I’ve been a go-getter perfectionist since high school, when I’d get 100 on tests and still do extra credit. I graduated from George Washington University in three years, with a degree in international affairs and minor in Arabic, which I’d heard was one of the hardest languages to learn.<\/p>\n
I landed my first full-time job at USAID, working remotely and living at home in New Jersey because of the pandemic. The work was interesting, but the salary was low, and I had student loans. I wanted the autonomy to move out of my parents’ house and to build more generalist skills, and I didn’t want to choose whether to go out to dinner or pay my phone bill.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yorio, a self-identified perfectionist, graduated from college in three years.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Victoria Yorio<\/p>\n
Making it work at McKinsey and JPMorgan<\/strong><\/p>\n Some kids spent all of college preparing for consulting recruiting, but I didn’t even know what a consultant was when I was an undergrad. It felt like a pragmatic career path, though, so I applied to McKinsey and landed a role as an analyst in Dallas.<\/p>\n The job came with a good salary, but also a lot of travel and personal sacrifice. I realized in two years that it wasn’t the lifestyle for me, though I really appreciated the experience, and I would do it all over again.<\/p>\n I knew I wanted to do something similar, and learned through networking that internal consulting at a big company could be a good fit. A recruiter at JPMorgan responded to a LinkedIn message, and I joined as a strategy associate in New York City.<\/p>\n The hours were better than McKinsey, since I usually worked 9:00 am to 6:00 pm and made six figures. For the first time, I had a chance to think about what I wanted from my life. I had hustled since high school, and I won the prize: a good job, a studio in Manhattan, nights at restaurants and cool DJs, and travel. But I felt empty and unfulfilled.<\/p>\n At first, I thought I was struggling to adjust to New York. I went to meet-up events, tried volleyball and yoga and stand-up comedy, but something wasn’t clicking. My definition of success crumbled \u2014 I had reached it by 25 and didn’t feel any joy. I realized I didn’t know who I was outside of a job title or aiming for a goal. The problem wasn’t JPMorgan; I think I could have worked anywhere and reached the same conclusion.<\/p>\n One mentor asked me, “What would be the most rebellious thing you could do in your life right now?” I immediately said I’d quit my job to move to Spain and teach English. She asked why I wouldn’t do it, and I said because it was stupid, crazy \u2014 not me.<\/p>\n But I found a program and applied to scratch an itch, not because I thought I’d go. The time crept up to decide about the program, so I talked to my boss, who asked if I’d regret not going. She was very supportive, and so was her boss when I handed in my two weeks’ notice. People don’t talk about how hard it is to leave a job that’s good to you.<\/p>\n Yet by the middle of September last year, I was on my way to Madrid.<\/p>\n Yorio celebrated her birthday with her JPMorgan team and was close with her colleagues at the bank.\u00a0<\/p>\n Victoria Yorio<\/p>\n Building leverage made the leap to Spain possible<\/strong><\/p>\n I went into full consultant mode when I arrived in Spain, finding an apartment in four days and negotiating the rent. I’ve been teaching English to sixth graders preparing for their Cambridge Certificates, a language test, and I can see the progress right before my eyes.<\/p>\n After the six figures I made at JPMorgan, I’m now paid a \u20ac1,000 monthly stipend. It’s a pretty tight budget compared to what I’m used to in America, and I’ve had to dip into my savings to create a lifestyle I enjoy.<\/p>\n Having a financial safety net has given me the comfort to take this leap, since I built financial leverage when I was younger. It’s easy to say, “just follow your passion,” but I don’t recommend doing that without building leverage first. It would be irresponsible to ignore how important financial stability and a professional network are to charting your own course.<\/p>\n I used to be obsessed with doing the hardest thing and being the best, but at this point, I just want to do something purpose-driven. I’ve started posting about my journey online, and I’ve gotten an overwhelming response, so maybe I’ll pivot to coaching.<\/p>\n Before coming to Spain, I drafted five- and ten-year plans. Now, it’s a one-year plan. Where do I want to be next year? What do I think will make me happy next year? For the first time in my life, I’m okay not having all the answers mapped out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This as-told-to is based on a conversation with Victoria Yorio, 26, a teaching assistant with NALCAP in Madrid,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":950341,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[9695,3117,2000,299,96122,16311,5701,27599,1429,5479,29695,8501,104,32504,183,13690,3118],"class_list":{"0":"post-950340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-business-insider","9":"tag-conversation","10":"tag-eu","11":"tag-europe","12":"tag-first-time","13":"tag-high-school","14":"tag-job","15":"tag-jpmorgan","16":"tag-life","17":"tag-madrid","18":"tag-mckinsey","19":"tag-new-york-city","20":"tag-spain","21":"tag-test","22":"tag-travel","23":"tag-way","24":"tag-year"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116550099657215326","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/950341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/p>\n