34: Leaving your corporate career after burnout with Sara Brown

What happens if you’re in a long-term corporate career, you’re super successful, but you’re burned the hell out, and you dream of leaving to do … uh… something, anything else?
 
Sara Brown did this. She is a Sunday Soother reader who emailed me a few months ago to say my journey of leaving my corporate career to start my own thing — and all my reflection along the way — resonated with her. After a nearly 20-year successful career in corporate PR and communications, Sara realized she was desperately burned out and she just… left. I wanted to interview her to hear her story as I think the Soother community — and the world at large — are in a moment right now where we’re wondering if our careers are what we want to, or need to be, doing with and for ourselves.

Things Sara and I talk about:

• The surprising ways burnout looked like for us
• What it feels like to leave your job when you’re almost 40 and not sure where to go next
• How we both decided to make these decisions and leap 
• How our careers were so crucial to our identities and self-worth, and how we are working to unwind that
• Our favorite astrological tool 

Resources mentioned in the episode: 

• Designing your Life
• Ezra Klein workism/burnout episode 
• Buzzfeed burnout article 
• The Pattern astrology app 
• The Cut: The Ambition Collision 
• Wit & Delight: My Only Goal This Summer is Doing Nothing
• Vice: If You Don’t Want to Have Kids, You Don’t Have to Want a Career Instead
• Duke: "Love Your Job? Someone May be Taking Advantage of You - Passion Exploitation"

Sara's info: 

• Instagram: @littlebrownsara
• Website (work in progress!):