Have any of you quit the corporate world and followed your dreams / began working your dream job?

I recently signed for a new job and am excited for the opportunity, but it’s just another desk job in corporate America. Solid comp and growth potential and I’m excited about the team, but if I had enough money I wouldn’t be working a desk job. Feel like most people feel the same way to an extent.

 

ya I quit my job a while ago to work on my startup (simple bootstrapped software company). honestly I probably quit too soon cause we only actually launched the startup this month. I thought that it would be much much faster to get the product complete and ready to sell. TBD if it works out but I didn't have a super great job before this so the worst case is honestly that I am out a couple grand + 9-12 months of time when it's all said and done, the time factor would have only been more like 3-6 months if I was smarter about it. best case we are super successful and I secure my future lol. what will actually happen is somewhere in the middle I think, I think that we will be moderately successful which I would be totally happy about. I have a meeting tomorrow with a 600 person company and another meeting tomorrow with an 80 person company. it would only take like 2 600 person companies to make enough money from the project to more than replace my old salary lol.

 

it's a sales tool that helps sales teams book more meetings. there are plenty of companies doing similar types of things, we are basically just niching down and doing one specific thing that these other companies are doing better in some senses.

 
Most Helpful

I kinda did actually. Was working with the Business Planning team at a F500 company a few years back, and this was the most boring job of all time to me. Objectively, I think it was a function of the industry I was in, and the fact that I just didn't have much of a passion for it. A great industry for an engineer, not a very fun one for business intelligence. I was actually recognised by my boss and the upper management to be on a fast track promotion path, but I could not see myself working in that industry for 10-15 years. Really would have lost my marbles.

So, I quit and embarked on a PhD, which was something I'd always wanted to do. Got that, and then kinda ended up wanting to leave academia. Strat consulting at MBB looked to me to be the most interesting jobs out there (in terms of my own interest in strategy/operational issues and problem solving), and I'm due to start in 6 weeks.

All in all, I sort of did it twice, but the first time going to the PhD was certainly the one closest to what you are talking about here. It had its highs and its lows, but I made some really good friends along the way, learned a ton, and now I get to tick "Dr." in drop down menus on Amazon (... not the most useful benefit, I admit).

 

Economics.

I did enjoy the intellectual challenge: identifying a research question, building a model that can help answer it, solving it, spending weeks on a maths problem that's never been solved before until you finally figure it out. That part was certainly very cool, and I'll definitely miss it. I sometimes still assist some of my friends with their proofs (I was the theory guy in my department, so I've helped a lot with that kind of problem). I also enjoyed the friends I made and the conversations we had. It's not everywhere you can argue over a maths proof at 2am on a night out.

 
CompBanker

Yup. Quit my finance job last year to do something I really enjoy. No regrets yet!

👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼👏🏼

"If you always put limits on everything you do, physical or anything else, it will spread into your work and into your life. There are no limits. There are only plateaus, and you must not stay there, you must go beyond them." - Bruce Lee
 

I've been thinking a lot about this recently. I'm up for a promotion at work right now. If I get it, it could be life changing because it would mean a lot more money, more responsibility and even a move to NYC. But I've decided that if I don't get it then I will just commit to my current role and work my butt off for the next year, save like a fiend to build up a good, liquid nest egg and then I'm going to go out on my own as an options trader. 

 

I’ve been refining it and I need some more full years under me but the strategy I follow should be upwards of 15%. I’m on track for that this year including YTD - the clowns behind my 401k can’t say that. 

 

IncomingIBDreject

"Excited about the team". It only took a few years for you to start drinking the Kool-Aid.

Your immaturity constantly shows on here. I make 6 figures and am able to more than provide for my family. I have no debt and substantial savings and I’m not even 25 yet.

A job is a requirement to survive for 99.999% of the world’s population. At a minimum it’s a 40 hour per week commitment. If you’re going to spend 8+ hours per day working with people, you should like them.

You rarely add value on here

 

Not really sure how student loans comes into play here but I also have no debt if that means anything. 
 

Regarding my actual comment there is no such “team” on the job. This isn’t sports where there can be a lot of fun and everyone truly benefits from successes and failures. In most corporate jobs, you barely benefit in terms of financial success compared to the C-suite who are raking in tens of millions of dollars. Don’t get me wrong, the salary you make is respectable but understand that you’re not a “team member” you’re more like a servant or even a statistic from the POV of a corporation. 
 

