How do I avoid rebuilding the corporate job I just left when I go independent?

When people tell me what they never want to do again, the answers are specific. Work that is not aligned with their values. Filling in spreadsheets. Appraisal reviews. Being an individual contributor again. A role they will probably be offered, in the field they want to leave, because it is what they are known for.

That last one is the trap. The easiest work to sell is the work you have just been doing. So the first offer that turns up is often your old job, done as a contractor.

The year I started questioning it

In 2022 I got promoted and received zero bonus increase. I had a high rating, and it did not matter. It was the beginning of me questioning whether the corporate path was the right one.

When I left, I was clear about what I was leaving: the 5.45am alarm on office days, the train, the political games, the noisy open office. Now my work fits around my life, not the other way round. I did not leave to build the same week with a different logo on it.

Write your "not again" list first

Before you decide what to sell, decide what you will not do.

1. Write down the five parts of your last role you never want to do again. Be specific: the task, not the feeling.
2. Write down the parts that gave you energy, the work you would do even on a bad week.
3. Check every idea, and every offer that comes your way, against both lists. If an offer is mostly the first list, it is a job, however it is invoiced.

You can still say yes to a contract that pays the bills while you build. Just know that is what it is, and put an end date on it.

What people come to you for is usually a smaller, sharper thing than your job title. Start there: I have the expertise but no product.

Your next step

My free diagnostic asks the "not again" question too, and reads your own history back as the offers it points at: what would people pay me for?