Emily Hayes When she became a lawyer, she knew what she was signing up for.
Long hours, difficult clients and billing stress are synonymous with the job. For Hayes, however, the intellectual challenge and opportunity to help people make the sacrifices feel worth it.
What she didn’t anticipate was how quickly burnout would set in, or how much of an impact her job would have on other parts of her life.
Hayes, 32, graduated from Stanford Law School in 2019. Clerk.
In October 2021, she joined O’Melveny & Myers, a large Los Angeles law firm, as an attorney.
After years of moving between jobs and cities, Hayes is optimistic about this new chapter in her career.
Her colleagues are supportive, the assignments are engaging, and the pay is good. By the time he was 30, Hayes was earning more than $300,000 a year.
Beneath the surface, however, the ordeal was taking its toll.
Her “turning point” occurred in April 2023. She was preparing for a major trial, but her stress and exhaustion had been building for months.
That morning, as she stared at her computer screen, she broke down. “I started sobbing,” she recalls, because someone close to her was going through a difficult time and she regretted being in the office instead of supporting them at home.
“It feels like I have to choose between showing up at work the way people expect of me and showing up to the people I love the way I want to,” she told CNBC Make It. “I feel like I have to choose between the two. tensions and panic.”
Hayes added, “Working at a law firm makes your life so unpredictable. You can never expect to have free time in the evening and you can’t get off work before 10 p.m. I think you really have to love what you’re doing. Do the work to make this deal – and leave your time feeling worth it.
At that moment, Hayes made a silent promise to herself—she would find a new job within a year.
From law to technology
That spring, Hayes began asking former classmates and colleagues for advice. Through these conversations, she learned about a growing career path in the legal field: product consulting.
Product advisory roles are particularly popular in Silicon Valley and involve working within technology companies to provide legal and regulatory guidance on products and services.
Unlike traditional law firm roles, product advisory positions often combine legal expertise with business strategy. “You get less involved in the law and more involved in the business strategy, which is something I’ve always been very interested in,” Hayes explained.
In October, a Stanford classmate mentioned that the tech company she worked for in San Francisco was hiring for a product advisory position.
The job came with two trade-offs: Hayes would need to move to San Francisco and the base salary would be about $220,000, plus annual bonuses (starting in year one) It can be up to 15% of total compensation, depending on her performance and other company metrics.
That represents a significant reduction in her law firm salary — about $150,000 less than the $370,000 she currently earns (including a base salary of $295,000 and a bonus of $75,000) and less than what she was earning in her second year as a fifth-year employee. The $200,000 decrease from $435,000 relates to increases in salary and bonuses.
However, this position promises a more balanced lifestyle: a consistent 40-hour work week, the flexibility to work from home two days a week, and the opportunity to advise on cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing.
After careful consideration, Hayes decided A lower salary was a small price to pay for her well-being and a fresh start in an exciting new field.
She applied for the position in October 2023, received her acceptance letter in December, and started her new job in January 2024.
Hayes said her colleagues at O’Melveny have been “very kind and supportive” of her decision. To facilitate a smooth transition, she created a detailed list of ongoing cases and developed a recommended succession plan for her departure from the firm.
tight budget
Adjusting to a six-figure pay cut was “much more difficult” than Hayes expected.
Hayes said that with her previous income, she could “spend without too much thought or stress,” whether it was ordering takeout a few times a week or paying off a large student loan without having to worry about whether she had enough money to pay for it. rent.
Now making about $150,000 less than she did a year ago, Hayes said she has to pay more attention to her monthly expenses and savings while staying accountable to her budget.
Last year, she started a TikTok to document her budgeting efforts and gather advice from other professionals in similar situations.
“I’m really lucky that I still make enough money to live comfortably,” Hayes said, adding that her cost of living was slightly higher after moving to San Francisco from Los Angeles. “The biggest change this pay cut has brought about is how I think about money – I realize I have to think carefully about my purchases, even if they don’t seem extravagant.”
“Having this freedom and balance is priceless”
Now, as she approaches her one-year anniversary at the tech company (which she chose not to name), Hayes says she’s “really happy.”
For Hayes, the $150,000 pay cut isn’t a sacrifice; It’s an investment in her health, relationships and future. During the first five years of her legal career, she frequently struggled with sleep deprivation and stress
“I couldn’t stop thinking,” she said. “I had trouble falling asleep at night and constant pain in my jaw, but the minute I quit my old job, all of those symptoms went away… It’s crazy.”
The hardest part of her new job, she said, is figuring out how to spend her suddenly free evenings and weekends.
“I spent more time with friends on weeknights, went to Pilates, picked up new hobbies, and bought a sewing machine,” she said. “Having that freedom and balance is priceless.”
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