I grew my salary to $112K after a career pivot. A layoff broke my heart and changed my perception of money and success.

Evelyn Irwanto is a 32-year-old living in Toronto. She was a senior manager at a marketing and branding consultancy, making CA$155,000, or roughly $112,000, before she was laid off in September 2025. Business Insider has verified Irwanto's income and employment history with documentation. The following as-told-to essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I got into health and fitness near the end of high school and thought I wanted to be a dietitian. Deep down, though, I truly had no idea what I wanted to do.

I grew up in a pretty typical Asian immigrant family. My parents were pushing me toward more traditional fields like business, medicine, or law. In hindsight, a nutrition career was maybe a little act of rebellion — I wanted to do something that they didn't approve of.

I was pretty steadfast, so they let me go for it, but I probably should've listened to them.

Spoiler alert: I didn't go into a career in dietetics. Here's my salary journey.

Nutrition associate (CA$14 an hour) and server (CA$11 an hour)

After graduating with a degree in nutrition and food in 2017, I got a part-time role as a nutrition associate, making around $14 Canadian dollars an hour. I also worked as a server on the side, for around CA$11 an hour plus tips.

It was tough, but at that time, I was young and had energy. I'd moved out on my own, and the jobs worked with my schedule.

The nutrition associate job was typically 8-to-4 shifts, and then I'd do double shifts and serve at night, starting from 5 p.m. It was fun. I really enjoyed serving.

I did that for 10 months, from August 2017 through May 2018.

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'Eat, Pray, Love' break, $0

During that time, I was looking for a full-time position, but after not being able to find one, I started to realize I didn't want to do nutrition full-time.

I'd already kind of known it in college, around the time I took a gap year off school after going to Melbourne for an exchange program, but I kept following through the motions.

In mid-2018, I left my nutrition associate and serving jobs, subleased my apartment, and took some time off to travel. I call it my "Eat, Pray, Love" moment because I bought a one-way ticket to South America and backpacked for about four months to figure out what I wanted to do with my life.

It gave me clarity and the courage to accept what I knew deep down already: I don't know what I want to do; I just know I don't want to do this. And I owe it to myself to try to pivot.

Customer service and community management coordinator, CA$15 an hour

Once I got back, I put applications out to all kinds of jobs that seemed remotely interesting.

Through a local Facebook group, I found a seasonal, contract role as a customer service and community management coordinator with a small marketing agency that paid CA$15 an hour.

I got the job in October 2018. It was only a seasonal role, my commute was an hour and a half, and I made less than I'd been making previously, but I was still ecstatic because it was my first foot out the door of nutrition, and I got to learn and try something new.

Credit and collections analyst, CA$22 an hour

My next role was as a contractor for a Big Tech software company as a credit and collections analyst. A friend working in that position at the time reached out about their team looking for more people. I had no idea what credit and collections was, but it seemed like a great opportunity to get into a Big Tech, Fortune 500 company.

It also came with higher pay — CA$22 an hour — and the potential to go full-time.

It was a big adjustment, but it was exciting. I was like, Oh my gosh! You get to dress up in corporate clothing, learn so much about processes and policies, and be part of a team. There were very clear metrics and KPIs, which I'd never had before. It was a learning experience.

My parents were super happy. They worried at first because I'd spent so much time doing a nutrition degree, but once I started getting opportunities like at this Big Tech company, they were like, "OK, it seems like this is working out for you."

Partner finance analyst, CA$25.88 an hour

My manager at the time recommended I move to a different team under the credit and collections department because there were more opportunities to get converted, so I did.

I ended up getting converted full-time in late 2019, and my pay was CA$25.88 an hour, with eligibility for a CA$2,700 bonus annually.

I worked really hard on that team for about a year and eight months — almost like I had to prove myself even more than other people because I didn't have the backing of a relevant degree.

But I knew I didn't want to stay in credit and collections forever; I enjoyed it and was good at it, but long-term, the day-to-day job and income potential didn't match up to what I wanted. From the very beginning, I was like, "I want to climb the corporate ladder."

Credit and collection supervisor, CA$81,000

A supervisor position opened up, which I applied for. At that time, it was two levels higher than me, which was tough to justify to HR and the people team, but I applied and worked really hard on the case study. The managers and the panel interview knew me as a hard worker, and I ended up getting that position.

That year — 2021 — I made around CA$81,000. My parents were super proud when I got promoted.

Sales operations business process specialist, CA$91,700

I learned a lot from that supervisor role, but it didn't take me very long to start applying for other jobs within the company in order to fulfill my ultimate goal of leaving collections.

