LEAVING A CORPORATE JOB
Last week, I left my job at a mid-size startup. Over the past four to five years, I’ve played key roles at two major unicorn companies in Germany, Land Lithuania, leading diverse set of projects in number of European countries. My work involved exciting challenges like market expansions, product launches, M&As, and other business growth tasks. I joined these companies in their early stages, contributed significantly to their growth, and managed high performing teams when they scaled up. But now, I’ve decided to leave. Why, you ask?
- Appetite for risk
When you hit your early 30s, you’re hopefully standing on a solid foundation of life experience and specific professional knowledge. You also enjoy a certain degree of financial independence — granted you haven’t blown it all on Ibiza adventures :) Your masculine (or feminine) energy levels are still high and you are ready to push the World forward. This conjuncture of experience, knowledge, financial freedom, and energy cultivates a natural environment for risk-taking.
The worst-case scenario? You may find yourself back in the corporate world, potentially in an even more senior role (Everyone these days wants entrepreneurial experience). The best case? You create a company that addresses a pressing issue and, in doing so, you reap substantial financial rewards. The early 30s indeed offer a fascinating window for entrepreneurial leaps.
2. Earnings potential
Unless you work in investment banking, private equity, or high growth venture funded companies, where you get large sum of comps in stocks, your salary in corporate job is pretty much limited.
First, when you hit a certain seniority, your pay grade increases at best 5–10% per year. So if you were earning 100,000 Eur pretax, in five years you can expect to earn 150,000 Eur (compounded). Of course, there are certain exceptions, but you should always ask, why you should be that exception?
Secondly, that 100,000 Eur is very heavily taxed. You are obliged to pay myriad of taxes starting from social security, to health insurance to income taxes. Further, after receiving the salary you pay value added tax (VAT) for all bigger purchases you make and all your reinvested money is being double taxed. To illustrate this with example from 100k salary, you only bring home 60k in Lithuania, 58k in Germany or 61k in France. Alternatively, if you run a small business with 100k in revenue, your effective tax rate is closer to 20–25%, which means that over the year you will have c. 15–20k more. While someone can argue it’s trivial, over the long run when compounding kicks in it could become substantial difference.
All of this leads to the question how much will I be able to save by the end of decade? If everything goes by the plan 300k could be a feasible number. But can you expect to receive those annual increases every year? Save always 25%, avoid any big purchase and get 5% from the stock market. Most likely, the real savings would be closer to 150–200k. Can you make more if you do something on your own? Potentially, with some luck, yes
3. Future regrets
What I noticed in life that usually you regret things that you didn’t do. The idea is not pursued, the smiling girl is not approached, the time with loved ones is not spent. All of those will become sources of regret. So in my mind is better to get out there, take some chances, make some mistakes and see what happens next.
All in all, I am genuinely pleased (So far) with my decision to leave my job to chart a new path. The potential for growth, coupled with wish to avoid future regret, has made the choice of leaving clear and worthwhile.
Going forward, I’ll share the advice that has helped me to prepare for leave, will share learnings from being Strategy Director at C2C marketplace and further learnings from building new business.
