'Because life is too short to do work that doesn’t matter to you'

What do we do?

Escape the City provides exciting options for corporate professionals who want to 'do something different' with their careers. Our platform helps our members find meaningful & fulfilling ways of spending their time outside of the corporate mainstream. The site is structured around helping people make exciting career changes, start their own businesses and go on big adventures.

The Situation

Many of the best and brightest graduates join large corporate firms after university. It makes sense. They get training, they get experience, they get good salaries.

However, a few years into their careers many of them realise that they aren't as fulfilled or passionate about their jobs as they would like. They realise that they would like to move away from their company or their industry. They realise that they want to do something different.

They dream about exciting career changes, innovative business ideas, and amazing adventures.

There are thousands of motivated and talented people out there who want to spend their time doing things that inspire, excite and fulfil them. Things that allow them to have a positive impact in the world...

The Problem

There is one main challenge: they feel stuck.

Why?

• It is difficult to find exciting opportunities
• It is hard to know where to apply your skills
• No one wants to leave a stable job and salary without a good plan
• You can know that you need a change without knowing what you want to go and do
• There are plenty of resources and tools to help you get that dream corporate job, but very little that helps you transition away from a mainstream profession once you're there

Our Solution

We have built a platform specifically designed to answer the question: 'How do I leave my corporate job and find an occupation that makes me tick?'

We are assembling a community, a tribe, a movement of like-minded corporate professionals who are committed to helping each other escape.

It's not about opting out. It's about recognising that the established way of doing things doesn't always work. It's about realising that many people today want to achieve MORE than what they are able to in their current jobs. It's about finding opportunities that allow people to have a positive impact in the world.

It's a philosophy, a movement, and a community...

Join us.

Our Story

Escape the City was started by the two of us: Dom Jackman and Rob Symington. We both worked in 'The City' and bonded over a shared feeling of 'surely there is more to life than this?'

We started our careers as management consultants. Neither of us regrets this because we gained invaluable experience. However, once we began to reflect on where we wanted to be in five, ten, and fifteen years time, we both realised that we didn't want to pursue our careers in the corporate mainstream. We both wanted to do something a bit different, something that we genuinely cared about.

The truth is many graduates go into corporate jobs with no great plan other than learning a lot and gaining good experience. After a while many begin asking the same question that we did: 'what else could I be doing with my life other than living for the weekend?'

Escape the City was born the day that we were sitting in neighbouring cubicles at work and admitted to each other that we both thought there was more to life than what we were doing. We then realised that we were far from being alone in feeling frustrated and unfulfilled in 'The City' and that thousands of young professionals felt the same way. So we decided that we would build something to help all these people and, through doing so, to engineer our own escapes as well!

Dom Jackman - left

Dom is interested in start ups, entrepreneurialism and adventure. He is passionate about working hard on something you really believe in. He also loves a good adventure whether it’s canoeing down the Yukon, Climbing Mountains in the Andes or cycling to Paris in 24 hours.

Email him at dom [at] escapethecity.org

Rob Symington - right

Rob is really interested in the future of work, disruptive business ideas, stories that spread, and the power of technology and the internet to make positive change happen. Rob passionately believes that 'just because' things are done in a certain way it doesn't mean that that is the best way to do them.

Rob drove a 35 year old Land Rover from Cape Town to Cairo in 2006. He likes road trips in old impractical vehicles that break down a lot. He owns a motorbike that doesn't work called Josephine. He is currently saving to buy a double decker bus. He loves Manchester United.

Email him at rob [at] escapethecity.org

Our mission is to assemble a community of young professionals who want to escape the corporate mainstream and do something different with their lives and their careers. Our objective is to build and maintain a platform that connects these talented young people for exciting career changes, innovative business start-ups and epic adventures.

We know that there is more to life than doing work that doesn't matter to you. We want to help people to find fulfilling ways of spending their short amount of time on this earth. We believe that Escape the City can help them do this.

Dom Jackman | Rob Symington

Our Community

Escape the City is a platform designed for a specific community. The community is made up of talented, passionate, motivated young professionals who want to use the skills they have acquired in the corporate mainstream to do great things elsewhere.

Esc has been built specifically for the young professionals it is designed to help.

The platform is driven and directed by them.

The platform allows the community to:

• Collaborate to find unique opportunities at exciting organisations
• Share ideas, information and inspiration
• Connect and help each other

Who are these young professionals?

They are typically high achievers from Top 20 Universities, with 1st or 2.1 degrees, and more than 2 years corporate work experience.

There are currently 10,000 members (April 2010) and this figure is rising rapidly.

They are all looking for the same thing:

• Worthwhile work that they can be passionate about
• Work that inspires, excites and fulfils them
• Work that allows them to have a positive impact in the world...

We have 10 tests that we use to keep us on track...

1. THE TOM TEST

Would Tom like it? [Tom is our mythical ideal member.]

