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PriorUpbeat5572 t1_j97u3dn wrote

I’ve done it. Went from corporate to being a teacher.

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keyjan t1_j97wdoh wrote

Former colleague of mine, a corporate lawyer, quit and went on to write cookbooks or something.

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MammothBobcat251 t1_j97ytk8 wrote

My massage therapist when from corporate law office to MT about 20 years ago and never looked back. Also have a friend who went corporate law to nonprofit work. Both are much happier.

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born_to_kvetch t1_j984mok wrote

I know someone who went from energy law to running a small farm, free-range chickens I think.

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williamkenlon t1_j98564r wrote

Good friend quit the politics scene and became easily one of the best 3-5 drummers in town. A rewarding choice for everyone.

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absorberemitter t1_j98emkx wrote

The person who authored the game Wingspan was a health policy analyst at a CRO. The owner/chef/something? of Clarity in Vienna was a Booz Allen veep or something.

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flanneljack1 t1_j98fyaj wrote

I worked for a PMC for a few months and switched careers to being a high school a teacher.

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ottereatingpopsicles t1_j98gi5d wrote

I know a lawyer who became an elementary school teacher and a lawyer who runs a medical marijuana company

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jeffderek t1_j98h09f wrote

My wife quit being a lawyer to bake cakes.

She said few people call a lawyer when they're happy and even fewer people call a cake decorator when they're not.

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BrightThru2014 t1_j98lon9 wrote

I know of a lawyer who was making 200k+ who quit in his late 20s to become a moderately successful musician.

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EveryPapaya57 t1_j98ueb5 wrote

I know a fair number of former international development folks who went on to teach yoga

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TonerLegend t1_j98w89t wrote

You might enjoy some of the stories in /r/financialindependence or /r/coastFIRE. Plenty of people in both subs have/had the kinds of jobs you are talking about.

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ulukmahvelous t1_j98wcr4 wrote

from international development / federal govt diplomacy to tech startup, no regrets

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MidnightSlinks t1_j98y9r9 wrote

My former co-worker quit to teach diving and run boat tours in the Caribbean.

Several yoga teachers at my old studio had gone from enthusiastic practitioners with office jobs to part time instructors to full time instructors.

My friend left corporate law when she had kids and never looked back (husband has a good job and she loathed big law). She may go back part time but won't be pursuing anything in the legal field.

Not sure this counts because it's actually more work, but my other friend quit Big 4 consulting to go to medical school to be a pediatrician.

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flanneljack1 t1_j99a85d wrote

Replying to 129za (#1,879,334)

Teaching? It’s a fun job, which I’m passionate about, but I’m struggling financially. Can’t afford appropriate housing for my family. I’m making substantially less than my peers with similar education level in the non profit sector. It’s also an increasingly demanding job, every year the workload increases but the pay does not, or if so, by very little.

I’m 7 years in and making 10k more than day one. Which is being torn to shreds by inflation and increased costs with a growing family. I would only recommend teaching to the idle rich. It’s an unsustainable career.

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Midnight_Morning t1_j99bb01 wrote

Coworker left the fedgov to drive trains for metro. It was a once in a lifetime public opening for metrorail operators and he took it. I guess driving a train is less stressful than dealing with production quotas, quality reviews and patent attorneys.

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hoosyourdaddyo t1_j99euq1 wrote

Mine. I went from high end telecom sales to AV, and I’m very happy. I make a good living, have the respect of my peers and enjoy what I do. In sales I made more money, but the cut throat nature of the business and the quotas weighing over your head just sucked.

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stracted t1_j99mhdg wrote

Old coworker left govt webstreaming job to work for Netflix as a producer.

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schwars1 t1_j9a0bfl wrote

My old boss who was likely in her late 50s with 30+ years of journalism and communications/PR experience quit and became a nurse.

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fishka2042 t1_j9a217v wrote

Friend went to corporate law to traveling full time and leading yoga and mindfulness retreats all over the world

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har3821 t1_j9a2eu3 wrote

A former boss of mine went from the foreign service to starting an urban farm right here in DC

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Loki-Don t1_j9a4iwt wrote

A former college roommate who had worked his entire career as a lawyer and had reached partner status at DCs second most famous law firm, quit when he was 44 and went to work for the National Park Service making about 1/12th what he made before. Spent a few years in DC doing National Mall management stuff and then moved to Yosemite where he now spends all day maintaining walking trails, doing tours etc living in a cabin.

