On Jan 6, 2025, I boarded a 5:30 train to Metropark from South Station, Boston. This was my last ride out of Boston as a resident of the city. I'm on the train right now, thinking about change. Life is strange. Life is dynamic. To live is to go through change. Change that is inevitable, and at times, feels like a must.
How I came to Boston
After I graduated from Dartmouth College in June of 2023, I hopped around the east coast for a bit, hovering between NJ and DC. Work at Roland Berger was supposed to start on July 17, it was shifted to Sept 11, 2023. This should have been a fore warning. But, on Sept 1, 2023, I made my way to Boston. A brownstone garden-level apartment in the South End was home in this foreign country. My cousin and her entire family came with me to Boston to drop me off.
I got a blank apartment, and slept the first night on the floor. It took a while until I had a bed frame or a mattress. Me and my roommate started hunting for used furniture on Facebook marketplace. We found a bio-tech cofounder moving his office from Seaport to idk where. But, he was pissed with the union workers for taking so much money just to move stuff out (he had already purchased new furniture). So, he wanted to sell away all the valuable stuff. We went in to buy a TV. The next day, we came back with a U-haul, and hauled away chairs, sofa, tables, bar stools and some other stuff. Good deal for $625 if I remember hehe
I was with Roland Berger from Sept 2023 to June 2024. I got laid off. Business was bad, partners were not selling. I'm pretty sure the head of my practice didn't like me. Pro-tip: don't implicitly call your boss old, you might save your job. The job was frankly, boring. I didn't enjoy my time as a consultant. I don't think I've met anyone who has. People stay in the profession because it is good money, and consultants are the most risk-averse people in the world. Funny how life works when you are limited to giving advice, not executing it.
How do you know you've found a good place to work? First, you must be inspired by your managers. You should be able to see yourself in the manager's shoes, and be happy while in their shoes. If you are not inspired by your managers (or senior leadership), and you cannot imagine yourself happy in their shoes, you've not found a job-market-fit. Second, you must like your colleagues. You will spend upwards of 8 hours a day with them, if you can't like them, you will be miserable. You will want a divorce asap. Third (because I'm a consultant), you must be morally fulfilled by the job you are doing. I add morally because I felt that I was wasting my potential making slides while at Roland Berger. I was making 6 figures, but I was not happy.
Moving from Boston
After I lost my job, I had a few options - stay in Boston, leave Boston (move to NYC/SF), or, leave the US. I tried for a bit to find jobs. I failed. I was never good at finding jobs or interviewing for them. I tried. I failed. I moved on. Sometimes, you realize that some cities and places are just not meant for you. Boston was never meant for me, it seems. So, I decided that I must move on. After hopping between NJ and Boston for a couple of times between September - December, I left the city for good on Jan 6, 2025. Goodbye Boston, you were fun while it lasted.
Shoutout to people who made Boston livable
This is a shoutout to David, Ranjan dai, Nasthas, Iva, Harold, Emily, Pau, David, and other countless friends that made Boston memorable. Cheers mates.
