From a management career to a nomad life …

Morgane 30 years old, passed from leader of a young start’up full of future to Digital Nomad without fixed trajectory! Perhaps this change will seem radical and unreflective. Yet I have experienced it as evidence, continuity of career and especially a unique chance.

To understand this choice, one must first understand my philosophy. I love change and am constantly looking for solutions and new ideas. This led me to seize 4 opportunities in 7 years. I started in the digital thanks to my cousin who trusted me at the time when my friends told me that I did not even know how to do a powerpoint … The DPSO Conseil agency was then an expert in webmarketing and I was able to discover the techniques of Black Hat in SEO, animate social networks, create newsletters, make my first banners under photoshop or activate my neurons on Google Analytics.

Then, at Buzznative, I discovered computer development and especially project management. I loved working on digital recommendations and surprising and offbeat interface concepts. I also mounted ambitious activation campaigns with a lot of Facebook Ads and Google Ads.

After having wanted to go further, on longer term projects, I did digital consulting in Paris at Niji. Quickly integrated into a start’up, I drove the launch of new mobile applications and service offerings in a happy team of designers, developers and support services.

At ease with the world of large banking groups, I seized the opportunity to become a manager of a team of product owners at Crédit Agricole Regional Fund. During this last year, the fund entrusted me with the launch of a start’up capital of 500 000 euros with stakes of development in real estate. Beautiful prospects were waiting for me in a group that I particularly appreciated for its human values and its possibilities of evolution.

I am an ENTA (for those who do not know: this corresponds to a “type” according to 4 criteria of the MBTI personality test).

Always looking for renewal, I decided to live this experience not to leave a situation or job that I did not like, but rather because I felt that something even more interesting could happen to me. When Nicolas told me about his project (working in digital nomad in New Zealand), I found it “exotic”. In fact, this project quickly sprouted in my head, until it became obvious:

• I had never dreamed of going around the world, yet I love travel and discovery.
• I never wanted to live abroad, but I would have liked to speak English fluently
• I did not know how to work alone, without a team, yet I was already working independently as an entrepreneur.
• I did not know how to let go and not control my life like my projects, and yet I was about to dive into the unknown

The year of his 30 years brings necessarily to look at his career but especially his future and to make choices for oneself and of which we are intimately convinced, even by a mere intuition. Where do I want to be? Am I fulfilled? Are there any projects that I have not implemented? What are my priorities in life? …

It took me a week to be convinced to the point of no longer going back. I also wanted to live this experience and share it with two.

Once the decision was made, it was not easy to announce it in my company. A World Tour project first makes you smile, is not serious, is not necessarily part of the corporate culture, gives the impression of making a “whim” or putting one’s personal happiness before one’s professional interests . Yet all the reactions I had were kind and cheerful. Many people can identify themselves and see a choice they would have liked to make at the same time. What a relief I felt seeing the welcome, the understanding and the incredible support of my colleagues, my manager and the management team. Finally, it was in my head that I had fed fear and a sense of “betrayal”. But these three months before my departure finally only confirmed and made tangible and coherent my project.

A departure is anticipated and nobody is irreplaceable. I completed my project with an unwavering commitment and left my company on very good terms (I even had a “Good for a right of return” from my CEO on the day of my pot starting point ).

Make a big jump! Do not be afraid of the judgment of others. The hardest judge is yourself

This project was tailor-made for several reasons:

• firstly because I trusted my partner to magnify the good times and support me in the bad ones.
• then because I liked the idea of staying one or more months in each country (instead of going for a visit race).
• lastly, because my profession fascinates me and that it allowed me to continue exercising it in another dimension
• NB: especially because this choice was anything but what one would have expected from me and that it is important to reinvent oneself.

Then there is reality. And I had to wonder at length: what jobs can I do at a distance with my career? What do I like to work on a Sunday without considering being a job? I have always loved the design without specializing it. I worked in digital marketing and the design of new innovative offers for 7 years. And I particularly loved the design thinking approach with which I had just worked. Mix all this and add a pinch of pepper to find my way: I wanted to become UX / UI designer.

I knew that this specialization would take time. And I was ready to also do odd jobs in the restaurant or sale if necessary. I left without fear because digital is a buoyant sector so when I left my company, I did not feel in a situation of fear or precariousness. I was convinced that I could find an opportunity later.

I sold apartment and car, put my savings and built a kitty dedicated to travel knowing that it would take a little time before my first freelance customers. I left with $ 9,000.00 and the intention to return with $ 9,001.00!

I crossed areas of doubt. It’s hard to leave a company you love, with cool, friendly colleagues, for loneliness in front of your computer. Difficult to leave responsibilities and strategic issues to get orders for article writing for football over-clothes … Difficult to leave his family and friends and all the highlights we will not attend …

And yet I have no regrets. And even if there are some gaps, I can say today that I love this life at 300%.

• I like my freedom: that of creating my daily life, that of undertaking
• I like to live in the nature that surrounds us and recharge my batteries in incredible landscapes
• I like new encounters we make every day, even ephemeral, that open our minds.
• I like to see people working, talking, living, and inspiring me
• I do not like to plan every hour of my day and let myself be surprised (although I like to know where I will be in 1 month ^^)

I do not know if this choice of life will please everyone. On the other hand I know that everyone can decide to do it and get there.