Getting into Deloitte with an English Literature degree was definitely an achievement. However, it turned out that it wasn't for me. I quit to pursue my dreams.

Deloitte

I got an internship with Deloitte in the summer of 2006. What that meant was: I was an English Literature student at university who got an internship for tax and accounting at Deloitte. Yes, you read that right, an English Lit student accepted an internship in tax and accounting. It was a prestigious acclaim because, for someone like myself who was studying English, it was pretty much unheard of to get offered the internship. I had no background in finance, but it was a job that you didn’t turn down so swiftly.

I Mean of Course...

So, of course, I didn’t turn it down. Even though it had nothing to do with what I was studying at university, I did very well with the internship- nights full of drinking and all. At the end of the program, I had an exit interview and got the offer to join the company as a full-time employee. I didn’t, however, start the job right away.

Personal Development Weekend

I took a gap year before I started at Deloitte then went to a personal development weekend sponsored by the company. I remember it was delivered by this chap called Christopher Howard. It was during this weekend that for the first time in my life I had been introduced to the concept of trying to live your dream and rather than trying to have a full-time job. The basic concept was not to use a job to fund your passions but to try and find a way to use your passions to make a full-time living.

A Different Path

As simple as it sounds, at that time for me back in 2008-2009, the concept was pretty mind-blowing. I was 22 and there was no one who was entrepreneurial or a “follower of their of dreams” type in my family. We all had gone on the career route. My parents are migrants who came from India and raised us children here in the UK where we all went through University education before going straight into a career path. I, myself, had already started to veer from that path by choosing to travel and take time off from school. Deloitte just so happened to change the path even more.

A Blanket Recession

At the time, I had a lot of friends that were economics and finance students from Warwick, which is one of the best schools in the U.K. whose job offers were getting rescinded. They couldn't find work and here I was with this job offer others were dreaming about. I remember walking into Deloitte and working in tax remuneration consulting as part of the internship rotation program. The program was designed to help decide what your specialism was and then progress you toward a career in that field. It was a kind of the antithesis of where I wanted to be in my life...

Antithesis

I recall going to a networking event, which sounds ridiculous being that I was an English major with dreams of rapping and traveling. I had entered into this environment where I had to:

Look at tax legislation.
Deal with contracts.
Advise investment banks.
Look at spreadsheets all day.

I would go through reams and reams of tax base data and offer my opinions and thesis and learn. This particular career path made me feel squeamish because it was so horrendous. It embodied everything that I was not. I can say that I didn't really appreciate what it meant to have a career until I was in it. I thought, “Wow. So this is what making it is. This is what working for a top company and following a career path looks like”. All I could think was, 'this is really, really, not what I want'. These thoughts only continued to increase after I went to this weekend of empowerment and fulfillment funded by the very company I disliked working for. Empowerment and fulfillment, interesting things they are.

What Some People Want

Some people don’t open up to this mindset of fulfillment, or they look at it and feel that it’s nothing but fun and a joke - fairy stuff. True to the point, you will go to a lot of these events and there will be people that listen and maybe feel empowered- but don’t follow through with it. I remember walking into this networking event after the Personal Development weekend where I met directors and people who were trying to make partner or be considered as top 1% of the field. In order to be this, you have to be the best of the best, so I thought, "OK, this is the route I'm going to take if I stay in this field”. These people had lives worth at least 7 figures and a couple of mortgages. But when you looked into these people's eyes you could see just how drained and overworked they looked. The reality is that the job of accounting isn't particularly interesting unless you have a passion for numbers and trying to help corporate companies find better ways to manage taxes more efficiently. My interest in the above was nonexistent.

His Name is Matthew Ellis

I remember walking into Christopher Howard’s (the senior partner at Deloitte) office, which was just across from the office that belonged to a man named Matthew Ellis. Ellis was a lawyer when I was just starting out at Deloitte. He was making an incredible amount of money and was the highest earning tax partner across the big four which is: PwC, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, and KPMG. These were the four elite tax firms in the world of accounting and here I was in the department of the highest earning tax partner across all of them. I was one of a couple hundred of students from my university who were part of the, let’s call it, softer subjects who had gone through these rounds of tests to get the job and there I was, about to go in and tell him I’d like to hand in my resignation. These guys spent a ton of money investing in:

Training
Preparation
Supporting us

It is said that a graduate’s time is deemed to be worth 170 quid an hour, which is always ironic when you think about how you don’t really know anything but they're paying for the brand and the talent and what you can potentially become. It still blows my mind.

What Do You Want?

The story of how I ultimately transitioned is, well, another story within itself. There are distinct things that stand out about that day in Christopher Howard's office and realising that this is not how I want to spend my life. All I could think was:

I'm in my early 20’s, this is not what I want to do with my time
I want to pursue things for happiness and for enjoyment
I want to pursue opportunities that I have access to

The truth is when I started to travel reality set in for me and I realised there was so much I hadn’t yet experienced in terms of passion. I was 22 and by that time I had already had over 15 jobs of various kinds- they helped me began realising the things I definitely didn’t want from life. I also didn't know at this time that I wanted to become a hard-headed entrepreneur- I still had yet to develop that kind of mind space. What was clear to me, more than anything else, was that consultancy as a career didn't fit me at all.

I Wish I Was a Rapper

That was the start of a momentous journey for me and I'm so glad I went to Christopher Howard and I was able to reframe everything that I was doing during that time in my life. I knew Deloitte would still be an amazing opportunity for many people- it just wasn't the opportunity for me. So, I handed over my resignation letter to Christopher Howard saying that I want to leave to go and be a rapper. I didn’t really become a rapper, but from the moment I walked out of Christopher’s office, another story and adventure began.