Career progression now identified as the Slowlane, whodathunkit?!

[marshimus]

Hi everyone.

I'm Chris, from a small village in West Yorkshire, England.

To give a brief history of me:

I never had a financial education, I've not ever been great with money, nor absolutely atrocious, but I've learnt over time through self learning and painful life lessons (they usually work best, right?)

I didn't go to university, i just about had the motivation to finish college, had a job at the time and didn't want to waste £££££ on uni just to go partying and likely fail.

I spent the best part of 20's having no idea what I wanted to do with my life (sound familiar, given where I am, possibly not) so I ended up in a dead end tech support job for 8 years...I negotiated several pay rises which was testament to my persistence and effort, but never amounted to good money, i think i ended up maxing out at £22k a year when i was 29, not good enough for me or life plans.

I made the decision to retrain in webdevelopment so that i actually had a career to aim for (slowlane death, sorry all) rather than a bad job. However, things took a turn when I applied for a service management role (had no idea what it was) in healthcare, for about £30k a year. I got it and when I turned 30 I was proud to say I'd almost increased my income by 50%

I have spent the last 6 years trying to self develop in work, I've had 2 promotions and ended up at £50k a year. Which to many sounds amazing, but you're still working for someone else and it's not life changing money, especially when you have a family and are the chief earner.

We had twins last Jan 2023, and i stupidly made the decision to retrain for a career in cyber security, this actually worked and after 11 months I landed a role in another team and ended up on £61k which is brilliant but still doesn't go far.

I don't want to live my life working pay check to pay check, learning for someone else's benefit and never having any kind of time freedom.

This book, TMF has made me realise that I'm not where I want to be.

 

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[MJ DeMarco]

Welcome aboard!

 

[CatsCoffeeCake]

Hi everyone.

I'm Chris, from a small village in West Yorkshire, England.

To give a brief history of me:

I never had a financial education, I've not ever been great with money, nor absolutely atrocious, but I've learnt over time through self learning and painful life lessons (they usually work best, right?)

I didn't go to university, i just about had the motivation to finish college, had a job at the time and didn't want to waste £££££ on uni just to go partying and likely fail.

I spent the best part of 20's having no idea what I wanted to do with my life (sound familiar, given where I am, possibly not) so I ended up in a dead end tech support job for 8 years...I negotiated several pay rises which was testament to my persistence and effort, but never amounted to good money, i think i ended up maxing out at £22k a year when i was 29, not good enough for me or life plans.

I made the decision to retrain in webdevelopment so that i actually had a career to aim for (slowlane death, sorry all) rather than a bad job. However, things took a turn when I applied for a service management role (had no idea what it was) in healthcare, for about £30k a year. I got it and when I turned 30 I was proud to say I'd almost increased my income by 50%

I have spent the last 6 years trying to self develop in work, I've had 2 promotions and ended up at £50k a year. Which to many sounds amazing, but you're still working for someone else and it's not life changing money, especially when you have a family and are the chief earner.

We had twins last Jan 2023, and i stupidly made the decision to retrain for a career in cyber security, this actually worked and after 11 months I landed a role in another team and ended up on £61k which is brilliant but still doesn't go far.

I don't want to live my life working pay check to pay check, learning for someone else's benefit and never having any kind of time freedom.

This book, TMF has made me realise that I'm not where I want to be.

Sound like your job was taking your ability to learn. Did you take training from your employer? That counts.
The facts that
1. Claim to be financially unsure of your earnings
2. Are bragging about getting promotions
Makes me think you could be getting support from other areas… that you haven’t mentioned.
This is my opinion, which you may choose to swipe left on.

 

[marshimus]

Sound like your job was taking your ability to learn. Did you take training from your employer? That counts.
The facts that
1. Claim to be financially unsure of your earnings
2. Are bragging about getting promotions
Makes me think you could be getting support from other areas… that you haven’t mentioned.
This is my opinion, which you may choose to swipe left on.

I’m not totally sure you have got the way my post was intended, so I’ll clarify first before saying anything more.

This is not a brag post, there are literally people on here making a lot more money than me, a lot sooner and are a lot freer.

The point of my introduction and title was that I literally thought I was doing well, promotions, half decent wage achieved through effort and time. Despite a lot of it happening in the latter half of my life.

Upon reading TMF I have realised I’ve been on a fools errand to the slowlane. Hopefully that explains a bit more..

I have a good job but it doesnt allow me to provide the life i want to give my wife and 3 kids, nor does it give me time to spend with them..

 

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[EternalStudent]

There is a lot of growth potential in cyber, I wouldn't write it off as a dead end just yet. $61k is ground floor. Where do you want to be in 10 years? You could have a head of GRC role, CITO, CISO. Would you still consider career progression slowlane if you thought you could be on 200k within 10 years?

 

[marshimus]

There is a lot of growth potential in cyber, I wouldn't write it off as a dead end just yet. $61k is ground floor. Where do you want to be in 10 years? You could have a head of GRC role, CITO, CISO. Would you still consider career progression slowlane if you thought you could be on 200k within 10 years?

Hey, first off, thanks for replying.

Secondly, yes, if you’ve read TMF then you’ll realise that I would still be trading my time for money, it would still be working for someone else’s benefit, won’t give me time or financial freedom. In 10 years i’ll be 47, doesn’t leave all that much life to enjoy.

I didn’t say that cyber is a dead end, it’s just firmly on a slow lane path. My first job was a dead end.

 

[EternalStudent]

Hey, first off, thanks for replying.

Secondly, yes, if you’ve read TMF then you’ll realise that I would still be trading my time for money, it would still be working for someone else’s benefit, won’t give me time or financial freedom. In 10 years i’ll be 47, doesn’t leave all that much life to enjoy.

I didn’t say that cyber is a dead end, it’s just firmly on a slow lane path. My first job was a dead end.

Slowlane is wealth in a wheelchair. With a 200k job you could create serious wealth through speculating, investing, etc. Not to mention you can go your own way and start a consulting firm for something like SOC2 auditing or SOC2 readiness.
Career maxing is severely underestimated , if you have a fastlane mindset and understand that YOU are the product, you can be more successful than most people who attempt to go fastlane through a business.

I recently realised that career maxing is the way for me to go. I am in risk and compliance so there is a path forward for me to get into boards and director roles in 10-15 years. And if I fail I will still have a 150-200k job to fall back on.

 

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