In December 2021, I ended up getting a sales operations business process specialist role within the company's revenue operations department. My salary was around CA$91,700.

A lot of the job was identifying gaps within processes and policies, talking to stakeholders, and aligning teams, which was the stuff that I liked to do. I stayed there for just over a year. I enjoyed the job, but also felt isolated because of COVID and remote work.

It was also less busy, and I'm someone who can't sit still and needs to be doing a lot. It made me wonder, am I providing value or impact? I'd have conversations with my skip-level manager, asking about growth opportunities. I also started to feel the red tape a lot with getting ideas approved, which made me a little disgruntled.

Revenue operations manager, CA$100,000 plus equity

A lot of my friends were working in startups at that time. I also had a mentor within the company who recommended, based on my goals, that I look into startups. I started applying.

One of my friends posted a LinkedIn opportunity for a revenue operations manager at a Series A tech company based in Toronto. I ended up getting a referral and got the job.

The pay was CA$100,000 plus equity, which felt mind-blowing. I was proud and knew I was qualified, but I still felt some imposter syndrome.

Joining the startup slapped me across the face; it was a big learning curve. But that was also kind of what I wanted. You're doing it all — wearing different hats, with no guidelines or scope — and no one's telling you what to do. You just do what needs to be done and figure it out.

It was probably one of my favorite roles to date. I met friends that I'm still friends with, and had good management that really supported me and wanted me to grow. I learned so much in that role, which is why I ended up staying there for almost two years. I got a raise to CA$103,000, and then to CA$108,000, or around $78,000.

Senior manager, CA$155,000

I ended up leaving because I was really gunning for a promotion in my role as revenue operations manager, and it felt like it was dangled but never happened.

I was frustrated and ended up getting recruited by the next company, a marketing and branding consultancy.

They offered me CA$150,000, which I negotiated up to CA$155,000, and a title boost to senior manager instead of manager. The opportunity felt too good to be true and seemed like it fit my experience. It would've been silly for me not to take it, so I did.

Coming into the role was a pretty big change. I went through months of burnout, not feeling really supported, and having an existential crisis about what I was doing with my life.

I thought, I can't leave this job because I've only been here for X months. I don't want to be seen as a job-hopper. It was tough.

I ended up taking a leave of absence, during which time I did a lot of therapy. I really felt ready to come back with a new attitude and perspective on things like balance.

But in September 2025, the Friday before I was supposed to come back, I was laid off. The formal reason they gave was due to a restructuring.

I cried; it was heartbreaking and jarring.

When I think back to that day, it's still very emotional. I think it ended up working out for the best, but it was tough. It felt like a gut punch.

Now my goal is to replace my tech salary with content creation and freelancing

I'd already started applying to jobs during my mental health leave to see what other options were out there. Once I got laid off, I started really pouring myself into interviews.

I was interested in freelancing, so I started talking to people about what that looked like. I ended up getting introduced to the owner of a revenue operations consultancy here in Toronto. I met him for coffee, and we really hit it off. He told me that he couldn't guarantee me a set amount of hours, but at the time, he had 10 hours for the month ahead.

That was the same time that I got two different offers, both with salaries in the mid-six-figures, but the thought of going back to corporate made me feel so depleted, so I turned them down.

Thanks to my severance package, I had a bit of runway to explore doing my own thing. I ended up taking the consultancy to just try it out, and started content creation.

In June, I actually surpassed my monthly corporate salary. I feel like I was able to prove that I could do it and have full confidence that I can continue. I feel like there are so many possibilities.

My perspective on money and work has changed

I have a different perspective on money now; it's not the most important thing for me, and even if I'm not able to hit my goal of replacing my tech salary for whatever reason, I'll be okay with it because I genuinely love everything that I'm doing right now. I feel like I have this new sense of control that I didn't have in the corporate world.

I just feel like there are so many possibilities out there that this is only the beginning. In corporate, it felt like there was kind of a ceiling to how far I could go, and to move up, I'd have to give up so much; I hear about all these VPs and C-suite level executives who don't even see their kids.

With this new kind of portfolio career consisting of content creation and freelancing, I have so much more autonomy in what I get to do. I get to choose the opportunities that fulfill me, while still not dimming my income potential.

I still struggle with having a scarcity mindset of always feeling like I have to prove myself and not having enough. Maybe it's because my family wasn't rich, so that was something that I had to fulfill for myself and for them, to show everybody that I could do it.

It's almost like money, titles, and salary were the epitome of success to me. Now I realize that there's so much more than that.

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