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For over 15 years I held customer support roles in a variety of industries. At the same time developing skills in other areas; such as being ordained as a Zen priest and receiving an Integral Coach certification. After being laid off in May, I decided to pursue my coaching business full time.
My question is, for those who have sought out coaching, which area of your life did you focus on first and why?
I have 6 yrs of HR exp, a PHR cert & an HRIP cert. I recently left my role as an HR Rep at a tech co b/c I was working 60+/week and the stress of the job was affecting my health. I recently received an offer at a new tech co that is $10k less than what I was previously making with comments from current EEs that this new co has a better WLB. Total comp is still a lot less than my prev company. Is less comp too much of a compromise for better WLB? What have you compromised for a better WLB?
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I’m doing the vet tech thing
I left EY couple years ago because of the toxic change in leadership within Cyber. I was there for over a decade. I missed the connections I had, the collateral, the people I enjoyed working with, the pool of staff that were crazy like me etc. I was so used to working late and during weekends, always making the Partner happy that I actually started missing it.
Weird I know but I also knew that it wasn’t healthy. I worked for another company for two years. Since then I left that company and joined another consulting firm and I am much happier. Yeah, the long hours are there but the culture is true. Not the fake stuff I experienced at EY.
If you’ve been in consulting for more than 8 to 10 years then you get institutionalized. You crave the fast paced, do it yesterday, hyper quality work. Even till today, sometimes I have to check my work computer during the weekend just because I feel uneasy. I feel anxious if I don’t.
I sound a little crazy but I actually had to take meds and therapy after leaving EY. Much better today.
I am leaving EY for mental health reasons too. As I finally got myself into therapy my therapist was able to be like “there’s intense consulting work… but this is beyond that dynamic.”
Things I miss:
- Miles, points, meals paid for
- More social interaction with teams and clients in different parts of the country and world
- Travel to some cool places (obviously some weren’t as good)
Things I’ve gained:
- More routine sleep
- Healthier food where I control most ingredients by cooking at home
- Better overall health
- More time with friends and family
- Hardly any crazy early flights, massive delays coming home, not having to leave Sunday afternoon sometimes
- WFH with the commute being a 15 second walk
- Pay raise
I did my time in consulting. It was good experience. But I don’t really plan to go back.
D2 - I took a global security operations role at a Fortune 100.
M2 - good point on hobbies as well. I had been trying to pick up wildlife and landscape photography as a hobby for years but have finally been able to do it. And it’s really nice to have a hobby I actually have time for now.
Having a bunch of Type A, insecure and eager to please junior consultants at my beck and call. 😄
How do you plan to shape them into a model leader like you?
Rolling off a project
- perks of staying in hotels all time and earning status quickly
- perks of earning miles quickly
- able to visit multiple different cities/countries over the weekend of the project
I’ve known people who equate poor working conditions and bad boundaries with the work being “important” and this just isn’t the case.
Nothing really
Same
When I left I missed the team environment. Was an individual contributor at first and that was an adjustment that I didn’t care for.
Type A loves Type A
During a secondment I missed the work in teams, clear alignment on output and the process to get to it, frequent and thoughtful feedback, people bringing positive energy to meetings
The expense policy and sending slides to production, neither of which make actually miss consulting.
So I exited consulting a bit too quickly, and I’m going back. I miss the challenge and engaging work. I jumped to industry for a pay raise, but really can run circles around my team. They’re great people… I just feel like I can do my director’s role vs the VP role I have.
All that being said, I have found way more time to exercise and be a bit more healthy! So that is nice.
Few other roles give you as generous of an expense policy right out of college
Expenses
Anyone miss it enough to go back?!!
I just commented this below actually! Missed your comment. I’m going back. I think I exited too soon. The role I got in industry was a “step up” on paper and responsibility and pay… but gosh it’s so boring and not engaging. My old team is offering me a substantial raise to come back to consulting and I’m highly considering it.
Not much. Working with super smart people I guess. But hard to miss when everything else is so much better.
Things I miss:
-structured projects and deliverables
-team environment
-frequent and open feedback
-investments in training and development
-project based work and ability to take LOA or long vacation
- Expense policy, especially flying first class pretty much everywhere and staying at really nice hotels, and basically unlimited budget for food/ drinks
- Having an awesome assistant
- Self starting teams that are capable of working 80/20 with a sense of urgency
The thrill of the sale