Former Deloitte consultant and tech analyst Jessica Yen has moved away from corporate roles to run Surfers Jewelry, an e-commerce brand inspired by the surfing community. Her career shift was first reported by Business Insider.
Yen began her career at Deloitte’s San Francisco office in 2014 after graduating from UCLA. At the time, she imagined a consulting lifestyle filled with travel and opportunity. Instead, she found herself spending hours on road commutes and working on projects where she had little control. “It took two hours, round-trip, in traffic, and it drained me more than the job itself,” she told Business Insider. The lack of flexibility and the routine of project assignments pushed her to consider other career options.
By 2016, Yen had moved into data analytics, joining Salesforce as a marketing analyst. She used the Excel and analytical skills gained at Deloitte to transition into tech. Her next roles expanded her scope beyond marketing into business operations and strategy at Yelp, before she took a position with Cruise, the self-driving car company. At Cruise, she was able to work on people analytics, closer to her interest in decision-making and organisational behaviour.
The intensity of data analytics work, however, began to take its toll. She said the environment demanded constant accuracy, quick turnarounds, and the ability to communicate insights directly to executives. “At my peak stress, I had dreams about redoing Excel formulas, obsessing over whether I’d divided something twice or misplaced a decimal,” Yen said in her essay to Business Insider. The pressure left her exhausted and searching for alternatives.
In 2020, during the pandemic, Yen left Cruise and pursued new avenues. She enrolled in a coaching programme and began working with clients, while also testing out product businesses. Her first venture, Daily Work Journal, launched in December 2020 and gave her experience in e-commerce. She managed the business for three years before selling it in January 2024.
After taking time off, Yen began surfing as a personal hobby. What started as leisure gradually evolved into a business opportunity. “I never planned on building a business around it, but it became the perfect synergy; that’s how Surfers Jewelry began,” she said. The venture, focused on jewellery for the surfing community, is now her primary focus.
Yen occasionally continues coaching, but only with previous clients. Most of her time is spent creating, marketing, and building connections for her jewellery brand. She credits her years in corporate roles with providing the skills needed to succeed independently. “Whatever you specialize in becomes your edge as an entrepreneur,” she said. Her background in analytics, she added, gave her confidence in managing the financial and operational side of the business.
Yen said most of her peers remained in corporate jobs, while she shifted paths in her late 20s. She now sees entrepreneurship as her long-term identity. “It’s high risk, high reward, but the flexibility and creative freedom make it worth it,” she said.
