The Next Challenge.
My decision to leave J.P. Morgan and what comes next.
Hellooooo everybody. Apologies for not holding up my end of the bargain in terms of delivering this newsletter every week. But don’t worry - my absence from your inbox these last 6 or so weeks was well warranted (in my opinion). I also needed to devote all my time and attention to cheering for UF in March Madness. (And wow, Go Gators!)
Leaving JPM
As alluded to above, I am no longer an employee of J.P. Morgan. Friday, March 28th was my last day at the firm and I was fortunate to spend this last week home in Naples with my family getting recharged for this next chapter in my career.
I enjoyed my two years at J.P. Morgan and am extremely grateful for the experience and people the role granted me access to. While I’m disappointed I won’t ever get to work in the much anticipated $3B new HQ (our move-in date was August), I won’t be too far from Midtown and hope I still have plenty of friends at the firm who can invite me for a coffee chat :)
What’s Next?
Last week I posted a vlog showing my final day working at JPM and I have been so overwhelmed by the amount of support I have received through comments on the video, DMs on LinkedIn, and texts.
Because I didn’t disclose what I was leaving JPM for in the video, the natural question everyone asked was “so what’s next?” I was flattered to see several people really think I may be leaving to become a “full-time creator” but as cool as that may be - that is not the case lol.
I’ll share more specifics at a later time, but my next role is still in finance and still here in NYC. I’m waiting to go public about the company and role until after my first day (tomorrow), so in the meantime, you’ll have to connect with me on LinkedIn so you don’t miss that update.
I’m sorry for being so vague and secretive. As you probably know by now, it’s not in my nature, but the context of this situation kind of calls for it - at least for the next few days.
Reflections
While I’d like to say the choice to leave J.P. Morgan was a hard one to make, it really wasn’t. This had been brewing for a while, and is more tied to my internal hunger for more than any single external reason, although there definitely were some contributing external factors lol.
As young professionals, career trajectory should be the most important metric to reflect on. Not salary. Not title. Growth. What will your role and responsibilities look like 5 years from now? 10? These were the questions I asked myself, and I didn’t love the answers.
Simply put, I wasn’t growing at J.P. Morgan and I didn’t necessarily see that changing any time soon. I was comfortable. Comfortable in my role and responsibilities. Comfortable in my routine. I was good at my job, and that made it easy to execute my responsibilities and beyond. But it also made it easy to be complacent.
But more than complacency, I realized that what I was doing on a daily basis really wouldn’t change at all even after progressing in title and “responsibility.” I wanted more of a challenge. I wanted to learn new skills. I wanted to build something and be recognized for making an impact.
There may be a time in my life when I want to just skate by, earn a decent paycheck, and enjoy the certainty and comfort that comes from knowing exactly what the next day looks like. But that time is not now.
And I’m excited to get to work :)