Former Deloitte Consultant Transitions to E-Commerce with Surfers Jewelry
Jessica Yen, a once-prominent consultant and tech analyst at Deloitte, has embarked on an entrepreneurial journey by launching Surfers Jewelry, an e-commerce brand inspired by the vibrant surfing community. Her significant career shift was initially reported by Business Insider.
Jessica Yen, a former analyst at Deloitte and Cruise, now directs Surfers Jewelry, an e-commerce venture for surfing aficionados.
Yen commenced her career at Deloitte’s San Francisco branch in 2014 following her graduation from UCLA, envisioning a life brimming with travel and opportunities. However, the reality unfolded quite differently; she found herself ensnared in lengthy commutes and projects that afforded her scant control.
“It took two hours, round-trip, in traffic, and it drained me more than the job itself,” she disclosed in an interview with Business Insider.
By 2016, Yen pivoted to data analytics, joining Salesforce as a marketing analyst. She adeptly leveraged the Excel and analytical proficiencies honed during her time at Deloitte to transition into the tech sector. Her subsequent roles expanded from marketing to encompass business operations and strategy at Yelp, followed by a position at Cruise, the autonomous vehicle firm.
At Cruise, she engaged with people analytics, aligning her work more closely with her passion for decision-making and organizational behavior.
Nevertheless, the rigors of data analytics began to take a toll on her well-being. The high-stakes environment demanded relentless accuracy and swift deliverables, often necessitating direct communication with executives.
“At my peak stress, I had dreams about redoing Excel formulas, obsessing over whether I’d divided something twice or misplaced a decimal,” Yen recounted in her essay to Business Insider.
In 2020, amidst the upheaval caused by the pandemic, Yen departed Cruise and sought new avenues for professional fulfillment. Enrolling in a coaching program and expanding her business acumen, she also experimented with product ventures.
Her first entrepreneurial endeavor, a Daily Work Journal, launched in December 2020, providing her with invaluable e-commerce experience before she sold the business in January 2024.
Post-sale, Yen took time for personal reflection and discovered a newfound love for surfing. What began as a leisure activity soon morphed into a business opportunity. “I never planned on building a business around it, but it became the perfect synergy; that’s how Surfers Jewelry began,” she explained.
The enterprise, exclusively devoted to crafting jewelry for the surfing community, has since become her primary focus.
While she remains engaged in coaching, it is largely limited to previous clients. The majority of her time is now dedicated to the creative endeavors of her jewelry brand, including marketing and networking.
She attributes her corporate experiences with providing the essential skills for her entrepreneurial success: “Whatever you specialize in becomes your edge as an entrepreneur,” she noted. Her analytical background, she added, has bolstered her confidence in managing the financial and operational aspects of her business.
Yen observes that many of her contemporaries continue in their corporate roles, while she bravely redefined her career path in her late 20s. She now identifies wholly with entrepreneurship. “It’s high risk, high reward, but the flexibility and creative freedom make it worth it,” she affirmed.
Source link: Hindustantimes.com.
