10 People On The Moment They Quit Their Job To Pursue Their Real Passion

1. “I felt so much crippling anxiety about going back to my inventory management job after the holidays were over, that I applied feverishly to a bunch of admin jobs that would give me a stress-free and slow-paced environment to be in while I figured out what I wanted to do. I finally got an offer and am still here now, unsure of exactly where I want to go, but it’s been incredible. I have a steady paycheck, I’m relaxed, I’ve been reading about grad school, researching career options, networking. And, without the financial stress weighing down on me, I have a good amount of time to reflect on where I want to go from here.”

–Henry, 25

2. “I worked at a staffing firm and it was literally hell. Spent a solid twenty-three minutes crying in the bathroom one Monday morning and that was it for me. I quit, went home that day, and spent seven hours reaching out to everyone I knew or just barely knew, asking for connections. I was Linked In-ing the crap out of people. Now I work for a casting company and leaving that staffing firm was the best decision I ever made.”

–Makayla, 24

3. “I got a job at one of the top consumer goods companies in the country, did it for five years, and then left to get my MFA in screenwriting when I realized I spent every free minute watching movies and reading about how they’re made. And I’m in school now and I’ve never been happier and who knows if it will work out… but I’ll find out either way eventually, and I’ll never have to wonder.”

–Gabriella, 28

4. “My boss pulled me into her office and was actually trying to be helpful saying like ‘We want to help you grow here’ and ‘Do you want a management position down the road’ and all I could think was that that was the last thing I wanted and it sounded too easy a slope to fall down. So I quit two days later and got a retail job while I applied to get my master’s degree in social work.”

–Emma, 27

5. “It wasn’t some big moment for me. I just hated accounting and dreaded going in every day and then one day my coworker who I hate brought in tuna for lunch for the third day in a row and it smelled disgusting and I snapped and went into my boss’s office and gave him my two weeks notice and acted like it was something I had thought about for months.”

–Jackson, 24

6. “I never did the regular job part first. I just moved to Colorado immediately after school to be a ski instructor and I haven’t looked back. Who wants to sit at a desk all day anyway.”

–Alex, 29

7. “I guess technically I didn’t quit to pursue my ‘dream job.’ I was at a marketing firm and was just tired of it and needed a break and had saved up a lot of money. So I put in my notice and then bartender for a year and a half just to do something different and to work with different people. It was awesome, but equally hard in so many different ways. I’m back to marketing, but so glad for the experience. And feeling totally refreshed.”

–Kelly, 26

8. “I was an admin assistant at this place for four months and when my boss and I went to a networking event one day (that I had to go to during my LUNCH hour) I asked him to write out my name tag for me because I had sprained my wrist in my intramural dodgeball league. And he awkwardly stared and me and then sort of panicked and I was like ‘…it’s Madelyn.’ Then I went home and applied to a job at my alma matter’s admissions office on a whim and found out I got it three weeks later and quit immediately.”

–Madelyn, 23

9. “Wedding planning. Turns out it was my dream job either way, I just hated the first person I worked for. She was absolutely insane and I was panicked all the time, but I sucked it up for fifteen months and then got hired by this woman I introduced myself to who planned my cousin’s wedding. And I’ve been working for her for three years and it’s been a dream.”

–Ethan, 29

10. “I had the Sunday night anxiety thing that everyone experiences when the weekend is over, but mine was so much worse than my friends. I was getting maybe three hours of sleep every night because I couldn’t relax my mind enough. The environment at my job was insane, cutthroat, every man for himself kind of thing. So one night my girlfriend sat me down and said she didn’t think I should work there anymore, and she managed to talk me into applying elsewhere. I didn’t even change my career path, but I just found a company that was much better suited to my personality so in a way, it did feel like quitting to pursue my dream job.”