Has anyone moved away from the public sector and been happy with their decision? What do you do now?

[BoldBrickDreamer]

I’ve been in the public sector for a while but I’m starting to wonder if it’s time for a change. If you’ve left, was it worth it? What do you do now and how does it compare? Would love to hear real experiences!

Following with interest.

My DH has been in public sector now for almost 20yrs and often thinks about making the switch. What concerns him is the working hours. He's on a high salary right now but still gets to do school drops offs and pick ups twice a week, evenings and weekends free. He worries a salary jump (which would theoretically be big but still taxed to high heaven) wouldn't be worth the demands on his family time. I have a 'big job' too, so can't take up the slack for him.

I left social services to work in the luxury watch industry.
Massive life improvement. Much higher salary, and no death.

Much worse sick leave/pay and poorer pension.

I'm on the verge of making the transition myself so I am interested in responses. I get an ok salary and lots of flexibility but there's no opportunity for progression and I am just fed up. Woek is doing a voluntary exit scheme and it feels like it's the right time to go.

Yes I left public sector twice. First from local authority and then from NHS. I've been happier in so far as I hated those jobs in the end. However I'm now 60 and wished I'd stayed for the pension and paid sick leave etc.

The pension is the main plus of working in the public sector. I think that it can be long hours and commitment whether you are in private or public sector, it's certainly a difference between a job and a career sometimes

@verv please could I ask what you do in the watch industry and how you got into it? I have a young relative who is very into clocks/watches etc.

I left the civil service for a very corporate job, which I'm now doing. It's more money and ultimately better for me, but I miss the content of my old job every day.

Comms manager is official title, but I write product reviews and deal with shipping import/export as well as online sales and day-to-day functioning.
Bit jack of all trades within the business.
Ive been collecting and trading since i was 18 so have a strangely encyclopedic knowledge of references production dates and whats "wrong" or right with watches.

I got into it after the fourth round of annual funding cuts and re-tendering because i thought "nope, fuck this" so phoned up a dealer in London who i'd bought from / sold to in the past and said "You know i know watches, and I know youre expanding so... "
He offered me an unpaid months trial, and Ive been here ever since - 7 years.

I was in the Prison Service for 6 years and worked in various roles I loved it. I left because I had MH issues but don't know it at the time and I miss everything about the Prison Service. It's 20 years since I left but still. I had a baby and went to Uni and I now work in a school in HR and I love it but I would happily give it up and go back. It 20 years is a bloody long time and it wouldn't be the same

No but i am moving away from the public more and more some people are just batshit.

Amazing - thank you!

We’ve had lots of staff join us from public sector and stay because of flexible working, more support and better pay. It depends on exactly what you do and whether the role can be done at home, as well as the culture of the company you move to. I’d say do your research first.

I was outsourced many years ago (retired now). I was fortunate and while I was a management accountant in the civil service the new employer allowed me to train as a commercial accountant. After qualifying initially I did audits and management reviews, it involved a lot of travelling so I asked to return to a main office job. I ended up as a dogsbody for a couple of members of the board and worked my way onto some special projects (you need to learn to play the game). It was high vis and I got more money and promotion. Before I retired I was in a senior position. Having been tupe'd over I still had a final salary scheme which I hung onto.

OH was senior in a different area when they were outsourced. The company that took them over didn't know what to do with him and a number of his colleagues. He spent the last part of his career 'pottering' and getting involved in technical projects.

Both retired now.

I left the public sector and joined a Big Four management consultancy. Good things - I have a lot of really great colleagues. There’s proactivity all around me, loads of ideas flying around and I’ve had more positive recognition in two years than in the 20 before them. Health insurance has been a godsend and company schemes don’t exclude pre-existing conditions. Leave is generous and I work part time (although no compressed hours on offer.)

Bad things, the consultancy model of constantly needing to find a new project does my head in. Promotion at the level I’m now at in around your business case rather than proficiency so everyone tells me I should be more senior but while consultancy spend is low I can’t build the case - I’m stuck at what was a pay cut in the first place. The pension is less good obviously. And the bottom line is always the bottom line. Some of the nicer stuff is being tightly squeezed as profits drop a bit and it sucks to realise that your life is being made materially worse because some people are only making £10m profit rather than £11m. But that’s business.

I would love to leave the public sector, I’m so stressed.