Regarding “liking your team”, the industry itself is cutthroat. People will pretend to be nice during the hiring stages and maybe even the workplace you will see a facade, but when you fail or go through difficulty expect people to move on or even celebrate and take over your role. Managers are happy if you work hard, so long as you remain a good subordinate and don’t be too good that you threaten overtaking their role. If you are too good, you will see a lot of credit trying to be redirected away from you to the manager to ensure the hierarchy remains. Then there is all the PC stuff where you have to be careful with every word or line you say else you can find yourself without a job (which ties in with the above about cutthroat/toxicity). While it’s certainly possible to not actively hate your existence in a job, I think the conditions of the workplace are designed to ensure that you can never like it if you think big picture.

Array
 

This is funny cos I did all of that after college, but let's just say I figured out pretty quickly that startups (except with exactly the right folks) are not for me. So now focused on climbing the finance ladder and stacking cash, while keeping an eye out for those right folks I can start something solid with.

 

Man I'm in my dream industry and working at a top decile firm with really sharp colleagues where I'm constantly learning...yet still hard to say 'dream job' as a) I'm not yet an Analyst (2-4yrs to go) and b) even if I was an Analyst, I'm still working for "the man" and there's some BS processes 

Main problem these days is how brutal it is to scale a fund. My dream job would be running $500ml of sticky capital -- actually my dream job would be running $50ml of just my own capital so I have to answer to no one but the way to get to this point is by doing the former

In all honesty life is good but guess it's a human thing to always strive for more. At some point gotta change your mindset and content yourself with what you have if you don't want to go crazy I feel

Btw where is your new job located city-wise? Any other cities you're thinking of moving to LT?

 

Autem ducimus voluptas vero beatae. Doloremque suscipit quasi qui vel qui. Sed sed enim aperiam id reiciendis voluptatem sunt non. Dolorem est pariatur reprehenderit omnis at quos libero. Et ut labore reiciendis aliquam ea perferendis quia neque.

Fugit est est praesentium exercitationem non asperiores adipisci. Ut deleniti sit non ut aspernatur optio.

Est harum est natus dolores. Sequi deserunt qui saepe quas iure aut est. Aliquid sit blanditiis nam adipisci. Quisquam tempore eius qui ratione et. Eum quisquam optio iure debitis.

 

Hic ut maiores corrupti. Laudantium aut sapiente autem et enim maxime voluptatem. Eum totam illo suscipit saepe. Beatae voluptate vero non odio. Sed quibusdam vel corrupti quod ipsum accusamus. Nihil optio dolorum beatae fugiat.

Quidem non voluptas dicta beatae minus corrupti. Dolor maiores exercitationem rem. Enim pariatur porro hic consequatur repellendus dolor ullam.

Debitis aut itaque quam voluptas. Illo libero qui assumenda assumenda harum. Autem voluptas inventore sed occaecati tempora placeat.

Similique non placeat amet sunt consequatur nesciunt illum eveniet. Voluptates unde rerum molestiae harum eaque.

Career Advancement Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Jefferies & Company 02 99.4%
  • Goldman Sachs 19 98.8%
  • Harris Williams & Co. (++) 98.3%
  • Lazard Freres 02 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 03 97.1%

Overall Employee Satisfaction

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Harris Williams & Co. 18 99.4%
  • JPMorgan Chase 10 98.8%
  • Lazard Freres 05 98.3%
  • Morgan Stanley 07 97.7%
  • William Blair 03 97.1%

Professional Growth Opportunities

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Lazard Freres 01 99.4%
  • Jefferies & Company 02 98.8%
  • Goldman Sachs 17 98.3%
  • Moelis & Company 07 97.7%
  • JPMorgan Chase 05 97.1%

Total Avg Compensation

March 2024 Investment Banking

  • Director/MD (5) $648
  • Vice President (19) $385
  • Associates (86) $261
  • 3rd+ Year Analyst (13) $181
  • Intern/Summer Associate (33) $170
  • 2nd Year Analyst (66) $168
  • 1st Year Analyst (202) $159
  • Intern/Summer Analyst (144) $101
notes
16 IB Interviews Notes

“... there’s no excuse to not take advantage of the resources out there available to you. Best value for your $ are the...”

Leaderboard

1
redever's picture
redever
99.2
2
Secyh62's picture
Secyh62
99.0
3
Betsy Massar's picture
Betsy Massar
99.0
4
BankonBanking's picture
BankonBanking
99.0
5
dosk17's picture
dosk17
98.9
6
DrApeman's picture
DrApeman
98.9
7
kanon's picture
kanon
98.9
8
CompBanker's picture
CompBanker
98.9
9
GameTheory's picture
GameTheory
98.9
10
Jamoldo's picture
Jamoldo
98.8
success
From 10 rejections to 1 dream investment banking internship

“... I believe it was the single biggest reason why I ended up with an offer...”