The Leap from Tech to Doggy Daycare 

As Jenny Campbell approached her 30th birthday, she found herself questioning her career in Silicon Valley, which, while financially rewarding, left her feeling unfulfilled. A lifelong animal lover, Jenny recently rekindled her passion when she took in her family’s aging dog, Bubba, a few years earlier, only to feel a profound void after his recent passing. A conversation with her childhood friend Paola prompted her to reflect on the disconnect between her tech career and her love for animals. Motivated by this realization, Jenny enrolled in an animal behavior certification program and began considering opening her own doggy daycare. While the idea of leaving the stability of tech was daunting, Jenny felt a growing desire to align her work with her values and passion.

On a beautiful, sunny Saturday morning, Jenny Campbell was having coffee and taking a stroll with her friend Paola, who she had grown up with in her hometown and who was visiting her for the weekend. Jenny was feeling more contemplative than usual, as her 30th birthday was fast approaching in just a couple of weeks. She found herself talking more and more to people in her life about how conflicted she was feeling about her next career steps. Jenny felt that her values and life goals were not aligning with her current career in the tech sector. 

Jenny shared with Paola that the job she got in Silicon Valley at a big company right after college graduation had given her a solid foundation that set her up for success in tech. She then transitioned through various roles, each with perks including salaries of around $200,000, options in stocks, benefits, and a world of opportunities to build and advance. Yet, there was a lingering void. "I feel like I am tapping away my creativity on a keyboard," Jenny admitted to Paola. "I’m proud of my work, but my heart isn’t in spreadsheets and regulatory jargon." Perhaps it was the gnawing thought that life was too precious to be spent working in a full-time job that didn’t align with her other passion – her love for animals.  

Jenny had grown up surrounded by pets – at one point, her family had three guinea pigs, a fish, an iguana, and two dogs. The responsibility of taking care of the pets was split between Jenny and her three other siblings. However, she did not find taking care of her pets to be a chore. She looked forward to coming home from school each day and feeding them, walking the dogs, and cleaning the cages. Jenny loved being the friend who had the house with all the pets for she and her friends to play with. Having pets showed her that animals have feelings, and she felt showing her friends her pets made them understand that, too. She would take out books from the library each week to learn about different kinds of animals, and she became consumed by all things animal related. When she was 16, she even convinced her parents to foster a new dog.  

As a teenager, Jenny continued taking care of her pets, but she shifted the bulk of her time into her schoolwork. Her high school had a strong computer science department, and her parents encouraged her to pursue coding classes, with the hopes she could get into a good college and study computer science. From there, they thought she could get a lucrative tech job to support herself. Although this was the path that Jenny followed, as an adult living in California, she still thought a lot about her love of animals.  

A few years prior, when Jenny was 27, she had taken in her family dog, Bubba. At the time, her parents had only Bubba as a pet. He was 13 years old, and Jenny would only get to see him when she would fly across the country from California to her hometown in North Carolina for occasional family celebrations. When she went home to celebrate a family friend’s wedding in North Carolina, her parents started talking about how they were planning to retire soon. They had spent the bulk of their life working really hard, and now they wanted to relax and travel, but it might be hard with Bubba. They didn’t favor the idea of putting Bubba into a kennel when they went away, and they weren’t sure if any of their friends would want to take care of Bubba for more than a few days at a time.  

Jenny jumped at the opportunity to offer to take Bubba into her own apartment. Her building was dog-friendly, and she thought Bubba, even in his old age, could play with her friends’ dogs, too. After some thinking, her parents agreed, and Jenny finally had a dog of her own again for a few years, which made her visibly happier. Jenny started to wonder why she hadn’t pursued her interest in animals more when she was in high school. She could feel her motivation for tech work slipping, despite the accolades she was getting from her colleagues and management. Instead, she felt she was most looking forward to the play dates that Bubba and her friends’ dogs would have at the dog park. But tragically, a few weeks ago, Bubba passed away. Jenny described to Paola that she felt a huge void in her daily routine and her fulfillment. Jenny was thinking of volunteering at a nearby doggy day care.  

Jenny further shared her wonderings with Paola, saying, “I’m confused how I went from being this kid who loved animals, and was obsessed with them; it was all I could think about. And then I picked up coding and decided to be a full on ‘woman in STEM,’ working in tech. I’m proud of my accomplishments, but sometimes I think to myself, for what? What is it for? Why did I do this career?”  

Paola replied, “I don’t know Jenny. People change their minds, and that’s ok! I remember how much you used to love hanging out with your pets and caring for them when we teenagers, but then it seemed in high school you really leaned into being a software engineer and moving out to California. You did it, that’s great, and you’ve made great money along the way. But I don’t want to see you continuing to do something until you retire that doesn’t make you smile.” Jenny realized her friend’s words were a wakeup call.  

A few months later after Paola’s visit, Jenny decided to pursue an online certification on animal behavior. She started networking with the other students in the class, some of whom were her age or older, and they encouraged her to follow her passion for animals and start her own business. It seemed somewhat far-fetched, but Jenny did have some money set aside from her tech career that she could put towards starting a new business.  

Jenny felt an internal tug-of-war: Should she leave the financial security of tech behind and go full force opening her own doggy day care? What would she be sacrificing if she did or didn’t, and how would that impact her mentally, emotionally, and physically? Would the sacrifices of leaving tech be worth it for following her passion?