Why I Quit a $500K Per Year Job

Growing up I had dreams of becoming rich, having a large mansion and having the freedom to do whatever I wanted to do whenever. I was never exposed to true wealth, so as a kid my perception of the rich were those making ~$200-400K per year (essentially doctors, lawyers, etc.) who lived in the large houses in a neighborhood a few miles from where I lived.

It was not until a few decades later during my investment banking internship in New York when I first was exposed to someone with true wealth. We had a summer group outing at a senior managing director’s lake house and when we arrived, I could not believe what I saw. His lake house was probably worth ~$5-10MM and he had a few other vacation homes in addition to his apartment in the city.

I was shocked as it was the first time I truly realized that there were different levels of wealth. It was amazing. From that point on I knew I wanted to aggressively pursue the traditional finance path.

How did I land my $500K per year job?

I worked hard that summer and was fortunate to receive an offer to return full-time. I worked in M&A for three years, realized I loved the public markets and worked my ass off to land a job at a large multi-manager hedge fund.

After three years I managed to break into the buyside and land a hedge fund job that had the potential to pay mid six figures in a good year depending on the performance of my group. Can learn more about the compensation structure here, but essentially in a good year I could make in the mid six figure range and more once I had more experience.

Sounds like I made it and happily ever after, right? Wrong. After just one year, I quit.

So why did I quit?

1. Money alone isn’t a good motivator

Once you pay off your student loans and have a lot saved, money just becomes an arbitrary number that continues to go up in your bank account. Even though I dreamed about being rich as a kid and was envious of those living in mansions down the road, I realized that making money wasn’t the end all be all in life.

Now I am not saying that I do not like making money, because I absolutely do. But in my mind, I know I will be rich regardless of what I do as long as I can stay focused and do what I enjoy doing rather than be forced to do something I do not want to do.

For me and for many others, the amount of money a job pays is not the most important driver to staying motivated longer-term.

2. Simply did not like what I was doing

There was a huge mismatch between my initial expectations and what the job was actually like. From an investment style point of view, I identified with a long-term / fundamental based investment approach while the style at the job was very short-term oriented. You may think… well who cares since you are making a shit ton of money! But when you do not believe in what you are doing and think about how the job is essentially going to be the same thing day in and day out, you start to question why the hell you are doing what you are currently doing.

Additionally, the role was an extremely introverted position. I was on a team of four, but my boss always worked remotely and I never talked much with the other guys in the group because they were covering different sectors. There was never any real collaboration when it came to making investment decisions, so after a while it was hard to just sit in front of a computer all day without communicating with anyone.

3. Was not intellectually stimulated

Investing in general is extremely intellectually stimulating. You need to be able to understand the fundamentals of the business / the industry as well as figure out scenarios where you can get screwed and lose all your capital.

But this was not how the job was. After a few months of working at a multi-manager, the job became extremely repetitive. Wake up at 6am, read the sell-side research emails, work on models, go to some meetings, read the afternoon / evening sell-side research emails, then go to bed. Day in and day out this was essentially my schedule and it became extremely monotonous.

Because the investing style was short-term, the job was less about learning about business fundamentals and more about figuring out what market expectations are over the next six months for each company and making bets depending on the setup.

4. Could never separate work and personal life

The job was all consuming. Given the constant flow of information for all the companies that I was responsible for, every morning and night there would be new research or information that had to be read. On top of that I had a manager who would constantly email me on the weekends, so I could never fully catch up on items that I was not able to complete during the week.

I always felt behind on work and every day there were new items I had to add to that never-ending list. That feeling is one of the worst feelings ever, especially if it is completely out of your control.   

A very easy way to determine whether a job is right for you longer-term is to look at the life of the higher-ups at your firm. Would you ever see yourself in their shoes?

My boss was constantly stressed out and had no control over his schedule as he was a slave to the market. He wore his emotions on his sleeve, meaning his mood was determined based on whether or not he made or lost money that day.

After realizing that I would be slowly turning into that person if I stayed in that job, it was very easy to determine that it was not the life that I wanted to live 10 or 20 years out.

5. Experienced signs of burnout

Everything discussed above ultimately led to me experiencing signs of burnout. I did not know really how to handle or get over it as it was the first time I ever experienced it before. I knew it was not the long hours that I was working because I worked even longer hours in my prior job and did very well.

It was obvious that I needed to change jobs. Despite dreaming about being rich as a kid, the potential to make a ton of money just was not a good enough motivator for me anymore.

Continue to think big and go after your goals

I am not here to dissuade or demotivate you from thinking big and going after that high paying career. You should absolutely continue to set long-term goals so you have something to work towards and look forward to.

But you need to understand that your hopes, dreams and expectations can sometimes lead you into situations where the reality is completely different. And this is completely okay! There are many that work extremely hard to reach their goals only to figure out that what they achieved did not live up to their expectations and was not the end all / be all solution.

What separates those who are both successful and happy (group 1) versus those who are objectively successful but unhappy (group 2) is that group 1 never settled into a career path until he found the one that was best for them. Group 2 individuals give up in searching for the perfect match because of either fear of doing something different or just simple laziness.  

It all works out in the end as long as you never settle

This experience as well as the experience in my prior job ultimately led me to realize what I liked and did not like about each of those jobs. It allowed me to realize what type of investing style I truly identified with and the job that would be best for me longer-term.

So keep searching for that role that is best for you and never ever settle.

If interested, you can read more about My Life Story and How it all Started.