I had been planning this move for just under a year now and this last month I finally took the leap and told my company I would not be returning back to the office to continue working.
It’s probably best to jump back a little bit to what I do and what happened to lead to me leaving the country for what my company thought was a month and not going back.
Backstory
I work as a web developer for a digital marketing agency, my particular role is a little out of the norm as I am primarily handling maintenance and small projects. This role has me working in Zendesk directly with clients and mostly doing my own thing with the occasional client phone call.
2 years ago I decided I wanted to travel and work remotely, while I loved my job and my co-workers the pay was not worth being stuck in the same place forever. I decided I would come to my company with a big request, which was to let me work remotely off and on throughout the year. Before doing this I created a set of guidelines and rules on how the company could handle this and my company agreed to let me go remote for 1 month every quarter.
This was a great step towards going remote full time and I was ecstatic but quickly realized going remote for just a month was incredibly expensive. Paying rent in two places, getting a pricey plane ticket and being left to only uses pricier renting options like Airbnb made it only possible to do this twice a year max.
Breaking point
The travel itch finally got too strong in the beginning of 2018 and I made it my goal to leave by the end of the year and not come back. I freelanced as much as I could for the next 8 months and told my company I would be heading to Tokyo to work remotely for the month. Before my trip, I packed up, threw away and sold anything I did not need and headed to Tokyo.
Breaking the news
Towards the end of my remote month, I had one of the hardest conversations I have had with my both of my bosses who happen to be pretty good friends and tell them I would not be returning home. While my ideal scenario would have been to stay with the company working remotely it was ultimately up to them. The gave me two choices, one was to immediately come home and keep my job and the other was to stay remote but only work part time moving forward. I obviously took the second choice and will be using my extra time to continue freelancing. I am not sure how long the company will keep me but ultimately this was a great stepping stone to becoming a digital nomad full time.
Being location independent is not easy as it sounds. I am glad that you could do it. The traveler itch is inside me too and I wish people like you would motivate me once and I will be as free as I want to be super soon.
WTF Corey? This is perfect. I wish you the best of luck. I can tell by your writing and your story that you will succeed. You are very brave and adventurous and I look forward to watching this happen.
I think you made a good choice, given what the company offered you. You still have income, although not as much as a full-time position, while you get to enjoy your passion of traveling. My boss is like that too. Although I work full time, he is quite generous of leaves, knowing that I travel a lot. In return, I always turn up the best work I can. We have mutual trust with each other.
Legit you don’t even understand how much this post resonated with me! I am pretty much at my breaking point too, but sadly I’m halfway through an apprenticeship now and quitting would mean it was all for nothing. Just gotta stick out another 8 months (not like I’m counting) and I can follow in your footsteps and escape. Thanks for the post. It’s good to know others have been where I am now 🙂
What a tuff decision to make! You’re lucky you could keep working part-time, but I’m sure you’ll easily find remote opportunities in your field.
Congratulations on this big move and wishing you the best. Do what you love and catch it! I guess you can still come back since you established a good relationship with your boss.
Wow such a big leap of faith! But sounds like you will be much more fulfilled this way! Proud!
Big changes like this can be so scary to pursue but it sounds like it was worth it to stick to what you wanted. Congrats on having the courage, and I’m sure the journey will be exhilarating!
Wow, that had to be a hard choice to make! I hope everything will workout for you and you will enjoy your work remotely. I will never experience anything like this as from my childhood I never had a proper job and a boss. I am the one who decides when and where to travel and nobody limits. And I wouldn’t change it to anything else… Well, maybe for 10 000$/month interesting job 😀