Check These 10 Things Before Quitting Your Job

Hi Sheconomist Insider 👋 It’s Thamina, Founder of The Sheconomist. This is your bi-weekly dose of celebrating the female economy where I help ambitious, purpose-driven women like yourself flip the script on money, career & wellbeing conventions so you can live life on your own terms.

TLDR:

• 💼 Personal branding for zigzag careers

• 🌎 The most wholesome Instagram account giving me hope

• 💰 Check these 10 things before quitting your job

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🧪 Freedom Formulas

How did an aspiring sports journalist end up in tech sales?

This one's for anyone with a nonlinear career whose resume may look like it’s all over the place, or who doesn’t really know what they truly want out of their professional life.

(I'm speaking at a workshop about exactly that on September 20, details at the bottom.)

You may not know that my first “serious” job was as a sports radio reporter back home in Munich. I was going to be a sports journalist; that was the whole plan. I studied political science and journalism and media studies. Then I took a sales job at LinkedIn in Dublin, and suddenly the plan stopped being the plan.

In full transparency, I didn’t struggle to get that sales job, and back then, nobody was giving me a hard time about that pivot. In your early 20s you still benefit from having that “puppy bonus”.

But for years, when someone asked how I got here, I'd just list the chronological order of events. Studied this, moved there, did that, now this.

But that’s kind of a problem. Tell your career as a list of events and you basically hand someone a pile of parts to assemble. Most people won't bother. They'll skim, decide you've been a bit all over the place, and move on.

You don't get flagged for the role, or asked to sit on the panel.

Two things helped me, and it took me until my late 20s to figure that out.

Look for the pattern you didn't plan.

I hated math in school. If you'd told 17-year-old me that numbers would be most of my day, I would have laughed.

But looking back, I've always ended up where numbers and stories meet.

In sports, the score and the numbers was the easy part. A journalist’s job is explaining how a team got there. In Sales, you work towards a revenue number and your narrative and relationship building gets you there. With my content/newsletter work, I love being transparent about money but it only becomes rewarding when you read about real women changing something real about their actual lives that helps them build wealth, build independence, and create beautiful memories with their loved ones.

I didn't consciously design that. I noticed it, years later. Which is the useful bit: you're not inventing a thread, you're finding one that's already there.

And if you need help identifying that thread and crafting a strong narrative around it that will help you stand out in job interviews or build a personal brand, join me on Sunday, September 20 at 1PM ET / 6PM UK for a hands-on workshop “No Straight Lines — personal branding for the zigzag career”.

→ Save your seat

The room is capped, it’s intentionally not recorded, there won’t be a replay. Showing up live and applying what you’re learning right then and there is where you’ll get the most value.

Hope to see you there!

P.S.: Reply to your confirmation email with a question for me. They're pulling three into the live interview.

❣️ Thamina’s Top Picks

🌎 The most wholesome Instagram account that’s giving me some hope right now

💹 Sim from Friends That Invest created a new budget & net worth tracker

💬 In case you need help explaining systemic racism to friends and family

🍸 For my NYC based folks, I’m planning on attending this GTM Cocktail Hour next week

✨ This week’s Moodboard

Post credits go to thetinyjoyproject, Shopmenall, Navyrebate, Mariam Conde️

💸 Cooking up Wealth

I know there are a lot of ambitious women who are quietly planning their exit from corporate right now.

But if you know me by now, you know that I want you to prepare any exit or career pivot in the most strategic way possible so you don’t leave ANY money on the table.

So please don’t put in your notice before carefully reviewing the list below so you are fully aware of the the financial implications:

1. Your next stock vest date. RSUs and Stock Options vest on a schedule. Quitting 6 weeks early can cost you massively. Look it up before you pick a last day.

2. Your full-year 401k match. Ask HR if they offer a 401(k) ”true-up.” If your company trues up at year-end, front-load your contributions and max out before your last day, you’ll still get the full match. If they match per paycheck with no true-up, maxing out early actually costs you the match on every paycheck after.

3. Your 401k match vesting. Your contributions are always yours. The company’s match often isn’t until you hit the cliff (usually 2–4 years). Check what walks out the door with you.

4. Your stock options exercise window. If you have options (not RSUs), you typically get 90 days after your last day to exercise, and you have to pay cash + taxes to do it. Know that number BEFORE you resign.

5. Your 401k rollover. Roll it over, don’t cash it out. Cashing out likely means taxes + a penalty + losing decades of compounding to fund three months of freedom.

6. Your ESPP period. If you’ve been contributing and the purchase date hasn’t hit yet, you may just get your cash back instead of discounted shares. Time it.

7. Clawbacks. Sign-on bonus, relocation, tuition reimbursement, many have a 12–24 month “stay or repay” clause buried in the offer letter. Read it.

8. Anything that requires a W2. Mortgage, refinance, personal loan, new credit card, apartment lease. Get it approved while you still have a paycheck on paper.

9. Your paper trail. Pay stubs, tax forms, offer letters, performance reviews, equity docs, performance metrics for your resume, important emails.

10. Every appointment you’ve been putting off. Dentist, derm, annual physical, therapy sessions, PT, that specialist referral. Book them all while you’re still covered. If your deductible is already met, use it.

Screenshot the list above and save it somewhere so you can revisit it again in the future.

In abundance,

Please note that I may receive commissions for some but not all my recommendations. I will never recommend something I don’t actually genuinely believe in or haven’t used myself.