An accounting manager struggled with work-life balance at PwC, Walmart, and Google. Leaving the Bay Area is what finally changed the tide. [Video]

As Mike Manalac entered his 30s, all he wanted was to have an exciting career and start a family — but he had no idea how difficult it would be to achieve both.

He’s a Chicago-based accounting manager at Google, a husband, and a father of a three-year-old. He’s worked with some of the biggest finance (PwC), Fortune 500s (Walmart Corporate), and tech companies. He knew reaching his career aspirations would require him to make sacrifices, but he quickly realized those sacrifices often directly conflicted with his goal to make family life a top priority.

“Work always had to take top priority, which meant dropping what I was doing in off-hours to answer a phone call or jump on my laptop,” Manalac told Business Insider. “I didn’t want to end up with a lackluster career and a bunch of regrets, but I also didn’t want to be one of those workaholics that lived to work …