Pursuit of dream beyond Goldman Sachs
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Brokerage firm Goldman Sachs building on Broad Street in New York's Financial District/ Korea Times file
The cover of “A Girl Leaves Dream Job at Goldman Sachs to Follow Her Dream”
By Kim Jae-heun
Cho Yea-eun, 29, a motivational speaker and writer, was once the envy of her friends and people around her. After she graduated from a top university, majoring in French and business administration, Cho found a job in finance. For four years, the writer was the proud child of her parents, making great income, and holding a name card that read “Goldman Sachs.”
However, what she appeared to be was different from what she was inside. Cho had no life. From morning to night, with the same take-out lunch every day, the rookie financier constantly checked emails and monitored the stock market. After office hours, she joined her co-workers and boozed it up until late into the night.
The same daily office routine continued in Cho’s life until she got fired on the day she marked a year at her first job. It shocked the young businesswomen as the company showed no mercy. Throughout her career in three different financial firms, she was only treated as a mercenary, there to maximize the company’s profit and nothing else.
Cho had to ask herself what is true success and if she was really happy.
Despite her parents’ dissuasion, the financier decided to quit Goldman Sachs and follow her dream ― traveling and writing.
“My experience of getting fired at my first financial company made it easier for me to quit my recent job at Goldman Sachs,” said Cho during the interview with The Korea Times on Thursday. “I knew that I wouldn’t stay here forever, because money and title weren’t my goals. In this story, I wanted to share my experience. I did not aim to write a success story or self-help book because not many books talk about a young challenger’s experience in his or her early period of social life.”
In her book, “A Girl Leaves Dream Job at Goldman Sachs to Follow Her Dream,” the writer talks about her experience at financial firms and her life during that time. Throughout four chapters Cho gives tips on living a true life, which should not be just about seeking money and fame but pursuing happiness.
While working as a sales assistant in global financial companies, the writer continuously traveled the world. Based on her experience, Cho is giving speeches at universities to inspire dreams for her audiences and motivate them to follow those dreams.
“People often ask me if I am happy now and I tell them I am not living in a fantasy, this is real,” Cho said. “I am enjoying my life now and don’t regret quitting the dream job at Goldman Sachs, But I have to acknowledge that I don’t earn as much as before. This is real life.”
Cho has published three other books, and she maintains a blog at
https://blog.naver.com/yenny8510
. “A Girl Leaves Dream Job at Goldman Sachs to Follow Her Dream” can be found both on and offline at bookstores for 14,000 won ($11.93).