I quit my nearly 6-figure corporate job to work at Trader Joe's for $17 an hour. I'm still here 5 years later and happier than ever.

• Akeem Caballero has worked at Trader Joe's since 2018 and now leads the flower section of his store.
• After burning out as a digital-marketing manager, he decided to give the grocery store a try.
• He makes $22.75 an hour, has control over his schedule, and feels like he can be himself at work.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Akeem Caballero, a 34-year-old Trader Joe's employee who lives in Denver. Insider has verified his employment. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I spent six years putting my master's degree in corporate communications to good use as a digital-marketing manager for startups.

On the outside, it looked like I enjoyed my career. I was planning events for media companies and working with agencies that made commercials for huge brands. But on the inside, I was struggling in the corporate environment.

I reached my breaking point in 2018. I was overworked and burned out. I didn't feel accepted or encouraged to do my best work. One day, I had had enough, and I quit.

I hoped a few weeks of traveling around the world would help me reset and return to the corporate workforce because I needed a paycheck. When a friend mentioned I should apply to Trader Joe's because he saw they were hiring, I decided to give it a try instead.

I had shopped there only once before going in to apply for a job

I walked in, spoke with a manager, and immediately sat down for a 30-minute interview.

I had never worked at a grocery store or in any retail environment before, but the manager saw my corporate experience and felt I was qualified for a job as a crew member. I remember her mentioning that a big part of the job was working with people and that my skills matched up with that nicely.

I was offered a job on the spot, with higher pay than expected — $17 an hour. I accepted the offer and started training the next week.

Five years later, I've worked in two stores in two different cities, and I love my job.

We're not trained to have a friendly demeanor — it's genuine

A big misconception about working at Trader Joe's is that we're taught how to interact with customers. That's not true. Nowhere in our training are we told to be nice or "flirt" with customers. Most of the training I had was on the history of the company and the details of my job.

While Trader Joe's has a reputation for having friendly staff, we're not forced to be that way. There's nobody in the back telling employees to smile 20 times a day or try extra hard to be nice to customers. My energy is genuine, and if I'm having a bad day, and I'm not up for being extra friendly, that's OK.

We're all about making the customer's shopping experience positive

The managers I've had have been OK with me giving away flowers or a pack of peanut-butter cups to a customer who's having a bad day.

We're allowed to open a product in the store so a customer can try it before deciding whether to buy it. If a person comes in and wants a certain product that we don't have in the store, we're allowed to offer them an alternative to try for free.

Being able to enhance a customer's shopping experience makes my job fun. It also makes it easy to want to talk to customers because there are so many ways we can genuinely help them, not upsell them.

The job is super flexible and comes with perks

I decide how much I want to work. I've started doing communications and public-relations consulting on the side, so I can increase or decrease my hours at the store based on what else I have going on workwise.

You earn a raise every six months if you meet the standards for company values, teamwork, and customer experience. You meet with a manager, and they evaluate your performance to see whether you get a raise. I make $22.75 an hour after getting a few raises.

Other perks include a discounted rate for insurance and 20% off anything we buy at Trader Joe's. Plus, we get to taste every new product.

The biggest downside to the job is going to bed early enough to make it to work on time for the morning shifts. I wake up at 5 a.m. for work and then spend the afternoons and evenings doing my supplemental work in PR.

The job lets me be my authentic self

I'm a Black, gay Trinidadian. I never felt like I fit in when I worked in corporate communications. I didn't feel supported, and because of that I didn't feel like I was in a safe, productive work environment. At Trader Joe's, being who I am isn't something I ever have to think twice about.

For example, there are several employee helplines, including ones for finding medical appointments and getting a therapist. Knowing that I have resources at my fingertips tells me that it's a safe space.

I put so much pressure on myself to make money that I didn't feel like people would understand my career move, but when I saw Geoffrey Owens, an actor I looked up to as a child, was working at Trader Joe's, it made it easier for me to explain my decision.

I took a big pay cut for this job

In my last corporate job, I made almost six figures a year. At first, the pay cut felt like a silly decision, but it did give me the flexibility to do what I wanted outside work hours.

Even though I'm making less money, I'm happier now than ever, and that's worth it.

This was supposed to be a temporary opportunity, but here I am five years later. I don't think I'll quit this job anytime soon.

I know it's cliché to say that I'm obsessed with Trader Joe's, but it's a good company. In my corporate jobs, I didn't feel understood or motivated. Here, I lead the flower section of my store, and I literally wake up and smell the roses for a living.