🔥 My mom called me crazy when I quit banking to work in recruitment

💰To her, money and status > happiness and fulfilment 

🔑 When I graduated in 2015, I joined the Management Associate Program at Citi ICG, which was a 2 year rotation program across different departments including Investment Banking, Sales & Trading and Private Banking. 

☀️ My mom was really proud of me as this program only admitted 5 graduates in Hong Kong that year. She thought the external title of Citi and Investment Banking would bring our family pride. I understand that many Asian parents like to compare their kids and so does mine.

☀️ The people I met at Citi were really smart and nice. They taught me a lot about the financial market and they were talented at their jobs. However, I did not feel the work was interesting. Hence, I switched to recruitment and I realised the importance of exploring different industries before settling onto one. Even though there was a pay cut, I enjoy my job a lot at Michael Page and have been working in the same industry for almost 7 years.

🔑My mom still does not understand why I changed my job up till today. (Mom, in case you have an LinkedIn account, please reply to this 🤣🤣)

She feels money and prestige are more important than happiness and self-fulfillment because she believes once you have enough money, you can gain happiness in the free time. (I kind of agree and disagree in some way: Granted money is important). Our values differ a lot and I respect our differences. Today, I am still trying to explain to her having worked in my job for 7 years 🤣

✅ How about you?

✅ Do your parents agree with what you are doing?

✅ Have you come across a difficult life decision and how did you pick in the end?