. But there is no such thing as a decent job without some stress. Its often a matter delegating and letting the sh!t flow up and down without getting too involved. How long more do you need to work for. You can bang a lot of money into a pension tax free at your age. It might allow you to exit in 3-4 years time. Really you need to plan

Sounds like the OP's salary expectations are not particularly high - he mentions not wanting to work for minimum wage. No sh1t!

Have you thought about the public service? I regularly see ads for IT positions in County Councils etc. Seem to be mainly network admin and desktop support but also some developer positions IIRC.

I also hear anecdotal evidence that the public service has great difficulty filling such positions as young hotshots scoff at the pay. But the positions might be ideal for an experienced person looking to wind down and who is old enough where getting stuck in a rut/becoming institutionalised is not a concern.

(edit)

Maybe move from management to e.g. development role ?

I worked in recruitment for years and the stress was killing me (literally) left and started in the voluntary sector on 40% of what I was earning. Took a while to adjust to the new budget but am fine with it now and have almost no stress in my life. I was lucky in that my mortgage was manageable but I’m glad I did it.

PS is one option but it would depend where you get working. Not all PS is stress free.

Contracting is an option, often worked with contractors who only work a few days a week for a better work life balance. But you need discipline to not let it roll over into your time, or be talked into taking on more work.

Also can take time to build up the contacts and a contracting business.

Sounds like money isn't a deal breaker with OP and that OP is just done with the tech sector.

I'll have a guess you're in tech a number of years and now just want a job where you can rock up, do your work and go home.

Plenty of jobs out there for 30-35k which would provide what you are looking for.

There would also be factory work but I would presume in your 50's you would not want to be doing shift work.

Why not look at something like becoming a postman or delivery person. Out and about in the air all day, away from a screen, meeting people, decent pay, weekends off.

I think something like this is the way to go.

Really just depends on your financial situation.

Yep, a nice change from the daily desk grind.

Good luck to you, well done.

I can refer you for a department job via my consulting company if you'd like? Located in Dublin and maybe Wexford depending on how projects go forward.