I followed what society told me was the dream life: go to college, get a corporate job and climb the career ladder. But instead of a dream, it was a nightmare. So I left the corporate world behind to become a full-time travel blogger. In this post I will share how leaving my corporate job to blog changed my life to help you decide if this career shift is right for you too. This post contains affiliate links. When you make a purchase I may get a small commission at no extra cost to you. Find out more here.
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My background
I was born and raised in Romania. We didn’t travel much when I was little, except for visiting my aunt in Vienna. She was living there and those trips to Vienna were the highlight of all my school breaks.
I think that having the opportunity to visit Vienna so many times made me fall in love with travel.
Then, in high school, I started to participate in international chemistry olympiads. I represented Romania at 4 international competitions and I had the opportunity to travel to Siberia (twice!), Turkmenistan, Istanbul, and Tokyo.
Then adulting happened. In 2010 I moved to the US for college, then I got a PhD, and then starting in I worked a very demanding job in management consulting for 4 years.
And I stopped traveling because I was either a broke student or I had no time to do it while working 16-hour days at this job.
I didn’t travel to any place, except Romania to see my family, for 13 years. My only focus was to get my advanced degree and perform well at this job.
Once I had some savings from my job and flights were operating again post-pandemic, I decided to travel again.
But I was in my 30’s. My family lived on a different continent (I was in New York City and my family in Romania). My friends were all working and had limited time off. I don’t have a partner. So I quickly realized that I had nobody to go with.
I had to make a decision: I either go by myself or I don’t go at all. I couldn’t bear the thought of not visiting new places, not trying new foods, not exploring new cultures. So I decided to take my first solo trip to Paris.
Why I left the corporate world
When I came back home from Paris I decided that I needed to do it again. I needed to continue my solo travel story. It couldn’t have just one chapter. So I booked another trip, this time to London.
Once I realized how short life is and how much I crave exploring new places, I decided to switch jobs and gain my life back.
So at the beginning of 2023 I left my consulting job and I moved to a corporate America job with a much better work-life balance.
However, this office job was not fulfilling for me at all. And at the same time I had a terrible manager who was making my life miserable. What was supposed to be a dream job on paper was a nightmare.
I spent many sleepless nights thinking that there must be more to life than this. Long meetings, short lunch breaks spent eating at your desk, creating useless power point presentations, and dealing with all the politics that the corporate culture comes with made me so unhappy. There had to be another way of making a living.
Why I chose to become a travel blogger
So I started to ask myself what I would love my life to look like. The answer was easy: travel more, have financial independence and time freedom.
Now that I was clear on what I wanted I started looking for career opportunities that would match my desired lifestyle. The first career path that I thought would be a great fit was that of a travel influencer.
So I started an Instagram account. I knew nothing about social media and content creation, but I taught myself. And in 9 months I grew my account to 10K followers.
I thought the paid partnerships would come rolling in since that’s what I heard from all the social media gurus. But this wasn’t the case. While I did have a few paid partnerships it wasn’t enough to pay the bills.
So I went back to the drawing board and I looked for other alternatives in the travel space that actually make you money. And that’s how I found travel blogging.
Blogging vs social media
It seemed like this was a more straightforward path. If you learn search engine optimization and you publish helpful content you will see growth for your blog.
I liked that you don’t have to rely on social media algorithms that change every other week. And you don’t have to beg brands to work with you to make money.
Blogging makes you passive income through ads and affiliate links. So it’s an even better deal than being an influencer. All you have to do is to publish a few new articles each week.
The dream! So I started my blog in January 2024. I knew nothing about blogging when I started. But I taught myself everything. There is so much free content available on the internet that in a few weeks I knew what I had to do.
I am still active on social media, but it’s a secondary focus and income stream. This blog is my main revenue source.
Differences between corporate life and blogging
While I love my new life, it was definitely a rocky transition. I left the corporate world when my blog was only a few months old. I had no guarantee that it would grow enough so I could make a living from it.
