Every senior SAP consultant at a Big 4 has run the number in their head. Base plus bonus is somewhere between $210K and $340K. Full-loaded, with benefits, closer to $400K. That is the wall. That is the number the leap has to clear before it feels responsible.
What almost nobody does is run the second number. What a single direct S/4HANA contract pays. What two contracts a year pay. What one contract plus a retainer pays. The moment you run the second number honestly, the wall is not a wall. It is a speed bump. But you have to build the runway before you jump.
The consultants I have coached out of the firms did not quit. They exited. There is a difference. Quitting is a decision. Exiting is a sequence. The sequence is roughly 90 days, and it is the same 90 days almost every time.
Days 1 to 30: Build the artifact
You do not tell anyone yet. You do not update your LinkedIn to "open to work." You do the opposite. You start publishing a specific point of view about a specific failure mode you have personally fixed in an S/4HANA, RISE, or BTP project. Once a week. Not a résumé. A point of view.
The purpose is not audience. The purpose is artifact. When the buyer Googles you six weeks from now, they need to find a person with a position, not an employee with a title. This is the single move that makes every later step work.
Days 30 to 60: Have the conversations you never had
You reach out to the six to twelve former clients, executives, and project leads who watched you deliver. Not to ask for work. To ask what they are struggling with right now. Every one of those conversations does one of three things: it opens a door, it gives you a proof point, or it introduces you to the person who has the door. All three are useful.
The single most common outcome of this month, in my coaching, is that one of those calls becomes the direct contract. Not because you pitched. Because you diagnosed.
You do not quit the firm. You outgrow the seat. The exit is a signed contract, not a resignation letter.