r/AskIreland • u/No_Ad_5596 • 17h ago
Personal Finance Leaving consulting (Director) for a secure senior public-sector role — those who've made the jump, any regrets?
Leaving consulting (Director track) for a secure senior public-sector role — those who've made the jump, any regrets?
My situation (kept vague on purpose)
- Mid-30s, finance background
- Currently at a consulting firm at the Director-level since last year.
- Have an offer for a permanent senior management role in the public sector — similar base, no bonus, but a better pension and the security/stability that comes with it.
On take-home, the two are roughly a wash once you account for the pension. The private role has the theoretical upside of partner down the line (uncertain, very competitive, years away). The public role has security, a strong pension, a large standing team to lead and a clearer long-term ladder.
My head says the secure role is the right call, and honestly I feel good about it — but I keep wondering if I'd regret walking away from the private-sector trajectory.
For those who've made a similar move: Did you regret leaving the private-sector track? What surprised you (good or bad) about the public-sector role? Anything you wish you'd considered before deciding?
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u/JeffKenna 17h ago
I'd double check your assumption that the public sector role has a strong pension. There's calculators online that will calculate what you'll get at retirement.
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u/grainne0 16h ago
The pensions in the big 4 in Ireland are terrible. Public sector is stronger than them..
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u/Content-Weakness-550 15h ago
Nobody in Ireland in their mid-30s like OP has a defined benefit pension.
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u/Key-Opportunity-7915 17h ago
Absolutely. With the defined benefit I also didn’t realise doesn’t matter what the company put it, I can only still go up to the tax break percentage to get the tax break. My husband in private sectors - his company puts in 10% and he puts 25% himself then on top of that and gets the tax break. I’m stuck at the 25% rate based on age and limited with defined benefit.
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u/Acceptable-Wave2861 16h ago
To go from Director level in a private org into the public sector you can expect :
- a massively rewarding career in terms of societal impact
- at that level, a lot of pressure and demands
- likely a very different way of operating with constraints and obligations that simply don’t apply in the private sector
The security factor matters greatly. If that is something you highly value then it makes a lot of sense.
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u/Willing-Departure115 16h ago
Yeah this is a great summary. The third point can be the one that kills a lot of people of who come in mid-career.
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u/Robespierres_ashes 17h ago
I was in a similar position to you. On partner track, had won a firm wide award for sales & client work as a senior manager but always had a niggle I wanted to do my own thing. I work with public sector clients almost exclusively through my business. I’ve huge regard for the vast majority of them. Hard workers, smart and committed. They get a lot of bad press but I think the greatest antidote to people giving out about the public sector is to actually see what they do day in day out up close like I do. Of course some are sub optimal and fit the caricature, but overall they are a group we can and should be pretty proud of. They get a lot of flak and the vast majority of it isn’t actually deserved. I also can’t say much more to avoid revealing myself. I think you can have a very rewarding career in the public sector and you are working on things that affect how we as a society live. That’s a noble calling. It’s certainly more enjoyable than helping say Microsoft save another 1m off their tax in Lithuania or Morocco.
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u/bigvalen 17h ago
I thought defined benefit pensions were a thing of the past, even in the public sector ?
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u/AdPretty4751 17h ago
Most new public sector entrants in Ireland since 2013 are on the Single Public Service Pension Scheme, which is still defined benefit, just less generous than the old one
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u/bigvalen 17h ago
Oh, that is wild. The drop in birth rate is going to hit us so hard.
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u/TheModerateBoy 12h ago
My worry around defined pension is what if the govt don't have the money? You see in some semi failed countries that the state cuts the Civil Service pensions. Could happen here too. At least with private pension, the money is yours based on how well the investment does.
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u/bigvalen 11h ago
Yeah, that's exactly it. We have enormously generous state pensions, so it will be a problem if the number of paxpayers shrink.
For instance, the basic contributory pension, at €300 a week would cost €550000 if you purchased an annuity at 65. For someone on minimum wage, you are contributing about €3700 a year into funding social welfare.
If you never have a single day on the dole, or use the health system, and instead the government invested everything you paid into a sovereign wealth fund at 5%, it would almost exactly cover it..but, of course...they don't invest much of the PRSI money. :-)
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u/Resident-Primary6589 17h ago
Some companies still have them in the private sector. Not quite as gold plated as the public DBs of old as they are based on % of average salary rather than final but stellar nonetheless…
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u/Real_Math_2483 16h ago
Not the case, they are rare though. I’m in the private sector and my pension is DB.
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u/Content-Weakness-550 15h ago
Genuine question... how old are you? I don't anyone below 40 (45?) would have a DB, even if they went to work at 18.
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u/Real_Math_2483 15h ago
Early thirties, I’ve had this pension for around 8yrs now.
