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I chased the opportunities in finance for the money and the prestige. Once I got there, I realized that those things were less important to me than meaning in my work, work-life balance, relationships outside of work, etc. They were still important to me, just less. I ended up accepting an offer with a more prestigious finance firm shortly after beginning work in my first job. When I quit my job, I also renegged on that offer, and remember feeling very free. I went through some depression after quitting, but it was hard to recognize it as that at the time. I then took a strategy job in another city. I liked the day-to-day work, but was still not motivated by the industry we were in, mission of the company, etc. I took some time off (which allowed me to reset somewhat) and then started searching for work at an early-stage mission-driven company. I was lucky enough to find one that was a good fit. I'm much happier now working with a purpose in mind, but the work is still stressful and uncertain at times. It's not my company, so I won't see as much upside in a liquidity event, but I also feel like my work volume/stress is more reasonable than the founders and I've got more freedom to leave in a bad situation. Given my early work experience, it feels very important to me to keep that freedom to move on (run away?). Since leaving finance and my job immediately after, I've focused on the following things which have helped quite a bit:
- Reducing alcohol consumption
- Finding exercise activities that I enjoy and am willing to do several times per week
- Eating healthier
- Striving for 8 hours of sleep (which I rarely stick to)
- Meditating daily (which I rarely stick to) and with a group weekly (which I am pretty good about)
- Therapy as needed
- Seeking out mentors outside of work
- Communicating my wants/frustrations/observations sooner with people in my personal/professional lives
- Reducing work hours (I'm ok about this) and work stress (I'm not very good about this) When I'm not doing these things, I definitely notice it. But I generally feel much better knowing the things that I can do to cope with stress, burnout, depression, etc. |