Financial situation
But I took this leap of faith. Maybe I was crazy and irresponsible. But at this point both my mental health and physical health were declining.
I knew I had to leave my corporate career behind and make a radical change. I needed to prioritize myself. (Spoiler: it paid off!)
So I left both my full-time job and the US. I moved to Romania to be close to my family again and to reduce my monthly expenses.
I had enough savings to live a whole year since I was aware that my blog was not making me much money at the time and that I would take a huge pay cut.
This uncertainty with my financial situation was the biggest difference for me. I went from making good money each month to having to live from my savings and trusting that my blog would grow.
But I told myself that if this doesn’t work I can always get another corporate job. So having a corporate job became my backup plan instead of my main plan.
If you are able to, you should plan your exit strategy better than I did. Maybe start your blog while you still have your full-time work and quit only when your blog makes you a certain level of income that you’re happy with.
Being a business owner
On top of the pay cut during 2024 I also had to adapt to being my own boss. But this wasn’t as hard.
I actually used a lot of the skills from my previous life in corporate: time management, respecting the deadlines I gave myself, learning a new thing about blogging every single day. I am grateful for my time in corporate for teaching me these best practices.
Now I also need to keep track of my blog’s income and expenses. So you need to learn some accounting skills. Or you can just hire an accountant and outsource this.
Other aspects
If you’re based in the US, you might also have to think about other things such as health insurance or funding your 401K/IRA.
Luckily I moved back to Romania, so I don’t have to deal with this. But it’s definitely an important aspect of business ownership and working for yourself.
How I feel about this career change after 1.5 years
I think taking this huge risk and making this bold decision of completely changing my life was the best decision I could have made. My quality of life improved so much. I eat healthier, I move my body more, and I spend quality time with my family.
I have time freedom, which is priceless. Because I am able to make my own rules I am no longer as stressed as I was in my corporate career. It does feel like I am in the right place in this new chapter of my life.
And now I also make money from my blog. So taking this leap of faith was worth it. In just 16 months I grew my blog to 37K sessions / month and it makes me about $2,500 / month.
It’s a great start and I’m very proud of achieving this growth. But I know this is just the beginning. I have big goals for this blog and I will continue to grow it. And I just know that one day in the near future I will surpass the salary I was making in corporate.
My piece of advice if you’re considering leaving the corporate world
Create a life you love. If that means leaving the corporate world, do it. Our time here on Earth is so short, that we need to be very intentional with how we design and live our lives.
Ignore what society taught you from an early age. I thought that going to school, then to college, then getting a corporate job and climbing the career ladder would make me happy. At least that’s what everyone was telling me.
But once I embarked on this path I realized that this is not my definition of happiness. Working a job that does not fulfill me until I’m 60, not being able to take more than a few weeks off per year, and being constantly stressed was my personal nightmare.
Take a leap of faith. If that means quitting your job with no safety net, do it. Start your own business. Learn new skills. Take action towards building the life of your dreams.
I promise you it gets better. Life becomes worth living when you do something you love. You become proud of yourself for doing it. And at the end of the day you become the best version of you.
Do you want to learn more about blogging? Check out some of my other articles.
Amateur blogging: complete guide to start a blog
Stay22 review: is this affiliate platform the best?
RankIQ review: is this the best SEO tool for blogs?
Keysearch review: the most affordable keyword tool
SEO for travel blogs: free tips that get you traffic
Free guide on keyword research for travel blog posts
Ioana was born and raised in Romania, lived in NYC for 14 years, and is now back in Romania. She fell in love with traveling when she was little and used to visit her aunt in Vienna. Then in high school she was able to visit Siberia, Turkmenistan, Istanbul, and Tokyo through chemistry competitions. As an adult she started to travel solo once she turned 30 and visited 20+ countries so far. Ioana is a full time travel blogger and content creator with an audience of 75K+ people on Instagram. She loves to share travel recommendations and tips.