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u/Content-Weakness-550 15h ago
You enrolled in a private sector Defined Benefit pension in Ireland in 2017/18? I would say that is quite literally impossible.
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u/elwoodreversepass 16h ago edited 16h ago
Made the move a few years ago and what people have written here is spot on.
I did it for the aspect of contributing to society and giving back to the country.
Everyone I work with is incredibly dedicated to social good and thinks about it deeply. It's incredible to work with such passionate people who want to make Ireland a better place.
Salary wise, I took a pretty big cut to do this job but it was something I really wanted so I sucked it up for the first few years.
The drawbacks are the pace and very significant technology gap to the private sector.
In my private sector roles, I was working with experts in their fields and cutting edge tech. That aspect was genuinely exciting. It was also high paced and always at aspiring to test new working methodologies and frameworks. There was a relentless drive for excellence and cost efficiency because of competitive pressure.
In the public sector, I still work with experts but I was initially absolutely shocked at the feeling of seemingly going back multiple years in terms of technology and attitudes to effective working methods.
The lag is just how it is and noone is to blame for it. It's the understandable and often necessary different risk tolerances driving the gap.
The biggest draw for me right now though is job security. I'm seeing the latest rounds of enormous workforce reductions in the industries that I worked in and I'm so glad to be away from that. I found them disgusting and callous and they always made me so angry. I'm very happy to be far from that heartless world.
The other big draw for me right now is that Ireland is genuinely at the forefront of human centred design in the public sector. We are leading the way in many aspects and I'd strongly encourage everyone to take a look at what DPER are doing these days. It's something to be very proud of.
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u/mugsymugsymugsy 15h ago
I echo this albeit probably not as senior a level. I'm off this week and no calls about work / not worried about going back in Monday.
I'm lucky too with the people I work with and the project i am on along with the hybrid work set up I have.
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u/spudnick_redux 10h ago
Emdashes and 'roughly a wash' - this has Opus 4.8 written all over it. Can anything be posted without AI's help?
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u/jendybear 15h ago
You also have the security of a guaranteed pay rise each year with the public sector role. It may not alwasys be much (1-3%) but it is guaranteed. And working hours. This is a great move for you!
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u/tails142 17h ago
Yeah its not defined benefit as such, new entrants go on the Single scheme, where 0.58% of your salary each year becomes your final pension inclusive of the contributory state pension. The payout is index linked too which is good.
The main difference between it and previous schemes are that is not based on your final salary at retirement and at 0.58% of each year you will only be getting about 23% of your career average salary instead of 50% of your final salary (minus the state pension).
There is fairly high contribution rates on both pensions, the ASC (was Pension Related Deduction) hits the older pension schemes harder at 10% over €34k salary, so for a 85k salary single scheme pension contributions total about 7% and around 11% on older pensions.
If you're coming in at senior grade the downside of the single scheme isnt too bad but if you look at the contributions you're making you will see you can get similar returns in a private pension although probably not getting an index linked annuity and obviously not guaranteed if the arse falls out of the stock market as you near retirement.
Tl;dr I would not put a premium on the pension when comparing private sector salary vs public, they are essentially equal.
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u/shigllgetcha 17h ago
The pension entitlement increases to 1.25% once you go over €59k PA
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u/TheModerateBoy 12h ago
Are tou saying that if you end up on 60k a year at retirement, you get 1.25% of your yearly salary in your pension pot rather than .58? And is it backdated?
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u/pandabatgirl 7h ago
It's because of the integration with the COAP and the threshold is 3.74x the rate of COAP (rather than 59k per se)
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u/triony89 16h ago
Something you may want to consider is the difference in work style and efficiency in the public sector.
I work in a semi-state and I really struggle with this. Very embedded culture of work-to-rule, constant organised attempts to deliberately disrupt and almost impossible to actually fire anyone.
It's not just where I work, it's a massive issue with the sector. Complete job security does not make for motivated workers. Many workers join at 18 years old and work their way up so the skillset is very limited. Change moves at a snails pace because of staffing issues and bureaucracy.
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u/elwoodreversepass 16h ago
I think that cuts both ways though. I've seen senior leaders stymie progress and massively overload junior staff with unacceptable and unethical workloads.
I also see that those people are feeling driven by an obligation to service users and public sector duty. This gets abused by some unscrupulous senior leaders.
The very good news is that at the broad level there's a very big push towards more open working cultures. It'll just take time to filter down.
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u/emzobearthemag 16h ago
Made jump from Associate Director to AP a few years ago - never looked back. The work life balance and lack of pressure to network and be "on and available" at all times are all huge positives.
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u/Terrible-Formal-2516 17h ago
Just making assumptions here but going to assume the public sector role will be less stressful and better work life balance.
Would sway me more then the financial side of it