Ever wanted to quit your high-paying job for a less stressful one?
Ex-BCG Consultant & M&A Professional urges caution to those dreaming of pulling the plug on their stress-filled jobs
Proceed with caution! I’ve attempted to make the move to a less stressful job twice — with extremely mixed results…
I first left my job as an Associate at The Boston Consulting Group then later left my job as an M&A Professional at a listed PLC.
I’ll quickly run you through what happened during each attempt before sharing my thoughts on the pro’s and con’s and how you can apply these lessons to your own career change.
Attempt #1: Ended terribly…
The first time ended badly. I learned that “stress” is defined differently for everyone.
The job I landed in was less stressful on paper — it entailed less of the things that I and most others would define as stressful:
· I rarely worked long hours
· I rarely had tight deadlines
· Performance expectations were far lower than at BCG
But I was far more “stressed out” at this job!
Why?
There was one factor that I hadn’t accounted for, and that was my level of motivation to do the work required by my job.
Of course, when I first took the new job this motivation was there. But soon I realised that the work I was meant to do simply didn’t motivate me in any way. The massive mental exertion required just to force myself to do work that I had no interest in doing sapped all the energy from me. I had actually been far happier doing more “stressful”, high intensity work at my previous job!
The personal stress and unhappiness caused by this lack of motivation outweighed all the other luxuries of my “less stressful” job.
(FYI if you’re curious, my motivation to do the work was low for two reasons: 1. The nature of the work didn’t intrinsically motivate me 2. I just didn’t see the point of a lot of the projects I was tasked with (and could never get a satisfactory reason from my superiors)).
Attempt #2: Was terrific!
My second attempt to quit my job for a less stressful one was much more successful!
I had learned the factors I needed to have for a job to be “low stress” for me:
· Autonomy and ability to control my own working hours
· Intrinsically motivated by the nature of the work
· Motivated by the purpose of the work
So I optimized for these factors in my job search. Doing a job search from first principles like this is challenging — both to find the right opportunities and also to structure them to get the terms you want (remote work / flexible hours / autonomy etc.).
However, I was disciplined in following a structured process (see below) and my results have been extremely rewarding: since I left M&A I have worked a number of roles that met the above requirements, where I can hand on heart say I’ve loved my work while also getting the work-life balance I craved.
The benefits of quitting my high-paying jobs for less stressful lower paying ones
There have been massive benefits to both my professional and personal life:
· I enjoy my work — of course there are still times when I’d rather do anything else but work, but long gone are the days of Sunday night fear, wishing my life away and counting down the hours until Friday evening
· I’m more effective. Working my own hours means the opportunity cost of an extra hour in the office is an hour I could spend outside the office. This forces me to prioritize and be selective about what work I do: I work less hours but get more productive work done
· I am energized by my work, so that when I’m not working I’m doing fun things that I enjoy and am active socially — instead of recovering from the drain of forcing myself to work (or actually working all the time!)
· I no longer feel the need to escape from the stress of work — for years I haven’t had to resort to using alcohol, drugs or Netflix binges to switch off after work and escape the reality of my stress filled life
The costs of quitting my high-paying jobs for less stressful lower paying ones
There are of course costs associated with choosing the “less stressful” route — both financially and personally.
Personal costs:
Most of the personal costs come upfront, as mentally it can be difficult to do the work required to find the right opportunity for you.
· Leaving your job: first off you’re going to have to actually leave your current, high-paying, prestigious job. This can be a bit scary
· Turning down opportunities: secondly — and far scarier — you’re going to have to continually turn down the “wrong” opportunities in your quest for the right one. There are a lot more stressful jobs out there than non-stressful ones (especially if you use my broader definition of stressful which includes all jobs not personally motivating for you). And the stressful jobs tend to look very appealing from the outside: well paid, prestigious, working with smart people, tried and tested career prospects… While this might not sound all so appealing now, if you end up leaving your current job to do a comprehensive job search then resisting these flashy opportunities will become a whole lot harder a few months into your search!
If you want to work a personally low stress job then by definition you cannot stay in or take a job that is not low stress for you. So you simply must forgo all these opportunities.
Financial costs:
Then there is money.
I was both lucky and unlucky financially:
· I was unlucky in that I had to make large monthly repayments on my $60k of student debt. This meant my savings were basically non-existent and my ability to test a lot of low paying jobs severely limited
· However, I was lucky as I was in a position where I could literally move country to one where I could afford to happily live on less money
· I was also lucky in that I actually found it enjoyable to minimize my expenditure — I enjoyed living frugally and making sacrifices for the cause of paying off my debt and earning myself the freedom to do work I loved and live a life I wanted to live, on my own terms
Also, it should be noted that, as I had always suspected, by taking money out of the equation and optimizing for less stressful work that I genuinely enjoyed, I discovered work which I became very good at and ended up earning decent money anyway!
Everyone’s circumstances are different, but as far as financial costs go I believe that when there’s a will there’s a way: if you want it badly enough you can make it work despite the financial costs.
If I could do it all again…
If you consider the cost-benefit analysis then this decision is extremely easy. By quitting my high-paying jobs for less stressful lower paying ones I have become mentally stronger and more resilient, more in tune with who I am and what I want from life and, last but not least, I am more satisfied both personally and professionally.
One final warning
However, I urge you not to blindly rush into this decision. As I hope my story has demonstrated, caution is advised — making a move to a less stressful job doesn’t always work out.
Before you make any decision you need to invest the time preparing and developing a structured exploration process.
If you are considering quitting your job for a less stressful one then I highly recommend you check out my site, The Freedom Series, where you can find some valuable resources on escaping the world of overwork.
