I was so exhausted that I left my job and went back to school

In 2019, I decisively entered my boss’s office and I announced my resignation.

“Is it something we did?” My manager asked me.

I assured him that it had nothing to do with the company that made me want to resign from my lucrative marketing work. In fact, I gave up my annual salary to return to school in a change of a pivotal career and pay thousands of dollars instead.

In a way, it was the culminating end of what I call my “existential crisis”. After working in marketing for almost 10 years, I felt emotionally drained, exhausted and dissatisfied.

It was not because of the workplace, corporate culture or my colleagues. In fact, I loved the people I worked with and I developed significant friendships with them. However, after a decade on the field, I no longer wanted to sit behind an office and produce content for 40 hours a week.

I spent months exploring the deep cause of my exhaustion

After talking with Lynn Berger, a career coach based in New York, I learned that it was essential to explore what contributes first to your work work. After all, completely upsetting your career is a great commitment.

Like any “existential crisis”, the months before my resignation involved a lot of soul creation, reflection and personal exploration to discover the root of my professional exhaustion. I consulted my therapist and discussed the problem with my family and friends at length.

I experienced by taking measures to improve my working days: I started to do more walks, I stopped lunch at my office and I socialized more with my colleagues.

These things helped make it a little more bearable, but they did not eradicate my chronic exhaustion.

I then had to understand what was going on for me

I tried to stay in my field as long as possible. I was afraid of having to make a greater change, such as the change of fields entirely. But it was time to be honest with myself: it was a chronic exhaustion, and spending a day in mental health or a week’s stay was not the antidote.

As Berger told me, “if the feelings of professional exhaustion persist over a period of time, it could be time to consider a career change if the source of stress is your work.”

When I finally decided to change my field, I felt optimistic that I took measures. But it was a difficult process. I had to answer two questions suddenly: what do I want to do now, and what would make me happy?

Career coaches like Berger will tell you about the importance of passing a career personality test like Myers-Briggs to help identify your values ​​and what is important for you in a job. For me, it collaborates with others, making a difference in the lives of others and the balance of aging work.

From there, I made a list of fields that line up with my values. I considered jobs in psychology, social work, professional counseling, education and higher education.

Finally, I settled in higher education and, in June, I applied for a master’s program in education at the University of Toronto. When I was accepted on the program the following month, it sealed the agreement, which led to my resignation from the technological company.

The second guess has become part of the process

It may be easy to doubt your decision when radical, explains Berger.

“There can be and will be moments when you have doubts about yourself and you have to constantly remember why they change the change,” she told me.

In my case, it was difficult to be back in a classroom for the first time in almost 10 years. There were times when I questioned my value, faced impostor syndrome and that I became overwhelmed by requests to be a student again.

I also had to deal with the financial stress of the exchange of my five -digit salary by student debt. This did not help that when I spoke to my parents for the first time my desire to return to school, they were not enthusiastic about it. Finally, they came.

One of my biggest supporters was my now-Ex. At the time, she told me that it is not because something is overwhelming that it is bad.

My ex turned out to be fair. As stressful as it was again a student, after having finished my master’s degree at the University of Toronto, I started a new breathtaking career in student services, accessibility and professional advice, emphasizing disabled people.

Now I am happy with my career trajectory, maybe for the first time in my life.