• Tom graduated from a Top 20 UK university, he is 4 years into his corporate career, he is unfulfilled in his current job, he wants to transition away from 'The City', he wants an occupation that excites, inspires and fulfils him, he wants to use his skills to have a positive impact.
• Escape the City is essentially built for him. Whenever we're making a decision we ask ourselves: Would it help Tom transition away from his corporate job?
• Another way of saying this is: Is our platform genuinely useful for young professionals looking to move from the corporate sector? Are we solving the problem?

2. DIFFERENT

Is what we're building different?

• Different means better, different means original, different means there is nothing quite like this that helps young professionals who want to transition away from the corporate mainstream.
• Everything returns to our strap-line - 'Do Something Different!'

3. POSITIVE IMPACT

Is Escape the City helping people have a positive impact in the world?

• Our generation is characterised by a strong desire to make a difference. By far and away the main thing that people say their corporate jobs lack is 'positive world impact'. We want our platform to provide the tools, connections, information and opportunities to allow talented and educated young professionals to find meaningful occupations which benefit other people.

4. FUN

Are we having fun?

• Are we enjoying the journey as well as the thought of the destination? If not, why not?
• One of the main reasons we started Esc was to really enjoy our work. We want to enjoy it so much that it stops feeling like work and begins to feel like play... [for the record: we're passing this test with flying colours!]

5. COMMITMENT

Are we committed? How do we stay committed?

• Remember that everything takes longer than we would like it to... stay committed, be ready for The Dip and power through. Focused, sustained effort wins...

6. THE TRIBE

Are we building something that is true to the original concept? Are we assembling a tribe?

• We want to stay true to the inspiration behind Esc but be brave enough to change the tactics when we need to...
• Relentlessly chase the concept and not the cash - the rewards will follow if we build a genuinely useful platform.

7. LEARN

Are we learning something new everyday? If not, why not?

• We want to work really hard at productive and enjoyable ways of working
• Remember that computers hypnotise! Remember that the best ideas come when you're out doing something else.

8. START

Are we shipping?

• Great bit of advice from Innocent: 'whatever project you're currently considering, just start...'
• With every little aspect of Esc: Start, Start Small, But Start! (test, pilot, get feedback, improve)

9. QUALITY

Are we building something we can be proud of?

• Don't include anything that we won't be proud of
• Protect the quality and integrity of the website

10. WORK-LIFE BALANCE

How do we avoid Esc taking over our lives?!

• Yes, a startup requires some long hours and a lot of stamina... but we want to ensure we have time for the other things that matter in ours lives too...
• We are also doing this to build our ideal working environment - are we doing that? If not, what do we need to change?

Questions we are frequently asked...

Why are you doing this?

We believe that the people who are having the greatest impact in the world, making lots of positive change happen, and doing great work are the people who are passionately engaged, motivated, and inspired by their jobs.

We also believe that lots and lots of young people find themselves in jobs that don’t allow them to fulfil their potential in this way. Many of these jobs are corporate, desk-based, city jobs. This is what we were doing before we left to start Escape the City. These are the people we want to help.

We ran a survey which told us that only 30% of young professionals find their current jobs interesting, 57% are looking to move within a year, and only 10% believe that their current job is their vocation. We realised that a scary proportion of young people find their corporate jobs unfulfilling.

We think that this is a real shame given the impact they could be having, given the right opportunities. We want to solve this problem.

Why do you think there is a need for it?

The idea came from the dozens of conversations we had with our friends and colleagues while we were planning our own escapes from 'The City'. We realised that we were far from being alone in how we felt about our jobs.

Through trying to work out what we wanted to do next we spent a lot of time researching alternative, non-mainstream career paths. There was nothing that jumped out at us as being particularly useful for people in our situation. So we set out to build that something.

We also realised that lots of people (our previous selves included) don’t really know what they would rather be doing, so they continue doing what they’re currently doing, even if it makes them unhappy.

Many young people today have ambitions and aspirations that aren't catered to by traditional job descriptions (especially corporate ones). They often want to achieve more than they're able to in their current environment and sooner.

We believe that the corporate workplace has a lot of catching up to do if it is to continue to attract and retain the best people. While we're not trying to fix it, we are happy to engage in the conversation for trying to improve it. In the meantime, however, we're going to help people find fulfilling work elsewhere.

We also believe that happiness comes from acting on your values and doing work that is important to you. But we acknowledge that it’s really hard to work out what you want to do with your life.

Which is why we’ve started Escape the City – to provide tangible options, advice from people who have 'been there and done it', and ideas, information, and inspiration to help people make the leap.

Why have you called it Escape the City?

Escape the City is a metaphor for leaving a job that you dislike and making the necessary changes to go and do something that you will like. Simple as that

You don’t have to have worked in Finance to qualify. Although we do know plenty of people in Finance who want to escape...

We are using the term 'The City' to refer to all traditional, corporate, conservative, professional job desk-based jobs from which young people might want to escape.

And, no we’re not literally trying to encourage you to leave 'Cities'!

In our minds someone has ‘escaped the city’ if they have left a job they hate and found one they love. That’s what we want to encourage, inspire and help people to do.

