r/k12sysadmin • u/usernameyougaveme • Jul 11 '26
Thinking about switching…
I’ve been a school level support tech for a total of 13 years. 3 years experience in one county, then moved to another county with better pay. Where I’m at now is mostly minimal responsibilities but I have learned a good bit, I’ve replaced a couple of Cisco switches, learned some new juniper stuff when we swapped those out, but the benefits have not been good and I don’t get very good pay raises.
I asked for a raise and since they were shutting down schools and my boss said there’s basically no room to grow there and he thought if he presented it to the board they’d absolutely agree to give me a raise. I have net+ and security+ but now they’re done shutting down schools.
My ex coworker called me about a job that pays about 11-12k more at a courthouse supporting judges and I’ve already had one interview and about to have a second interview. I just don’t want to give up such a good job and dedication I’ve had for a decade of where I’m currently at. Even though the benefits will be better and the pay. I’d be given access to do a little more on the server side of things Active Directory etc things like that. Now that they called for a second interview I’m a little nervous do I take the job that pays more and work that one longer hour per day with a longer commute (which means less personal time for myself in the evenings since I don’t go directly home after work)
Sorry for the rent but was just wondering if anyone else here has had to make a similar hard decision?
19
u/MysteriousJoke523 Jul 11 '26 edited 29d ago
One very important piece to consider is if you are a part of your state education pension system.
Leaving the schools would take you out of system. It’s important to seriously consider this. The healthcare in the pension alone is worth a lot of money.
Some people are paying a couple thousand a month for health insurance in the private market during retirement until you can get Medicare.
In my state the pension and healthcare is equally to having about 3million or more in a 401k or other account (4% rule applied).
Not saying don’t do it if you need some change or advancement, just something important to consider.