Descending The Corporate Ladder

Why I left the corporate world to start over

From a young age we are always encouraged to amount to something. You get your first job as a ripe young teen and excitement waves over you as you receive your first pay check. After that, before you realise how underpaid you may have been for flipping burgers or scanning groceries, you might enrol into higher education or an apprenticeship, or you might find yourself a nice spot as a Junior Assistant of a large corporation and step onto the first rail of the corporate ladder.

Each of these decisions you make are most probably based off that difficult question we ask ourselves - "What do I want to do with my life?". Unfortunately, the pressure to answer this question at the age of 18 results in many of us having to stick to the path we chose and as the years go by, and our responsibilities increase, so do our abilities to veer off this path and potentially alight on a new, more exciting one.

I began working for a company at age 15, while I was still in school. After I finished school I was offered a permanent position in an enticing role at the company so I decided to stay on. Years passed and I became quite good at my job, I was offered promotions, pay-rises and before I knew it I was climbing the corporate ladder to success. The only issue was that I was in an industry that was so far from my passions. Although I always knew this was the case, it never seemed to be a good time to stop and reassess my situation, why would one leave behind all this progress to start again?

I did enjoy some of the perks of my career, I went on many holidays, gained a lot of experience, and connected with a lot of people. However there were many aspects of the career that I didn't like, long hours, stressful deadlines, lack of community feel with many people under pressure to meet company expectations. It wasn't until my most recent role that the feeling of emptiness began to settle in, more than it did in any other time of my career. I was now 28. I had been working in this company for more than half my adult life and now at a time where I was earning more money than I had ever in my career, I was the unhappiest I had ever been. I had become industrialised, a number in an industry that did not share the same values as I did. It felt as though I was living a lie, as if I had finally amounted to something, only something I did not want to be.

The feeling of not being true to yourself is an overwhelming one. I knew that I wanted to be a part of something bigger. I wanted to connect with people and help people, not just be a number in a corporation. I knew it was time for a change, so after 14 long years I resigned.

The decision to leave such a stable, well paid position was tough. I was confined by the thought that leaving this role, this path I had created for myself could leave me with no where else to go. It is important to note this was not the first time I had thought about leaving. It was a thought that had come around many times before, only to be conquered by the 'what-if's'. Albert Einstein said the definition of insanity is doing something over and over again and expecting a different result. I was imitating insanity, I was waiting for the 'right time'. Truth be told, there is never really a right time. The right time is when you realise that your happiness comes first and that you are far more capable of change than you realise.

I did have to make a few sacrifices while my disposable income wasn't as vibrant as it usually was, however none of those sacrifices meant more to me than having my happiness back and knowing that I was following my true passions.

It is one month after my resignation and I have never looked back. I have had the time to reconnect with myself, others around me, and new people. I have opened myself up to many new opportunities and my fear of having no where else to go was, in fact, the opposite. I was true to myself and started doing what I 'wanted' to do, not what I felt I 'needed' to do.

I think it's important to ask yourself the honest question "What do I want to do with my life?" and if you're not doing it already then ask yourself "Why not?".