Credit: KC Green (http://gunshowcomic.com/648)

I’d been working in management consulting for over 2 years when I started getting the classic itch — Do I leave? Do I stay? Do I pursue an MBA?

I had focused on payments and financial services strategy, consulting for the top-tier banks, payments providers and insurance companies in the US and Canada. I had also spent a great deal of time analyzing consumer payment and banking habits in America. I was fluent in behaviours and trends of those included in our financial systems and passionate about innovation of payments infrastructure.

I could do Excel shortcuts with my eyes closed and had articulated the exact time it took me to make any deck, +/- 30 minutes. I was a robot, yet with an unsustainable power supply. I had spent the better part of two years in New York despite living in Toronto, flying back and forth every 3/4 days. I worked on average 70 hour weeks (sometimes hitting 80+). I would go through waves of weight loss due to sleep deprivation and maintained a healthy diet of cappuccinos and caffeine pills. I found minimal time to exercise or even date, as my weekends were often dedicated to resting.

I was never forced to work this hard. My consulting company had an amazing culture and beautiful people. Evaluations were clear and the pace at which I escalated my promotion cycle was entirely my onus. At the same time, consulting is rigorous, with performance assessment often based on efficiency of execution and checking certain boxes. There’s also a fair bit of luck at play — both with the team you’re staffed with and the client, and despite a structured evaluation framework, expectations can be inconsistent across projects. High stress is typically unavoidable.

Consulting is an excellent business boot camp that helps you accelerate skill development, but it’s not a good place for ideation or even industry specialization. Unless you’ve paved your path to focus on specific types of clients or niche work, it’s challenging to become a pure expert and use that knowledge to innovate.

In May 2017 I realized I’d had enough. I was burnt out, coping with what felt like a quarter-life crisis and fully consumed with the wizarding world of blockchain. My parents (both programmers) were figuring out how to explain to my Grandma what crypto means for the world, while my brother was building Bounties Network at ConsenSys; a venture-production studio in the blockchain ecosystem. I had spent months following the industry. Many a Thursday night I would land in Toronto at 11pm and have my brother teach me about the latest issues in Ethereum scalability until the wee hours of the morning. I would then refocus on my client for a 7am meeting — it felt like I was living a double life.

So I decided to step back. My company had an incredible ‘take a break’ policy that supported consultants taking time to refresh, travel or explore other opportunities. I took 3 months off to catch up on sleep, re-engage with my hobbies and properly educate myself on Ethereum. I learned more and more about the technological capabilities to improve financial services, as well as the economic opportunities to align incentives, improve information sharing and create new markets. It wasn’t long before all of my friends and colleagues were hearing from me about something, something blockchain.

I returned to consulting for a quick 2 month stint. I then quit to pursue a career in the blockchain space, without guaranteed employment. I remember thinking maybe this is crazy — to intentionally pursue financial instability when I had student debt — but it seemed crazier to stay if I felt I was doing myself more harm than good and lacked passion for the job. Many were concerned about the risk — following a wild vision to enter a nascent industry— yet it didn’t feel risky to pursue what felt right. Follow your gut.

Breaking out of my corporate nest was tough. At this point I had interviewed with over 15 blockchain startups, even flying to Europe for an interview — but nothing seemed quite right. I wasn’t comfortable with working at a firm if I wasn’t 100% committed and it was critical that I find exactly where I could create the most value. Moreover, I was worried that if I didn’t find a job soon, I would have to shamefully return to the nest and beg for my job back. So I sent good vibes into the ether (ha).

Two months after quitting management consulting, I accepted an offer for my dream job. I was joining OmiseGO, a leading Ethereum-based financial network, in Bangkok. Moving across the world seemed like a no-brainer, when my efforts would directly help those excluded from current financial systems to gain access to payment networks and asset management. It was an easy sell. Not to mention improving payments for banked populations. Our mantra is “Unbank the Banked”. The best part of all was that I would get to work alongside researchers and creators I greatly respected.

OmiseGO, Cosmos & Golem in Tokyo

Several weeks into my new role, I’ve moved to Thailand, have traveled to Japan and will be heading to Laos and Indonesia in the coming months. I’m unable to speak the language but am becoming well-versed in Thai street food. Cab rides in Bangkok traffic are often spent debating cryptoeconomics and I’m actively planning events to educate the local community on the power of Ethereum.

Although I’m in a strategic role, my responsibilities at a startup are vastly different from consulting. There is much less iterating and much more thinking. I’m empowered to make critical final decisions with limited bureaucracy, manage initiatives end-to-end and most importantly, innovate. Among other duties, I’ve been able to leverage my experience in financial services to manage the OMG strategy, lead research projects, conduct use case reasoning and support community development.

When interacting with potential clients, appearance and formality are also extraneous relative to the quality of our ideas and potential for partnership. During a pitch meeting with SVP’s at a top bank in Japan, my CEO showed up wearing Yeezys — that’s when I truly knew I was where I belonged. As I closed my notebook with a big Ethereum sticker on the cover and bowed to the SVP, it came full circle that without consulting or my quarter-life crisis, I wouldn’t be where I am today. But I also wouldn’t have been able to take this leap of faith without the community I met along the way.

Over the last 8 months, I’ve connected with many thought leaders in the ecosystem, learning about the technology, various #buidling efforts and opportunities for collaboration. The community is global but young and everyone has been more than eager to chat. In 50 years when we talk about the grassroots Ethereum movement, I’ll be sure to remember how open everyone was to supporting each other.

When transitioning to another career or industry, it’s important to take the time to meet the people, understand the vision and figure out where you can add value — even if that means temporary unemployment. I would love to pass on the wisdom I’ve gained, so if you’re looking to transition into blockchain or simply wrestling with your own quarter-life crisis, feel free to reach out.

Email: eva@omise.co

Twitter: https://twitter.com/EvaBeylin