Is there a right way to get ahead?! Welcome to Raise Your Game—our week of examining success at work, whether you’re Patrick Bateman, an on-the-job stoner, or just a guy who wants to see a shit-ton of zeros on his paycheck.
We've all had those days. I hate my job! days. I hate my coworkers! I hate this office! I hate this schedule/this commute/this workload/this multi-function copy center! Usually, these days are just days, and most grown-ups know the rage will end and the job hatred will pass, often with the arrival of six o'clock and a cold beverage.
But what do you do when you realize you don't just momentarily hate your job—you hate your career? Making a dramatic shift is... not easy. So, we asked three guys who knew they needed to make a big change in their lives, and what they did to set themselves up for success.
Name: David Zaitz
Age: 26
Old: Investment Banker at Bank of America Merrill Lynch
New: CEO of Pieper Farms (a seed potato business in Minnesota) and LLC and B. Zaitz & Sons, LLC (a company that invests in, develops, and green-fields a variety of agricultural companies).
What made you realize it was time to leave your old career? Can you describe the moment you knew you needed a change?
I've been surrounded by the agricultural development business my whole life; at Cornell I studied agribusiness and engineering, and I grew up in a farming family. Always trolling for opportunities, I discovered a seed potato farm in Lake of the Woods, Minnesota that had an international client base, the owner was retiring, and ultimately it was a combination of the desire to actually hands-on run a business and opportunity: At 3 a.m. in my cubicle on the 42nd edit of a PowerPoint stack for a pension fund, it hit me that I wanted to take my chances. My mom worried that I was leaving a promising Wall Street career and my dad claimed you could hire an investment banker anytime you needed one, while managing a farm and building a business is another matter.
In the past three years, though, I've developed a satellite Arizona operation, tripled the size of the Minnesota farm, traveled to Africa, China, Central America and South America, dealt with Russian criminals and crooked port officials.
What’s the first thing you did after quitting to start setting yourself up for your new career?
I ordered every single book I could find on potato production and started reading and learning. Nothing can supplant experience, but I made sure that I was grabbing every piece of information available. I’m still not done reading.
Name: Souvannarith Han
Age: 33
Old: Personal Banker
New: Sales Operations Coordinator at TOMS
What made you realize it was time to leave your old career? Can you describe the moment you knew you needed a change?
I remember being 28 years old, thinking that I had to settle with not only my job, but my life. I can recall moments I would wake up stressed, bored, and unmotivated. There was no passion or drive, I didn't feel myself improving. Obviously thats when I realized I was working to live up to an image. Seeing my friends and family progress in their lives, I felt there was constant pressure to keep up with my peers who were settling down. I guess this is common, especially coming from a first generation Asian-American family in Long Beach (California). My family did not understand there were other career paths out there. I was 28 finally realizing that I had to be selfish and live my life the way I wanted.
What’s the first thing you did after quitting to start setting yourself up for your new career?
I had a friend who was in the fashion industry that helped me get my "foot in the door" at Oakley. He saw how passionate I was when he would take me to events. I would ask so many questions about how he ended up here. Little did I know that he and I weren't much different: This guy did not graduate college, he worked a bunch of odd jobs and interned at companies until he got his foot in the door. He was the most optimistic and confident guy I ever came across. So I decided to say fuck it, I got an entry-level job there getting paid $ 13 bucks and driving 70 miles a day. People thought i was crazy for doing that. But after working there for three years and sacrificing pay, it allowed me something more than that extra zero on the check could do—it gave me experience to do a job I love.
Name: Mel Carson
Age: 43
Old: Actor
New: CEO of Delightful Communications, a digital media consulting firm (and former evangelist at Microsoft)
What made you realize it was time to leave your old career? Can you describe the moment you knew you needed a change?
It was December 1999 and I had just been through three rounds of auditions for the lead part in the West End musical Rent in London. My agent called me and said the American producers loved my audition and I was “heavily penciled in” for the role of Mark. I went a bit crazy over Christmas buying presents for family and friends because, hey, I was about to become a star on the West End stage! Just after New Year my agent rang again and said they’d decided to pull the show from the West End but I could audition for the tour. I did—and didn’t get past the first round of auditions. That’s when I knew, after seven years, I had to get out of acting. I was 28 with a degree in drama and seven years of retail experience selling teddy bears in Harrods.
What’s the first thing you did after quitting to start setting yourself up for your new career?
I realized I needed to find a brand new skill. Something emerging that didn’t need formal experience. The Internet was taking off so I did evening classes in HTML to understand the technical aspects of how the web works. I called in favors from friends who helped me with my CV, and I did a week’s work experience as a journalist through a friend on a local newspaper so I could understand how journalism and writing for the web worked. I got the first job I applied for with this experience. It was the shopping and travel editor at LookSmart, which was a web directory that served sites like MSN and Alta Vista. I worked really hard in that startup environment learning, absorbing as much as I could. A few years later an opportunity at Microsoft came up and I have never looked back.
After seven years at Microsoft speaking, writing, and interviewing people on camera about digital media and advertising, I left and started my own company—Delightful Communications—I still travel the world, have great clients, and love that my work is at the cutting edge of digital. I especially love the fact I help other people realize their career dreams. It’s my way of giving back after so many people helped and cajole me into making the giant leap from acting. The 21st century work world is so fluid you need to be agile and quick to snap up new opportunities. Would I do it again? Absolutely. I think I’m happier now than I would have been if I’d been a successful actor.