He had a borderline breakdown from the stress as a lawyer but the dude couldn’t be happier now.

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johnbburg t1_j9a6967 wrote

I met a guy once where he and his wife went off to join the 12 tribes cult. They are kind of like the Amish, and live out by Purcellville.

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johnbburg t1_j9a6dz0 wrote

The guys who started Pork Barrel BBQ were former hill staffers.

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23screws t1_j9a81dk wrote

Ina Garten worked for OMB and now she’s….Ina Garten

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reflectionsdc t1_j9aa94u wrote

I quit my job as an attorney and became a small boat captain!

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Coastal_Elite410 t1_j9ac75q wrote

One of the founders of Republic Restoratives distillery was Gabby Giffords Chief of Staff at the time of the shooting… she got out of politics after that. I believe the other co-founder worked in energy/mineral resources policy.

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LLDN t1_j9ae91r wrote

Replying to Coastal_Elite410 (#1,883,373)

Totally this! Republic Restoratives is the go to example for getting out of politics into a successful gig outside of it. I believe Pia used to work for Congresswoman Gabby Giffords (you can see her staffing the congresswoman in the latest documentary “Won’t Back Down”).

Here’s a podcast talking to her when Republic first opened.

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flanneljack1 t1_j9aegl6 wrote

Replying to TheLeviathanX (#1,881,555)

Yeah. It was kinda an accident. I took an office job for a white hat NGO stopping human trafficking on the recommendation of a college bro. But I kept getting projects in former Soviet states doing research, marketing, and very little anti-human trafficking work. After a few months I realized anti-human trafficking was just a smokescreen for a bunch of mercenaries trying to get their small PMC off the ground. I quickly left that company and became a tour guide to pay bills. Almost joined the navy but had a bad car accident and needed to switch career paths. 2011-13 was a wild couple years for me.

Edit: the PMC even sent me to the Hill to get money to “save girls” that was totally going to be used to buy airplane tickets to “security” projects. Thank goodness I was bad at my job.

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ulukmahvelous t1_j9alohu wrote

Replying to BansheeLoveTriangle (#1,880,774)

customer success - so for those who are unfamiliar (sorry in advance for the block of text), in software there’s generally pre-sales and post-sales:

  • pre-sales includes business development representatives (cold calling, email outreach, trying to get prospective customers - prospects - to move forward in the sales cycle to ultimately buy the product), account executives (sales folks who close the deal), sales engineers (more tech-y people who demo the software), revenue operations (maintaining processes and tech used for sales), and marketing (straddles both pre and post sales).
  • Post-sales generally includes customer support, customer success (managing existing customers and renewing their contracts or selling them more stuff), customer success ops (managing the tech we use and training), and maybe other code-friendly people (sometimes called solutions architects, onboarding experts - don’t always need code) who help train customers.
  • Separately you have product and engineering, who are the coders and backend infrastructure folks standing up the software.

And ofc there are deviations within these generic roles based on company goals, software focus, business model, maturity, etc. in tech regarding different levels of roles you hear a lot about “individual contributors” (ICs), then there are managers to VP to C suite.

I was able to use my relationship building, communication, and general “account management” skills to shift into customer success as a customer success manager (CSM). I worked for the govt for over 3 years and it was rly hard to give up the career ladder and my path that I’d worked so hard to get on (and studied for). However, I love my new role because I’m negotiating and figuring out value for my partner (customer) and I get to lead them to success while helping my company’s business (mission). I work for a company that helps patients in the end so I feel connected. I also like that it’s more nimble and fun as a workplace. Happy to say more!

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sculptural_candle t1_j9anusb wrote

Danielle Vogel was a lawyer in the Senate (and I believe she wrote the energy bill?) but she bagged all that to be a local grocer and opened Glen's Garden Market (subsequently sold to Dawson's).