Jobs in the city (banking, accounting, consulting, law, etc) are often challenging, interesting and rewarding. There are people out there who bounce out of bed at 6 am ready for the day ahead.

We reckon good for them. They have already found something that they love.

For the rest of us, however, the search is on.

What does Escape the City stand for?

We believe that different people are suited to different occupations. Corporate jobs aren't awful, they're just not suited to everybody.

We believe that one person’s idea of a dream job is another person’s nightmare.

So, if we're not anti-corporate what are we anti?

• We are anti ‘people stuck in ruts’.
• We are anti ‘people doing jobs they don’t enjoy’.
• And we are anti ‘people feeling like they don’t have any options’.

This is what we care passionately about.

What does Escape the City not stand for?

We don’t stand for people just quitting their jobs and cruising off around the world.

We wouldn’t have thought many people have deep enough pockets to be able to afford that. We anticipate that most people will use Escape the City to help them make that transition from one job to another, more fulfilling job, a startup business, or an epic adventure.

Although we are also building resources to help young professionals research exciting adventures and startup businesses if they are so inclined.

We are not anti-job, anti-corporate or anti-work.

We love fulfilling jobs.

We love the feeling of working hard towards a goal that you care about. We just think that everyone deserves (at least every now and then) to get that ‘yesssssssssssssssssss!’ feeling from their work.

This is the feeling that we are getting from starting Escape the City. Take it from us. It’s awesome.

Corporate firms often contain interesting people doing really good work.

Corporate firms have the funds and the contacts and the influence to achieve great things.

Besides, we wouldn’t be in a position to set up Esc if it hadn’t been for our management consulting training (and we certainly wouldn’t be as good as we are at PowerPoint).

However, we have seen lots of unhappy people in corporate jobs. These are the people we want to help.

Is it easy to Escape the City?

Absolutely not. As we've discovered ourselves, it's actually really hard.

There are lots and lots of barriers to leaving a professional corporate job. The main one is obviously money.

There are lots of other challenges too: changing your lifestyle, dealing with other peoples' expectations, understanding how your skills apply elsewhere, and having the confidence to make the change.

All these barriers contribute to the situation that we're attempting to remedy with Escape the City: specifically that there are lots of young people who, because of these challenges, feel stuck in jobs that aren't right for them.

The platform and community that we’ve built is designed to help people overcome these hurdles.

Doesn’t everybody need money to survive?

Yes of course they do. We’re extremely aware of the fact that everyone needs money to survive.

Our Esc survey has shown us that financial matters are the principal concern amongst people who want to leave their jobs. This challenge is central to Esc. We want to help people solve this problem as it is all too often used as an excuse for inaction.

Esc is based firmly in the real world. We would imagine that none of you want to be poor and all of you want to be able to afford a good standard of living in the future.

The eternal challenge, and the question that people pose to themselves on their lunch-breaks, on the tube, on Sunday night in front of Top Gear, is this:

“How do I find an occupation that makes me really happy and fulfilled, one that really interests me, and makes me enough money at the same time?”

Guess what? This is your lucky day!

Esc is committed to finding an answer to the very same question.

What is your business model?

Esc isn’t conceived of as a traditional business -- we want to build a platform to help like-minded people find occupations they can be passionate about. We are a community, a concept and a philosophy first and a business second.

Making money isn’t the over-riding objective. Building something genuinely useful is.

Of course we would love for Esc to pay for itself and in due course we will introduce revenue streams which allow the project to become self-paying and sustainable. The main focus of this is connecting with organisations that are able to provide the kind of opportunities that the community are looking for and helping them find great people.

We would love even more for it to provide us with enough money to buy a double decker bus and drive it to China. Or for Dom to do one of the epic adventures he has in his head (be the first person to travel from London to the top of Everest under their own steam or something equally mad).

We aren’t building Esc to make money. But we do want to make enough money to allow us to build Esc.

The most important thing is building something useful – making money to allow this to happen is crucial to Esc’s success – but it is not the original goal.

Who is eligible to be an Escape the City member?

We anticipate that the majority of the people using this site will be in similar situations to the one that we found ourselves earlier in 2009. I.e. in corporate jobs that aren’t right for them and looking to ‘escape’ to find an occupation that inspires, excites and fulfils them.

However, we aren’t limited to corporate escapees. You’re very welcome even if you’ve never been anywhere near the city.

The site provides exciting non-mainstream options for anyone who wants to ‘do something different’.

You’re just as welcome if you’re a university graduate who is researching their first move or if you’re twenty years into your career and looking to branch out.

Do you have a membership guarantee?

We completely guarantee the anonymity of our members. We’ll only send you one (optional) email a week (on a Monday) full of exciting options and inspirational stories.

We’ll never sell your email addresses to spammers. We don’t even know how to do that. And if we did know of course we wouldn’t.

We’re building this platform for our members and hope that they’ll take an active role in steering its direction and providing us with feedback to continuously improve it.