Emily Hayes She knew what she was signing up for when she became a lawyer.
Long hours, difficult clients and billing pressures are synonymous with the job. However, for Hayes, the intellectual challenge and the opportunity to help people made these sacrifices seem worthwhile.
What you didn't expect was how fast Exhaustion will start – or the extent to which her job will overshadow other parts of her life.
Hayes, 32, graduated from Stanford Law School in 2019. She spent the next two years working at a large international law firm in Redwood Shores, California, then obtained a position as a law clerk in federal district court in Portland, Oregon.
In October 2021, she joined the large law firm O'Melveny & Myers in Los Angeles, as an associate.
After years of moving between jobs and cities, Hayes was optimistic about this new chapter in her career.
Her colleagues were supportive, the assignments were engaging and the pay was generous. By the time Hayes was 30, she was earning more than $300,000 a year.
However, below the surface, the grinding was taking its toll.
The “breaking point” came in April 2023. Hayes found herself working overtime on a Saturday morning to prepare for the arbitration, just hours after leaving the office at 11pm the night before. 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 collapsed. “I started crying,” 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.
“I felt like I had to choose between showing up at my job the way I was expected to and showing up to the people I love the way I wanted to,” she says. CNBC Make it. “I was horrified by the tension between the two.”
“Working in a law firm can make your life unpredictable,” Hayes adds. “You can never rely on free time in the evening or logging off before 10 p.m. I think you have to really love the work you do to do this trade. Of your time “You feel like it's worth it.”
At that moment, Hayes made a silent promise to herself — that she would find a new job within a year.
Shifting from law to technology
That spring, Hayes began reaching out to classmates and former colleagues for advice. Through these conversations, I learned about a growing career path within the legal sector: product consulting.
Product consultant roles, which are particularly popular in Silicon Valley, involve working internally at technology companies to provide legal and regulatory guidance on products and services.
Unlike traditional law firm roles, product consultant positions often blend legal expertise with business strategy. “You're less influenced by the law and more involved in business strategy, which is something I've always been really interested in,” Hayes explains.
In October, a Stanford classmate mentioned that the tech company she was working for in San Francisco was hiring for product consultant positions.
The job came with two trade-offs: Hayes would need to move to San Francisco, and the base salary was about $220,000 plus an annual bonus, starting in her first year; Up to 15% of her total pay, depending on her performance and other company metrics.
This represents a significant pay cut from her salary at the law firm – about $150,000 less than her current earnings of $370,000 (consisting of $295,000 base salary and a $75,000 bonus) and $200,000 less than the $435,000 she would have earned. The following year as a fifth year. Associated with increased salaries and bonuses.
However, the role promised a more balanced lifestyle: a fixed 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 Lower salary This was a small price to pay for her luxury and a fresh start in a new and exciting field.
She applied for the position in October 2023, received her offer letter in December, and started her new job in January 2024.
Hayes says her colleagues at O'Melveny & Myers were “nice and supportive” of her decision. To facilitate a smooth transition, she created a detailed list of her ongoing issues and a proposed succession plan for her departure from the company.
Living on a limited budget
Adjusting to the six-figure pay cut was “much more difficult” than Hayes expected.
With her previous income, Hayes says she can “spend without a lot of thought or stress,” whether it's ordering takeout a few times a week or making big payments on her student loans without worrying about having enough money for rent.
Now that she makes about $150,000 less than she did a year ago, Hayes says she's had to pay closer attention to her spending and monthly savings, while also holding herself accountable to budget.
Last year, she started creating TikToks to document her budgeting efforts and collect advice from other professionals in similar situations.
“I'm really lucky that I still make enough to live comfortably,” says Hayes, who adds that her living expenses went up a bit after moving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. “The biggest change in this pay cut, if anything else, was just changing my mindset around money — I realized that I had to think more carefully about my purchases even when they didn't seem expensive.”
“Having that freedom and that balance is priceless.”
Now, as she approaches her one-year anniversary at the tech company (which she chooses not to name), Hayes says she's “really happy.”
For Hayes, the $150,000 pay cut wasn't a sacrifice; It was an investment in her health, her relationships, and her future. In the first five years of her law career, she often suffered from sleep deprivation and stress
“I couldn't stop my mind,” she says. “I was having trouble sleeping at night and had constant jaw pain, but from the moment I left my old job, all those symptoms went away…it's crazy.”
She says the hardest part of her new gig is figuring out how to spend the suddenly empty evenings and weekends.
“I spend more time with friends on the weekends, go to Pilates, take up new hobbies, and bought a sewing machine,” she says. “Having that freedom and that balance is priceless.”
