Making the Leap
Well, I've done it. After talking about, preaching it, blogging about it, encouraging people to do it, I finally did it. As you probably know, I've been working at SAP, the largest business software in the world, for almost a year and a half in the business development department at an entry level position. Ever since I had talked to Peter Tingling and wrote a post about working in a Zoo vs. the Wild, the idea of leaving the corporate world was with me. In December however, I had an interview at SAP for a better internal role and was told I should expect to be promoted before the new year. With this news, I wasn't planning on moving anywhere any time soon. Well I was planning on moving desk, but that was about it.
Unfortunately things didn't quite happened that way, but I started training sessions and mentoring sessions in February and was mostly trained by the end of March. Unfortunately bad timing and many layers of decision makers meant that by June, I was still in my old role and that was my breaking point. I know my more experienced readers and colleagues will say I'm a typical millennial who can't wait, and I guess they're right. Yes, thank you for your feedback… I know. Anyway, in June I started applying on jobs as I needed new challenges and something exciting, a job I could learn from, a job I could feel I was contributing something and making even a small difference. Here again you can detect my typical millennial's sense of naivety… So I decided I would be looking for jobs in new startups in Vancouver.
Sometimes it feels like if all the stars align at the right moment and one night I came back home and checked my LinkedIn and I had 3 job listings on the right panel (which was a BETA feature BTW, I think this is a great idea from LinkedIn). One of them was Inside Sales Executive (the same role I was desperately waiting for at SAP) for a company called Visier Inc., a company I had never heard of. I clicked on the link to discover it was exactly in the same industry as SAP BusinessObjects, it was literally a block away from my current job, it was a startup and most important of all: it was founded, managed and run by ex-SAP employees with one of the founder and CEO being the ex-CEO of BusinessObjects. For those of you who don't know, BusinessObjects was the leading Business Intelligence company in the world and was acquired by SAP a few years ago. And Visier was founded by BusinessObjects' CEO and literally all 14 employees were ex-SAP employees looking for new challenges. I just couldn't resist and applied right away.
So to make a long story short, I applied, went through 2 interviews and got the job. The only problem, if you can call that a problem, was that I actually had been promoted to my new role at SAP, finally. So I had an interesting dilemma, on 1 side I had SAP, a well-known and respected corporation who I knew was offering me a stable and certain future with the best pay, benefits and perks in the industry and the city. On the other side I had Visier, a highly promising startup with everything to be built from the ground up and a motivated and dynamic team.
I'm not going to lie, I lost sleep over this, but I ended up leaving SAP on my 2nd day in my new role, a record they told me. I joined the company a little over 1 week ago and I don't regret it at all! The challenge, the freedom, the opportunities, everything I missed so much in my corporate career Visier has. I've also found my inspiration to blog and will publish a few posts in the next weeks about making the leap based on my experience and my conversations with other people.
So here I am my friends, writing to you from the wild and looking forward to the journey!
What about you? Have you found your piece of Wilderness yet or leaving the Zoo seems too risky?
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I was born ready. After spending 6 months at a corporate giant, I'd love to work in a smaller company and actually get things done. Too bad I've gotta wait a year to finish Uni before I do anything else. Great piece Matt, and best of luck at your new job.
Every day I get the feeling of living in a zoo when I wake up in the morning, look out of my window, and see South Korea.
Hi Marcel,
Thanks for your kind words! I wish I had done coop or interns at university to figure this out before hitting the job market. At the same time though, the only reason I got the job I have now is because I worked in a Fortune 100 which gives more credibility to your resume. So I guess there are pros and cons… nothing's perfect. hehe
And you don't have to wait to finish University to start doing something cool. Facebook, Microsoft, Apple… all started with a bunch of drop-outs
I'm not saying you have to drop out to be successful, but starting a little project (and I know you already have many!) on the side while your a student can take you a long way.
Anyways, looking forward for your return to Canada so we can catch up and have some good German beer
Cheers,
Why's that Evan?
Thank you so much for your candid discussion, Matt! I had your blog entry forwarded to me by Nima because I'm going through some maybe-similar-and-surely-related frustrations right now working at a big consulting firm, and have been toying with the idea of a career shift for some time. I feel like I've been at a crossroads for a long time now, just putting off the tough decisions and opting for the easy and conservative path.
I find your success story (if you'll allow me to call it that) in this post inspiring and motivational…and it may just be the nudge I need to muster up the courage to make a move. It is at the very least another thing that's slowly pushing me in that direction.
Good luck at your new role and looking forward to hearing more about it!
Erica, I can surely relate to your situation and wish you all the best in your career shift! It may be difficult to get out of the routine and scary to put the safe and comfortable corporate life, but it can be done.
Working in a big firm like yours means you’re an appealing candidate for startups or small and medium size businesses and you can easily leverage that.
You also have the advantage of having a job right now which means you can apply on other jobs in smaller and more dynamic organizations and negotiate on your terms and even say no to offers if you don’t “feel it”. You have a huge advantage over most people.
Peter convinced me to do the shift to the small business world and he was right all along.
I’ll publish a post on how to measure opportunities and pick a job in a startup in the next few days and I’d like to have your opinion. I know for me that was the big thing, I didn’t want to leave SAP for a crappy startup that goes bankrupt. Hehe
Let me know of your progress and let me know if I can help!
I wish you all the best