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"After truly growing to hate my job and being passed over for a huge opportunity abroad working directly with a client that loved me, I resigned from the private bank and went on a soul-searching journey to try and decide where I wanted my career to go next. The answer ended up being product management, preferably at a tech company so that I could use my computer science background, creativity, and client-service experience. I began hunting for any job that seemed like it would give me an opportunity to be in product.

"Through a recruiter, I ended up landing an operations job at a fintech startup on the West Coast, with the understanding that I would be able to migrate to product after a few years. It was a brand new role being created for the head of their operations team, who happened to be looking for someone with both a computer science and an operations background. For them I was a little like finding a unicorn, which is how I was able to stipulate that I wanted to move into product were I to take the position. We verbally agreed that if I spent a few years focused on this new role, I could then transition onto the product team.

"I was able to leverage a bit over the cost-of-living increase, on top of the highest salary I had made at my previous company (base salary + overtime). I negotiated hard because I could tell the company really wanted me, and it paid off. This transition was the best decision I've ever made."