I’m in a really good position at my firm - leading sales, huge internal initiatives, have greats sponsorship to make Managing Director in the next few years and have a good upward career in the structure. While I have thus far been very successful with sales, the “way the sausage is made” around selling, over promising, solutions that don’t align with my personal world view (ie unneeded mass labor reductions) are starting to chafe. Continued...

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I’m starting to get interesting outreaches for “junior exec” type of roles (high level director/VP roles) in my industry and in theory it feels like they would allow me to have a longer view for doing transformational work in my field (rather than 8-12 month engagements) and get me out of the chaffing with sales. But sometimes I wonder if at the end of the day it’s all about dollars everywhere and consulting will be more lucrative, and I just need to get over myself. I wonder if any of you have had these doubts and conversations with yourself, and where you’ve landed.

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This is a very tough industry to stay in if you don’t believe in what you’re doing. If you spend the next 20 years doing work that you’re not proud of, you’re probably going to retire with some big regrets.

My advice: find consulting work that you can feel better about selling / doing, or move into an industry role at a place whose mission you support more wholeheartedly.

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Op, be the change you want to see. If you see something as important, don't cut the resource and fight for their value.

OP, you've got more years on me, but I've thought a lot about the career meaning vs money question.

The conclusion I've reached is that every extra dollar in my savings account means more time I can spend with my SO, my future kids etc. The more money I can shovel away, the more options I will have in the future about taking a lower paying job with great WLB, retiring early, whatever it is.

I have a lot of respect for people who care deeply about their career and their work, but where I'm at is I don't know if I'll ever care about any job more than I want to spend time with my loved ones.

So if I were you I'd stick with the better paying route.

likesmart

I would work out your budget and savings and see what your nest egg would be based on several parameters in the future.

For example, I've graphed what I would have after 20/30/35 years of saving $50k/$100k/$150k/year at 3%/5%/8% annual returns.

If you've already got enough and your budget works out such that you can still meet your financial goals based on the stake $250k, then you could definitely go for it.

But also consider that if you can meet your current financial goals with less money, perhaps your financial goals could be more aggressive, ie. Retiring early.

Though maybe retiring early is overrated. I've heard people get bored. Me personally, I would travel everywhere with my SO.

Not been in this position myself but my mentor was he’s been a partner for 15+ years and says the reason he decided to stay is because he’s more of a doer than a leader.

The potential for money is huge in both options and difference is likely to be negligible but do you want to lead the strategy or implement the strategy (assume implementation due to 8-12 month engagements)

Tdlr: think what will make you happier, new challenges every year doing what someone else decided or deciding something and sticking with it for 5+ years

helpful

This is a good point. One of the more appealing things about industry is the opportunity to lead a long term strategy and seeing the fruits of something worked on over years.

You will need to get comfortable to stay my friend. Upside is nice. But it’s about putting the firm first I think. If the “mass labor reductions” your leaders commonly recommend truly are unneeded you’ll have a better runway to recommend smart alternatives.

I just had my mid year review with my own supervisor and was told to move up I need to shed the perception that has been created that I am too “conservative”. I was honestly surprised at the comment at first and explored it more—I was told that I was viewed as being too reluctant to take on new work or projects or initiatives unless I am confident I can deliver. And I need to just say “yes” whenever possible and reserve “no” for the once in a blue moon. I am viewed as cautiously managing my book such that I always have just enough work to not trip the alarms but never an overwhelming amount and manage my personal risk too carefully.

This was not my perception of myself at all, but it all rang true when I was being told this. Answer? Over promise. But find a way to deliver with your support system—don’t under deliver. Put the firm first and secure the work or work on the critical project that will improve our GTM approach or reduce delivery cost or whatever. And figure it out later. I’m ahead of you in the race and have an outstanding rep for quality and expertise. But the need to deliver “more” will not go away if this is the career you want.

This is a lot of what I’m running into. I deliver really good work and have a great rep for quality too, but I hate that during sales I’m constantly pushed to over represent our/my experience (even if I think I/we may be able to make it work, I still hate it), agree to a less staff than I know we should have, say yes yes yes. I say yes most of the time, and typically am able to hustle together projects that work, but it feels fishy/dishonest (especially when clients are always pushing for confirmation that you specifically done certain things) and gives me a lot of anxiety. So, I want to be conservative like you, but I’ve already run up against it and have been pushed not to be. And I guess it also sucks to feel like every time one does something great, it’s like an invitation for the firm to ask for more.

I guess I wonder how you deal? How you stop feeling anxious, or just unsettled?

Labor management is a tangentially related to my typical work, and just societally I see how aggressive labor management (particularly for clients that don’t need it/are doing it to fund exec bonuses whatever) is really hollowing the middle class, societal stability, ect. I know it’s not my problem, and I do really believe in my core work, but as I move up I am involved in larger deals and am pushed to lead all kinds of work, advocate for all our solutions to our clients.

Maybe it’s not the business for me. But it’s also all known, I love my colleagues and mentors, I feel recognized/valued and challenged, and I’m afraid to leave. And I recognize (or perhaps guess) that many of the issues and concerns I have will Likely be the same elsewhere. But perhaps I should also be afraid to stay too, without giving something else a try to see how it feels.

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