Why I Turned Down A Promotion At 29 Years Old
By: Alice Vuong
Tags: Work, Life Lessons, Careers, Life, Self

Why I Turned Down A Promotion At 29 Years Old

I also took a $10,000 pay cut

Photo by JJ Ying on Unsplash

As my peers and friends were looking for managerial positions and switching careers for better pay and a more important sounding title to their name, I was on the verge of quitting my promising career at my company.

I was working at a well known accounting firm with an international presence. My performance reviews have been stellar, I was well-liked by my peers and bosses and I was just offered a promotion to manager.

This is what people in the corporate world strive for — more pay, a managerial title, another step up the corporate ladder. I was offered all of this at one of the biggest firms in the accounting world.

I should’ve been ecstatic but instead I handed in my resignation and found a job working at a public institution that offered me a $10,000 pay cut and a less fancy job title.

At 29, some may think I was throwing my career away. This was supposed to be the time to advance my career. My prime professional years. But I didn’t think of it as throwing my career away, I thought of it as taking my life back.

It was either the wealth or my health

I had no issues with my health, at least not physically. But I knew that I wouldn’t be able to survive a managerial position doing that kind work mentally.

I saw and experienced first hand the long hours and stress of being a manager. Even as an associate I was working 12–14 hour days, some days more. I would leave the office at 8pm and still work from home after my day was “done". I would send out emails at midnight hoping for a response from the client in the morning. I couldn’t (or I could) imagine the life of being a manager.

I knew that if I took the job as a manager, my work/life balance would be non-existent. Sleepless nights, weekends at the office, eating whatever’s the quickest. I was going through that already and if I became a manager, it would be even worse.

I had to think about my health because what’s the point of having the wealth if I didn’t have my health?

I chose my health because I figured the wealth will come.

Many people work for the money or the status and that’s what I did.

At the beginning.

I quickly realized that there are some things that are simply not worth the sacrifice.

I wanted to take back my time

I was working 12–14 hour days and that doesn’t include the time it took me to get to and from work.

My life revolved around talking to clients, finishing up files, going to meetings, and checking emails. My life was all about work.

And I couldn’t do it anymore.

I wanted to take my time back so I looked for a change — a job that was less demanding, a job that afforded me time for myself.

Being constantly on the go at my old job didn’t give me a lot of time to myself and explore my own interests.

Many believe that time is an infinite resource. We always believe we’ll have time to travel, to work on our passions, to finally live our dream…but not until after we’ve worked at a job we hate for 40 years.

As the adage goes “Life happens”.

My dad has a coworker who retired about a year ago and I’m sure she had big plans for her retirement — travel, spend time with family, maybe even work on that passion project or get back into her hobbies.

And then she suffered a stroke.

That’s not to say that everyone should quit their jobs because obviously money is a big part of our lives. As for me, I needed to find a balance between work and what I wanted my life to be like.

Or at least have the opportunity to go for it.

And working 12–14 hour days didn’t give me that chance.

I chose myself instead

I had forgotten myself in the midst of working for someone else.

I had chosen someone else’s priorities over mine ever since I started working and even in university when I chose my major in accounting rather than go for my real desire to major in English.

I always chose someone else over me and I was getting sick of it.

Even though every decision was my choice, when you decide to revolve your life around other people’s priorities, it can seem like your choices aren’t totally yours and when I was offered a promotion, I knew I had a choice to make — I could go for my career in the corporate world or I can downgrade my career and upgrade my life.

So I finally decided to choose myself.

I chose a job that gives me the space and time I need to prioritize myself over others — something I didn’t do for years.

And I’m glad I did.

That’s the thing about choosing life over money or a career — you’ll never regret the decision.