After spending 11 years climbing the corporate ladder at companies like JPMorgan, Accenture and Wipro, Apeksha Jain walked away from her high-paying tech career to travel full time across India. It was a decision that may seem puzzling to many. Jain, after all, was drawing an impressive salary in Bengaluru when she decided to resign from her corporate job in 2023 and explore the mountains of India on a budget.
The 35-year-old opened up about her motivation for quitting and what she has been doing ever since over a phone call from Bir Billing in Himachal Pradesh, where she is currently based.
“I had 11 years of corporate experience, and my last drawn salary was about 2.5 lakhs a month,” she told HindustanTimes.com.
So why did she give up a job paying roughly ₹30 LPA?
“I started feeling this disconnect from whatever I was doing,” the 35-year-old former tech professional said. “I wanted to work on things that made a more real impact. I was working for remote clients in the UK or US, and I really did not know who the end users of whatever product I was building were. It didn’t make much sense to me anymore.”
‘I feel more alive’
Originally from Nagpur, Jain worked across several cities in India and abroad, including Pune, Chennai, Mumbai, Noida and London during her corporate career.
She said the feeling of dissatisfaction began around the eighth year of working in tech. Weekend trips around Bengaluru slowly helped her realise what truly fulfilled her.
“I realised that I enjoy travelling. I feel more alive and more fulfilled when I’m travelling and I feel more myself,” she said. “That is when I thought that maybe this is something that I can do full time — slow travel, not just covering touristy places, but staying there for some time and absorbing local experiences.”
A personal loss
The Covid-19 pandemic became another turning point in her life. Jain lost her mother during the second wave, an experience she says fundamentally changed how she viewed success and happiness.
“That loss changed a lot of my perspective on how unpredictable life is,” she said. “It made me rethink a lot of my life goals and what happiness actually meant to me.”
Propelled by personal loss and burnt out by 11 years of work, Apeksha Jain decided to take a leap of faith.
“I thought, ‘What am I waiting for?’ I had tried changing companies and job profiles, but nothing was making me feel fulfilled. So, I started saving and planning strategically for the break I needed to take. I quit my job in 2023 and started traveling full-time,” she said.
“I love the human connections built while travelling- somewhere along the way, I discovered that I genuinely enjoy working in people-centric spaces- having conversations with strangers, understand their life stories and creating meaningful real-time impact in those moments.
“And mountains, rivers and nature also helped me in my healing journey and became my grief companion,” said the Nagpur woman.
Quitting with ₹5 lakh
Jain is careful to point out that the decision to quit was not impulsive. In fact, she saved for four years before she took the plunge.
“It was not a sudden decision,” she said. “I wanted to ensure that this is not just an impulsive escape, but something that I genuinely feel fulfilled doing.”
Before she resigned, she crunched numbers to determine how much she needed to live comfortably for 7 to 8 months, while also having a buffer for emergencies.
While saving for her resignation, she was also helping her family pay off a home loan and contributing for her sibling’s education. “I had family responsibilities. I was helping my father pay off a home loan and supporting my siblings’ education. So, the amount I could save wasn’t huge — it was a 5 lakh corpus,” said Jain.
“I felt that was enough for at least 8 to 9 months of budget traveling. I calculated every bit of expense: stay at hostels, food, leisure, health emergencies, and a 20% buffer. Once I had that, I felt I had enough to proceed with the decision,” she said.
Volunteering at cafes and hostels in the hills
After quitting, Jain began travelling full time and volunteered across cafes and hostels in places such as Spiti, Manali and Nainital. She worked as a volunteer, property manager and team manager at various hostels.
“Somewhere between deadlines and deliverables in Bangalore, I stopped recognizing myself. So I left,” she explained in one Instagram video. “Now my mornings look like this—serving chai, talking to strangers, breathing a little deeper. It’s not glamorous every day… but it finally feels like mine.”
Right now, she is based in Bir in Himachal Pradesh and earns through art, flea markets and temporary travel-related work.
“My income is coming from art,” she said. “I do wall paintings, resin art, jewellery, keychains, fridge magnets and things like that. I started building connections and getting bulk orders.”
No regrets
“In the initial part, I definitely had to dip into my savings. Very soon, I was able to supplement it. Even though I was earning much less—maybe 15,000 to 20,000 a month as a property manager—it added to my savings. Now, the extra work I do has become a primary source of income for me,” Jain said.
Asked if she ever regrets the lifestyle downgrade that accompanied switching from a salary of ₹2.5 lakh per month to ₹20,000 per month, Jain answered in the negative.
For the 35-year-old, her life right now is more meaningful and more fulfilling.
“I don’t regret the lifestyle cut at all. At different stages of life, you associate success and comfort with different parameters. When I had the job and the promotions, it wasn’t fulfilling. Now, what I’m doing is very fulfilling,” she said.
A final word of caution
Jain described her escape from the corporate world as “liberating”, even as she acknowledged the importance of having been employed for over a decade.
“Corporate jobs enabled me to take this break, and I appreciate that, but they can feel soul-sucking after a point. This life is more fulfilling,” she said.
Jain cautioned others against romanticising quitting corporate life without planning.
“Travelling is hard. It’s not as romanticised as it looks online. It has uncertainty and challenges,” she said. “People should not take such decisions impulsively. It should be well thought through and connected to reality.”