My virtual people Blog
31 Jan 2017
Should I run my own company or join a large corporation?
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I come from
quite a strong corporate background. Having worked for big names such as
Accenture, Fitch, BPP as well as other boutique names, I have finally settled
on doing my own thing – running a small Virtual Staffing Agency, which helps
small and medium sized businesses reduce staffing costs by up to 80%.
My career
has had a few twists and turns, starting out originally in teaching after
graduating in Maths and Computer Science, I was keen to move into the corporate
world and got a job in Accenture. This was quite an experience for me to be
honest, and the place where I learnt many business skills which I still use to
this day.
But I
wasn’t content, I wanted more, I wanted to progress quick and big time, I felt
I was stifling myself sitting in a corporate environment waiting to get noticed
and get a promotion.
So I landed
an opportunity with a boutique financial markets trading firm – as a
Proprietary Trader, which paid me almost double what I was earning. This lasted
for good 5 years until the markets crashed in 2008-09, and swallowed the
company in 2010. An experience I will never forget, and will always stay with
me – the exhilaration of trading frantically on the global markets!
I didn’t
want to go back into the markets again, the stress was a bit too much for me,
not to mention the adverse impact it has had on my social skills, sitting
isolated at a desk number crunching day in day out! I realised better money
doesn’t necessarily mean being content with yourself and having a better
quality of life.
I felt the
natural progression would be to become a Trainer in Financial Markets,
delivering various financial training courses to bankers from the likes of
Barclays IB, RBS, Deutsch Bank and many others. The pay was comfortable, and I
love interacting with people, helping them learn. The way I see it, I am
learning at the same time – this job helps me stay on top of everything in
financial markets without the stress of trading!
It is
during this time I decided that I wanted to run my own company whilst working
as a freelance Trainer.
I wanted to
do something that would fall naturally within my skills set, and enable me to
help people. I came up with an idea I learnt at Accenture – Outsourcing!
I realised
there was a market to provide affordable outsourcing facilities to small and
medium sized businesses, but I added my own twist and conjured up what I call
Virtual Staffing.
Touch wood,
things are going well, and I have been out of the full time corporate world for
a few years now. But I recently got back in touch with some old friends, all of
whom work in large companies. Strangely enough, I feel a strong urge to be
amongst them, and go back to the corporate world, as I do really enjoy the
challenge of working on big projects, complex challenges, and being amongst
other smart people.
But on the
other hand, I have the facility to earn equally well as them, but also have the
flexibility to work on what I want and when I want – giving me a good quality
of life to be honest, enabling me to balance my personal life and children well
with my work life.
Should I go
back into the corporate world and let someone run MyVirtualPeople.com for me?
What would you do if you were in my shoes?
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