An actuarial analyst couldn’t be happier after getting laid off from Deloitte, despite crying herself to sleep afterwards, since the $90,000 salary job was her only means of survival, having hailed from a low-income family in Naperville, Illinois, according to a Business insider report.
Why was the actuarial analyst happy to have gotten laid off from Deloitte?
Cierra Desmaratti, 25, always felt out of place at Deloitte from the very beginning.
It all started at the 2021 onboarding along with 80 to 90 peers dressed in high-end designer suits and coming from big-name colleges and Big 4 internships, while Desmaratti came from a liberal arts university and got the job through the International Association of Black Actuaries, which is a close collaborator with Deloitte.
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A six-month auditing project for a life insurance client forced her to figure out most of her work on her own, with her assigned coach only being part time on the project, and making it clear she was mostly busy.
She felt she had to dim her personality to fit in with her peers at the predominantly white, male workplace. Mostly traditionally masculine topics seemed acceptable at social events, with colleagues talking about sports teams, college football, ski trips, and marathons.
Desmaratti also struggled with the consulting firm’s fast-paced hustle culture, and slowly felt herself entering a burnout after working 11-hour shifts during January’s busy season.
What made it worse was everyone else wore their burnout as a badge of honor, saying “that’s just Deloitte.”
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Her physical and mental health also suffered after she dropped her hobbies and stopped socializing, gaining 20 pounds in just a few months, and being too tired to do anything else other than scroll through TikTok in bed.
After all this, her late spring performance review claimed she didn’t perform well, despite not being given immediate feedback prior to this.
All of this was the overture to Desmaratti getting laid off unexpectedly due to the firm’s financial reasons, forcing her to move back with her family as she searched for a new job, which Deloitte’s career counselors helped her in, by directing her to more actuarial work.
What happened afterwards and what did she learn from the Deloitte experience?
Desmaratti found a new remote job as an actuarial analyst for Transamerica. However, she moved immediately to Miami, escaping the grey-scale, corporate culture of Chicago, after having realised the importance of work-life balance and being able to express her bold and feminine personality in Miami’s vibrant culture.
The work culture at Transamerica was also more encouraging, enabling her to have time to nourish her hobbies and relationships. What she learnt the most out of her Deloitte experience was clinging to the safety of a paycheck wasn’t worth it since she lost herself and got burnt out in the process.
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