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Sacrificial-waffle t1_j9apbyu wrote

And here I am thinking of getting into legal work due to current work stresses

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drr71-2 t1_j9aqkj5 wrote

Replying to unenlightenedgoblin (#1,883,415)

And your attitude is exactly what's wrong with this sub.... instant to judge others and always assuming the worst. You could have asked for clarification on the comment, but it's so much easier to assume they were mocking the new farmer and then attack the person.

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Playful-Translator49 t1_j9aso5c wrote

Me. Went from senate committee staff to lobbyist now run a successful online e-commerce shop with some in person events. Zero regrets

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alexremington t1_j9b6qvi wrote

A friend of mine went from lawyer at Patton Boggs to high school physics teacher.

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earth-to-matilda t1_j9byt4v wrote

Replying to Matt_Tress (#1,886,919)

pretty much. i was over a decade removed from undergrad to dental school, and while i had a bachelors in biochemistry i needed to retake some courses for some schools

from the time i actually made the decision to pursue teeth it took me almost five years to start school. had to transition out of the previous career, and sell my condo, and take some of the refresher courses (last part took the longest since i did night classes while still working)

but the path was the same as it is for any other dentist: take an entrance exam and hopefully score well, apply to schools and get interviews/get in, survive 4 years of acute hellish torture, pass three board exams and get a state license

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churchillguitar t1_j9c2220 wrote

I quit my job Feb 2022 and have been pursuing music as a career for the last year. It’s been a lot of ups and downs, and some financial close calls, but I’m a lot happier.

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flanneljack1 t1_j9clu6l wrote

Replying to CasimeowDstryrOfPeas (#1,890,432)

My boss at the PMC was such a flim-flam man, he kept saying he was a helicopter pilot in Panama and that he ran guns and drugs for Noreaga and Ollie North. Except when I filled out paperwork for him I found out he was a logistics sergeant based in Montana. When I quit, he trying to help some guy buy a submarine base in Lithuania to convert into a commercial port, so he could run “security” for it.

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Gumburcules t1_j9cnnvk wrote

Replying to Agitated-Reality9068 (#1,886,598)

You get a lot of freedom to take risks and make less money when you've been making biglaw salary for a couple decades.

That's definitely the common thread in this thread: "I used all the money I made in my high-stress/high-pay job to subsidize my low-stress/low-pay work." Not a lot of "I was making $70k and now I'm an organic basket weaver" stories because those people don't have the luxury of dropping out of the rat race.

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pineapplewars t1_j9cxhpb wrote

Replying to hoosyourdaddyo (#1,892,319)

So I actually started with Swank AV before they merged with PSAV. I worked part time after I left and watch the shit show unfold as PSAV took over. Still got a lot of friends in the industry and guys I talk to regularly.

Also yeah freelancers who didn’t come from a shitty staffing company we’re the tits and we loved when we saw them. We knew it was gonna be a rough but still solid night.

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reflectionsdc t1_j9di0qm wrote

Replying to FSOTFitzgerald (#1,885,563)

I run my own boat business taking people out on the water.
I offer 2 types - cruises on the chesapeake bay, more of a hands on learning experience on a 30 foot sailboat thats been with me all over the US east coast! I enjoy doing this the most because I love sailing. I also offer a more mainstream product - a guided 2 hour cruise on a small open power skiff. Its geared towards locals to help them discover our wonderful river. Both have a lot of storytelling based interactions. I am adding a unguided, 'hang out on the boat' cruise this year (which is my website isn't working for booking right now). All trips are private bookings. Sorry I sound like an ad, but I am passionate about boating, sailing, cruising and my business in general and I can't help talking about it :)

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landlocked_kook t1_j9dyo0m wrote

Look up “sallyisadog” he’s a former hill staffer or political person who now streams full time video games and is relatively TikTok famous.

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Drire t1_j9fpl3e wrote

I crashed and burned out of political agency life in 2017. I'd worked in a few places including K Street. It was never the hours it was the stress of some partner screaming in his office, and when we come in the next day seeing a mostly empty bottle of whiskey on the desk, they're nowhere in sight, and then being responsible for his responsibilities. Different flavors of examples like that over 4 years.

Crashed out to run a tea shipping business for a year.

Then I spent 4 years doing spreadsheets and ads for tech companies, now I work in the toy & game industry. My bloodpressure, weight, and overall lifespan has thanked me.

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