For background I'm very early 30's, married, currenty have no children. Based in the North.
For the past few months, I have felt a little stagnant in my role/career. I feel like all my friends and peers are pushing ahead professionally in their careers, getting promotions, payrises, management roles whilst I'm staying still.
I'm very lucky that my current role is very cushy (which is part of the problem). It pays a decent wage (low £40Ks), it is fully remote with optional office attendance which is a 25 min commute. I enjoy the work, it's generally low stress, no long hours. I get on really well with my manager and colleagues, company are very flexible about things like compressing hours, part time etc. 28 days AL plus bank holidays. It's the sort of job I always hoped for and I'm happy for the most part.
We are planning on beginning TTC at the end of this year and I feel that this job is absolutely ideal if you have young children. I've been told that a lot of women have taken a paycut from more senior high stress roles to my current role because of this.
However, there is really no progression in this role at all. To develop my career further, I would have to move to perform the role in a company internally, and potentially undertake another qualification. This would likely lead to large pay rises but would also likely be high stress, longer hours and would be office based or hybrid working with longer commutes.
Rationally I know it makes no sense to pursue a career at the moment, but part of me also is thinking I'm still only young and this can't be it for me, it could take years to conceive etc, and also worried I'm being left behind by friends and peers.
DH is same age and also has a very good job, £60K and lots of opportunity for career development, in some ways I feel the need to keep up with him, as until his most recent job move, we have always been on the same level.
Am I being unreasonable to just stay in this job indefinitely? How do I get rid of this feeling of stagnation?
Did you manage to successfully develop your career once your children were older?