WorkWise: Some voluntary career-changes dump security

Lindsay Anvik left her corporate job – not her first – at a 45-year-old public relations firm in June, 2010, when the Great Recession was in full swing. “It was very secure,” she says, “with great benefits, a bonus and a good salary. I liked the people. It was a great company.” Gene Davis walked away from the Marine Corps in the mid-80s after four years, leaving behind a secure career and hefty reenlistment bonus. In good times and bad, some people turn their backs on security.

Anvik concedes that her spirits sank early on while working in the drab gray walls and gray cubicle of her old employer. She started to dread them and subsequently realized that she just didn’t have the passion for the job.

“I wasn’t stimulated professionally and creatively,” she explains. “It was a hard decision. You get comfortable and feel safe, but at the same time I was a little bored.” She polled her friends about joining a company that was six months old and found them skeptical and worried about her.

Her CEO, who worked with start-ups, told her that she wasn’t certain that New York City’s Plum Willow Inc., a site for fashionable teen girls, would have the revenue to pay her. In fact, “not many people said ‘go for it,’ ‘go for your dreams,’ ‘that’s a great idea,’” Anvil says with real understatement. She felt akin to the co-founders because of their passion and excitement about what they were building. It gave her faith amid the risk and worry about the future. She knew that if it didn’t work out, she’d have gained some very creative experience.

When the Marine Corps asked why Davis would be sacrificing the hefty reenlistment bonus, he says, “I told them I loved the military and I loved the Marine Corps, but the travel was killing me.”

Where was Davis to go? “There wasn’t much call for my artillery skills,” he observes wryly. He returned to McDonald’s, where he’d worked as a crew member as a teen. However, the leadership skills he’d developed as a marine landed him his first management position. His climb to the executive suite began. He also picked up an AA from a community college and, more recently, a BS and MBA from American Public University. Today, Davis is a regional market director in Philadelphia over a five-state area with 32 operations of Bruegger’s Enterprises Inc.

Anvil’s job as director of Marketing at Plum Willow, didn’t come with benefits, but the salary was slightly larger than at the previous company, allowing for health insurance. Seven months later, the company picked up the tab for health insurance without deducting the differential.

“I had a chance to do something exciting, to build something,” Anvil says with zest. “Even though it was a risk, I’d rather leap and know I had at least tried something that I knew would fulfill me professionally. I wanted to feel like I was building something, with all of my creative energy being put into to my job. I knew I’d wake up being excited about going to work everyday. I still do that. There’s nothing more amazing than having a hand in creating something that’s becoming successful. That is worth ten safe corporate jobs. I wouldn’t trade it.”

Dr. Mildred Culp welcomes your questions at culp@workwise.net. © 2011 Passage Media.