Big career update!
It is crazy to think that it has been 4 months since I took a pause from big consulting!! I’ve been a bit quiet on the career front here because I have spent the past 3-4 weeks figuring out my next steps, and I didn’t want to jump the gun. However, I am very excited to share that as of this week, I officially resigned from my position! This wasn’t a huge shock – the past 4 months have been a mix of paid time off and a personal leave of absence, and everyone I am close with at the firm knew there was a good chance I was not going to return. I just needed to take this time for myself to recharge and reflect so I could be in a good position to formally make that decision. Now that I have, I am surprised at how confident and comfortable I feel!
While this was bound to happen by June when my LOA was over, there is an exciting reason why I chose to resign a bit earlier. A good friend of mine from grad school owns a design, strategy, and organization development firm and recently asked me if I would be interested in collaborating with them on a few projects. I was at the point where I needed to start challenging myself more, and this was an opportunity that I didn’t want to pass up. I requested approval for outside employment from my firm (which they allow on a case-by-case basis during LOAs), but when my request was not approved, I knew that it was time for me to take the next step in my career and resign.
I am still figuring out what my next longer-term career move is, but for the next 3-4 months I will be an independent consultant supporting this small boutique consulting firm. The work is really exciting – organization development and strategy work in the international development space. In the meantime, I’ll be navigating this strange new world of setting up my own small business (!!), figuring out taxes, and learning as much as I can in a completely different client space and completely different company culture! Lucky for me, my friend and his business partner are crazy awesome entrepreneurs who have been giving me great tips.
Thank you for all of your support, and I’m so excited to see where this adventure takes me!