Hello all.

I'm 27, Coming in on my 6th year this year in a level 1 tech support role. It's application support for retail stores. Got promoted to team leader a few months ago. It wasn't really the role I wanted to take as there's no hands on work, it's all delegation and going to meetings and being the escalation point for annoyed clients/tickets that have been escalated. I took this role as there was a nice pay bump ($10k or so bonuses) and I was sick and tired of doing the same old stuff. I wanted to do something new and challenge myself. This wasn't the path I wanted to take for my career but I took it as it was just a temporary change till something better came along (this something better is available now)

The desktop team is something Im much more interested in. It's not dealing with retail support remotely, its all corporate face to face work, settinf up new starters, deploying software and Manning the corporate walk in IT support desk for employees to come past if they have questions.

A position has opened up for a junior desktop role in the same company. No more phone calls. All face to face walk around the office type work dealing with corporate users

This is the sort of role I have been waiting for for many years. Its everything I wanted in a job and the day to day responsibilities are much more aligned with what I want to do compared to the teamlead responsibilities.

I really enjoy where I work, the only down side if I take this role is that I'll be taking a paycut. It's a "junior" desktop support role. Probably a 5-10% cut. (Don't know exactly yet but if it's more than than I'm going to reconsider)

Having this job on my resume will do so so so much more in future compared to the team leader role. It's advertised as a 1 year contract and there is no guarantee that it will extend or have other opportunities presented to me once that lapses. Worst case that I don't have a job after I'll easily be able to get a desktop support role elsewhere with this on my resume.

Has anyone taken a paycut to be more happy/satisfied in a better job? Was it worth it?

The 5/10% cut won't impact my ability to pay off the mortgage or anything of the sort, However in general it's a role that much more inline with what I want to do In future (systems administrator)

Thanks!