By most conventional measures, a career change from teaching to working at Costco would represent a step back. But for 31-year-old Maggie Perkins, it was the transition that radically changed her life, professionally, financially, and emotionally.
In 2022, Maggie left behind eight years of teaching, a master’s in education, and a career that had defined her for so long.
She didn’t leave for a tech company or an entrepreneurial dream. She took a job at Costco. A gamble, perhaps. But it turned out to be the leap that returned her life to her.
Curlyrnd, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsFrom “Higher Calling” to Hitting a Wall
It’s an avocation, not merely a profession, for most. Maggie had devoted herself to life in the classroom, working in public and private schools, and in language arts and history at the middle school and senior high school levels.
She had devoted herself to the cause. Nine years in the classroom, however, had taken what once sustained her and turned it into what drained her. She was working 60 hours a week in her final year of teaching for $47,000. The psychological toll came at great cost.
Administrative stress, constant testing requirements, and sheer pandemonium in teaching during a pandemic had taken their toll and left her wondering if she was making a difference.
“I didn’t even feel like I had any purpose,” she states. “I felt perpetually exhausted and stuck in this cycle of unpaid overtime and emotional exhaustion.”
So when she turned 30, she made an unexpected decision that bewildered people and stunned some: She quit.
The Jump to Costco And to a New Lifestyle
When Maggie went looking for work, she wasn’t looking for her next big career move. She was looking for space, space to breathe, space to think, space to gain balance. Two offers, one from Amazon and one from Costco, were made to her within a week. She trusted her gut.
Costco, she believed, would be kinder to her. She liked the company’s reputation. She liked to shop there. It felt human. She began full-time on the membership team at another warehouse in Athens, Georgia, in September 2022.
She was paid $18.50 an hour, a little lower than she’d been paid teaching, but she clocked out after 40 hours, took work home to work on, and had energy left over at the end of the day. It did take a bit of getting used to, but she admits,
“Others would tell me, ‘Is this actually your dream job?’ And then I’d have to remind myself, maybe it’s not so much about finding a dream job. Maybe it’s about building a dream life.”
Within a few months of working, Maggie contracted laryngitis. She had no voice and thus was unable to operate the register, so she was assigned to help in the bakery. That sudden change was a turning point.
“I enjoyed every moment of it,” she said. “If it were for a 90th birthday cake or someone’s PhD graduation, I would make something that mattered to people. I could see the smiles that it was putting on their faces, and that hadn’t been happening for years.”
The late-night grading and lesson planning marathons were a thing of the past. Instead, she enjoyed the simple accomplishments, the human interaction, and the hands-on activity.
It was not glamorous, but it was significant.
A New Job, A New Paycheck, and A New Outlook
Early on in her time at the bakery, Maggie encountered some of Costco’s training marketing staff who were at her warehouse on a visit. Witnessing them in action rekindled something she had assumed was gone, an ability to teach. This time, however, it felt a bit different.
She discovered that she could still teach, albeit not in a classroom.
When she received an opportunity at Costco’s corporate office in Issaquah, Washington, she applied and was hired on.
Today, she works as a content developer and marketing trainer. She creates in-house content to help educate associates regarding policy and improve customer service. She visits other warehouses, training new associates and helping to create culture at the ground level.
The best part? She’s now making 50% more than she made working in schools, equal to a teacher with 15 years’ experience at her previous district.
For Maggie, the best transformation wasn’t the new job title or the promotion. It was the balance she was finally able to attain.
“My work isn’t who I am anymore,” she says. “I do the best I can at work, but outside of work, honestly, I get to live.”
She gets out in nature with her husband and two children. She resumes hobbies. She sleeps. She breathes.
“This is the first time in a long time that I’ve felt fulfilled,” she says in the interview with CNBC.
Her tale has struck a note with thousands, most of whom are other people in caregiving occupations, social workers, nurses, emergency personnel, home health aides, where burnout is prevalent and compensation is sometimes low.
Her comment on this was that these are occupations that are perceived to be noble, but honors don’t pay, and they don’t give you family time. Passion plus no institutional support equals burnout.
Establishing Boundaries and Redefining Success
One of the first lessons Maggie learned along the way? Boundaries are important. Really important.
When invited to commit to a new opportunity, she always gets clarity on expectations. What’s the timeline? What’s at risk? And if she needs extra resources, she asks for them. She no longer works herself to exhaustion.
It’s so different from those school years, when she often didn’t feel like she ever could say “no.”
And, ultimately, possibly the most powerful shift of all: letting go of the idea that what you do has to define you.
We are instructed early in life to ask, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” But maybe it should really be, “Who do you want to be?” That is what we all should be doing.
Not Just a Job – A Wake-Up Call
Maggie understands that not everyone’s path will be hers. Not everyone can, or even wishes to, leave their profession. What she hopes it will do is prompt people, at least those who are stuck in burnout, to ask tough questions of what they actually want out of work.
And the answer doesn’t always involve more ambition or prestige. Occasionally, it just involves peace. “My life wasn’t made better because I left behind a calling,” she says. “It was made better because I let myself make a change.”
Ultimately, a job needs to be more than something to pay you; it needs to support the life you wish to have.
Once work is in harmony with who you are and gives you room to breathe, all else improves. Your health, your relationships, your energy all become better when you’re not drained at work.
Choosing satisfaction rather than status is not failure; it’s a power move. Because the ideal job isn’t one in which other people are impressed, it’s one where you can be yourself.
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