Well it’s often said that the new year brings about opportunities for change. I have one such change that’s likely on the horizon.
Folks who have come by my site periodically will have noted that there been times when I discussed a potential career change. I have been in a position and in a company that I quite enjoy for the longest time.
The role provides very good work life balance with the opportunity to meet incredible individuals who are passionate about various things that they’re building. There’s never really a dull moment and there’s always an opportunity to learn and do more.
Having said that I’ve been feeling a little static for the last couple of years. I’ve also seen more junior peers of mine pass me by for promotional opportunities. While it would be fairly easy to just be content with my lot in life and say that as a family we are on track to achieving some rather big and meaningful opportunities from a wealth perspective (and there’s no doubt here that we are), I’ve often wondered whether I should be aspiring to try and do more.
I think one of the challenges that I faced in thinking through other opportunities has been that opportunities in potentially promising startups carry with them the potential for significant downside not to mention a less favorable work life balance. While opportunities in larger companies generally expose you to that same level of a lack of dynamism and feeling like you’re just crawling on the treadmill.
Intriguingly I have been recently contacted and subsequently offered a position in a larger organization to grow a new business in a start up fashion. I was intrigued by this opportunity because essentially it’s a step up for me and my career in terms of title, compensation and all of that good stuff in an environment which is likely going to be dynamic and yet were the work life balance still remains reasonable as opposed to chaotic.
I think this is one of those things that you can only get in a large company environment that’s trying to foster new business growth in a fairly arm’s-length manner. I’m looking forward to this opportunity because the way I view my career I realistically think that I likely have a good decade remaining if everything else holds up including health and good fortune and everything else.
The reality is that that’s actually not terribly long. As far as one’s formal working life, of course things may change over the course of the next decade and I may end up deciding that a ten-year period just isn’t sufficient for my time in the workplace. However where from where I sit now and thinking through what our financial goals are and the point that we’re likely to achieve them, I feel that a ten-year period is a reasonable timeframe in which to plan for formal structured work.
At that point I will be well into my late 40s with my kids also nearing the end of high school. I have no real plans to make a formal break from the workforce up until my kids are actually independent and off at college so a ten-year planning cycle for a formal traditional career path is something that I’m quite open to from a planning perspective.
Given that’s the case I thought about what kinds of experiences may make the most sense from a career perspective and exactly what the heck is it that I want to trying to achieve in that period of time. Life is precious and certainly each opportunity that you have for engaging, positive interaction is something that I think one should take, particularly so if it’s career oriented given the substantial amount of time that you spend doing your job.
Additionally what’s also happened with my current role and current employer is that I’m seeing things slowly start to take a turn for the worse. In my current company budgets are becoming increasingly tight and industry landscape is also becoming less favorable.
Internal opportunities for growth are also becoming fewer and far between. When a more senior position with greater compensation and a more interesting work profile happen to be put in front of me it became quite difficult to think of compelling reasons to turn this down. This is particularly given that my commute will also be more reasonable and I’ll start having stock-based compensation, which frankly has been an aspiration of mine for quite some time.
Certainly as an investor it’s hard to not want to have a role where you’re earning equity for your output!
The last variable in this whole equation is some reflection about what I would been happy to achieve in my career and where will I be happy to finish up. When I thought honestly about trying to answer that question it occurred to me that if I ended my career exactly where I am right now and in a role where I have been doing exactly what I have been for the last six or seven years that that would likely be somewhat of a deflating feeling.
Given I couldn’t see an immediate pathway to a more senior role within my current company that would’ve been something that I would’ve had some level of regret over the course of the next 10 years. This is particularly the case given that I would’ve seen peers of mine in more senior roles.
To some extent that does become difficult to stomach. I think the last aspect of this is from a career perspective given my age and my current position, each day or year that was spent in my company in my current role not being able to rise would’ve just been time spent that would’ve been further hurting my career.
Now while that may not of been a material problem if I could’ve been assured of keeping my current position and also finishing out my career in a 10 year time span, if things change and my current role was in jeopardy and I have to prolong my career beyond the next 10 years, then I would’ve really suffered going out into the workforce trying to look for a new job whilst trying to justify the salary and benefits that I’m currently on.
The reality is that looking for and landing a new job on your own terms when you have the luxury of time is a far different prospect then being forced to do so when your options are far more limited. Overall I’m very happy and excited that I’m about to embark on a new phase and chapter in my family’s journey towards financial independence and I hope to share the trials and tribulations of this journey with all of you.
So what does this mean for me for my quest for financial independence and this blog? Well, overall I sincerely hope to continue contributing as frequently as what I have been over the past few years to the blog. Of course I expect with my new role I will initially likely be a little more busy in keeping up with new responsibilities and really immersing myself in the challenges that I y now a new role will inevitably bring.
However having said that, given that I’ve been involved in the space for quite some period of time I do believe that the ramp-up likely won’t be as steep as may otherwise be the case. From a financial independence perspective I really do believe that this move will help to more rapidly accelerate our quest for financial independence and I look forward to sharing the details of this journey and the impact on our financial independence with all of you.
Do any of you have any new changes or challenges in 2017 that will impact your financial independence journey? I’d love to hear any details from you below.
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