Alice Kim Starts Freelance Finance After 18-Month Burnout Break From 6 Years in Banking
Updated
Updated · Business Insider · Aug 10
Alice Kim Starts Freelance Finance After 18-Month Burnout Break From 6 Years in Banking
2 articles · Updated · Business Insider · Aug 10
Summary
18 months after quitting investment banking and private equity, Alice Kim said she is returning to work through freelance strategic finance instead of reentering a corporate role.
Six years of 80-hour weeks, little sleep and chronic stress left her unable to handle simple tasks, and she later concluded her perfectionism and productivity-driven self-worth kept the burnout cycle going.
A four-month travel plan stretched far longer after she realized rest alone was not fixing the problem; a freelance job taken about six months into the break quickly triggered burnout again.
By early 2025, Kim said she had largely abandoned plans to return to corporate finance and is now building a portfolio career around remote client work and social media while traveling.