For over 15 years, Mandy Tang gathered accolades. She worked in publishing, earned a master’s degree in business administration and dove into corporate America at American Express. She developed her professional skills at high-growth startups and even had a successful side gig as a career coach. Through it all, her career’s trajectory was predicated on achievement.
Her career was her identity—but, secretly, she was emotionally fatigued and burnt out.
In 2021, Tang quit her corporate job, trading a steady nine-to-five for full-time career coaching. Now, she’s helping her more than 66,000 TikTok followers figure out if they should quit their own jobs.
The “Should I Quit” journal: A record of truth
Tang—who goes by “Career Coach Mandy” on TikTok—launched the “Should I Quit?” journal in May 2024. It’s a 28-page self-discovery workbook that confronts the emotional and logical tug-of-war that comes with prospective career shifts through 21 unique exercises.
“So many times, what happens is that [there is a] cycle [of] ‘It’s good,’ then ‘It’s bad.’ It’s a terrible day, then it’s an okay day…. It’s a ‘I need to get out of here,’ and then it’s a paralyzing fear,” Tang says. “And so what I was trying to have the journal do was to be an authentic record of your truth…. You can’t escape it…. You wrote this.”
The career coach launched her Tiktok in 2021. She leaned on her own experiences working in the corporate world and career coaching, as well as a three-year program in shamanic healing, to provide TikTokers with support and insight on how to navigate their careers. After two and a half years, Tang realized that those in a career crisis needed more.
“Work could destroy your life,” she says. “I don’t mean to be dramatic, but… people would come to me… [and] if they had drama at work, it… would drain the life out of them…. This was traumatizing people.”
Knowing when to quit your job
A 2024 study by LinkedIn and Microsoft found that 46% of people are considering quitting their jobs.
Janet Lyle (name changed for privacy) was one of these people. For more than a decade, she had loyally worked for the same company. Praise fueled her to repeatedly take on roles she was good at but didn’t necessarily love.
She stumbled upon Tang’s TikTok when compounding work responsibilities began to take a toll on her quality of life. “[Tang] was talking about the journal being more of a self-help kind of personal reflection as opposed to just [a] job search, [and] it drew me in,” Lyle says. “She has a very personal approach that is engaging. I wasn’t necessarily ready to quit…. I definitely have been thinking about this for a while.”
On TikTok, Tang is the cheerleader in your corner, holding you accountable when you sell yourself short. The journal builds upon this approach by focusing on the person, not the job. It’s an excavation of the true self, which is essential to building a fulfilling career, according to Tang.
“In order to figure out where you want to go,” she says, “you have to know who you are.”
Evaluate your career history and future in three steps
The “Should I Quit?” journal offers three distinct sections, which Tang modeled after her coaching sessions.
1. “The Assessment”
In this six-exercise section, journalers begin to name, understand and accept where they are. They then work through a career wheel and write down their career origin story, current job, job patterns and favorite job.
For Lyle, the “My Job Patterns” worksheet was very telling. “That probably is the one page that… really started my momentum because it just made me look really starkly [at my job history],” she says.
This exercise helps journalers release self-blame by outlining both what has happened and what is currently happening. Lyle noticed a pattern of conditioning that had been the catalyst for prior decision-making.
“I was conditioned to be good at things… and be helpful, [to] do the things I don’t really want to do—but I do them well,” she says.
The section ends with a 12-question true or false questionnaire. Based on tally points, it tells users if their job situation is okay or if they should get out as fast as they can. The results can be jolting. Nine or more “true” answers mean that an employee’s mental health is at stake.
2. “Your Power”
The second section is an emotional exploration that connects journalers with their creativity, intuition and heart. It seeks to bypass the logical mind and instead tap into creativity through vision boarding and drawing. These emotional exercises empower journalers in the process.
The “Your Vision Board” exercise asks journalers to envision their most intimate visions, while “Your Power Animal” visualizes a spiritual guide that can prompt action.
“It’s also just to give people some comfort,” Tang says. “Sometimes when you don’t know where to look, it’s just nice to be like… ‘I’m seeing an eagle, and it’s inspiring me to fly and soar and be free.’ It can also be… a subconscious way to connect with your true desires.”
3. “The Exit Plan”
“The Assessment” and “Your Power” look inward, but this more rational third section turns thoughts into actions. It consists of 10 worksheets, which include “Timing,” “My Financial Snapshot” and “Money Scenarios.”
“You should be informed,” Tang says. “You should know, ‘How much money do I have in the bank?’ ‘How much money do I burn every month?’ ‘What are my bills?’ and ‘What’s my situation?’ That can actually be a source of empowerment.”
She emphasizes a healthy career breakup in this section. “Timing,” for example, strategically maps out details that help employees-in-crisis create clean endings and beginnings. The goal is to leave no loose strings when the door closes.
Lyle quit her job in October 2024. The “Job Search Funnel” worksheet in her journal remains blank.
“I’m newly free from the job, and I am just now realizing [that] my energy is finite,” she says. “I needed to get away from it so I can figure this stuff out.”
A week after resigning, Lyle has found her new freedom energizing. “Look what it can do when somebody gives you a little boost and says, ‘You can do this,’” she says. “It’s amazingly powerful.”
Career Wounds: Healing emotional trauma in the workplace
Tang’s debut book, Career Wounds, will be released in 2025. It’s a companion to the journal that focuses on healing emotional trauma from the workplace.
“My goal is just to get people to remember who they are, to be more creative, to take a chance on themselves,” she says. “I don’t think you have to be special or amazing to recognize that maybe you’ve outgrown something and that it’s time to change…. This is for anyone.”
Photo by Kyle Fitts
