[HN Gopher] Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything p...
___________________________________________________________________
Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did
it go?
This post is inspired by[0]. During the "great resignation" trend
there were a lot of posts about people quitting due to burn out or
otherwise. I wonder what they did end up doing. I am not sure what
I'd do if I'd quit. Maybe travel for a bit doing nothing and then
start my own thing.
[0]https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26407560
Author : break_the_bank
Score : 245 points
Date : 2021-11-22 12:11 UTC (10 hours ago)
| snikeris wrote:
| A friend did this. His plan was to start a consulting business,
| but he had no clients lined up. He's been mostly unemployed for
| the last 12 years.
| walktheplank wrote:
| I quit my job at a FAANG back in the fall of 2020 without
| anything else lined up. I had been suffering from burnout and an
| existential crisis for over a year. I initially expected to take
| 3 months off before looking for a new job, but ended up taking
| over 12 months off. I received an offer for a new job after
| looking in a fairly niche space and being very picky after
| searching for 2-3 months.
|
| I didn't set any goals for myself. I just woke up and did what
| made me happy every day, which was exactly what I needed. After 6
| months off, I also put nearly all of my belongings in a storage
| unit and traveled around the US in my car.
|
| Had a blast. Would do again.
| Vaskivo wrote:
| About a year ago a quit my job. I was unhappy with some decisions
| the employer and just left. I had some savings and a side project
| I wanted to make.
|
| Spent the following seven months making an Android game. I wasn't
| expecting to make any money from it, but really wanted to build
| and launch MY GAME :)
|
| Following that, I spent two to three months interviewing... And
| I'm now employed at a foreign, fully remote early stage startup.
| So everything turned out just I wanted it to.
|
| I have no children nor any loans, so all my finances were very
| flexible and manageable.
| [deleted]
| Quixotica1 wrote:
| I love this question! I'm planning on quitting my job next month
| and taking some time off. It's unplanned because I thought I
| would find a new job right away but just realized about 2 weeks
| ago that I wanted to do personal projects and see if I could find
| a way to work on more interesting projects with more variety.
| Currently focusing on infrastructure (kubernetes, terraform, and
| AWS), Unity (making my first 3D game!), making an app with
| Flutter (used to use Ionic but wanted to see the flutter hype),
| and researching how to get into Dapp development.
|
| THERE IS SO MUCH COOL STUFF TO DO/LEARN!! Jobs aren't going to
| dry up and disappear! If you can take some time to yourself to
| learn and play and have fun, you should do it!
| mouzogu wrote:
| Mostly positive experiences here. Would be interesting to hear
| from some for whom it didn't go so well...
| [deleted]
| ayoubElk wrote:
| I quit my job in 2018 without any other opportunity lined up.
|
| I used all of my savings to go on an extended trip to Asia, the
| idea being that I'll travel around, work on my own projects, and
| do some freelancing to cover my expenses.
|
| Things didn't go as planned though, I got robbed in the hostel I
| was staying at and lost my macbook. Eventually I decided to cut
| my trip short and go back home where I started freelancing (which
| I'm still doing currently) and I would say it was one of the best
| decisions I ever made.
| serjester wrote:
| I think this is every traveller's worst nightmare. Looking back
| was there anything you could have done to prevent it?
| ayoubElk wrote:
| Agreed, the worst part was the fact that I had actually just
| purchased that macbook a few days before getting on the plane
| and I moved all my data to it without having it backed
| anywhere (Rookie mistake).
|
| I could have:
|
| - Picked a better hostel to stay at
|
| - Backed up my data properly to minimize damage if it
| eventually happens
|
| - Been more wary of other guests (99% of them were cool
| people but you still need to be aware of who's there with
| you)
|
| - I used filevault, but forgot to enable find my device
| mlac wrote:
| After skimming half the thread and only seeing one view (DO IT!
| It's GREAT!), I'm going to throw this out there:
|
| - You will have heavy selection bias here (people who did not
| succeed might be working at a crappier job and unable to comment
| at this moment)
|
| - You will also have confirmation bias among those who willingly
| quit ("of course it was the right move")
|
| - You are asking a very unique set of people with very valuable
| skills in high demand (you may fall into this category, but worth
| keeping in mind)
|
| - The last 10 years has been a historic bull market and hard to
| fail in if you fall into the last category. We don't know what
| the future brings (Not knowing what the future holds has been
| true every year of the last 10 years, especially January 2020.
| But I bring it up to say past results from others in this thread
| do not guarantee future performance for you).
|
| All in all, if you are financially stable or have a supportive
| safety net, it seems like a potentially good risk to take. It
| also looks like you should have a strong plan to do something
| (hobby, hike, or work in another capacity). If you don't, you may
| just stagnate and waste some of your prime years for growth and
| development.
|
| But absolutely - if you have support and a plan, you keep the
| downsides in mind (it will be painful at times, and not roses and
| butterflies the whole way through), then sure - give it a shot.
| If you are growing and developing skills in a field you don't
| care about, you should definitely change it up.
|
| Reframing it - nearly everyone who goes to grad school full time
| quits their job (or takes a leave). Quitting to do your own
| thing, as long as you show employers why you did it in a year or
| two, shouldn't be a detriment for getting rehired. That said,
| hiring managers may question if you'd quit again in a year
| (depending on your past employment tenure)...
| Sohcahtoa82 wrote:
| > All in all, if you are financially stable or have a
| supportive safety net, it seems like a potentially good risk to
| take.
|
| This is probably the biggest factor.
|
| How long could you go without a regular paycheck? Personally, I
| could probably make my savings last a year, but that's only
| because I have a wife that makes enough to pay most of the
| bills herself if it came down to that.
|
| But I imagine most people outside the HN bubble don't have
| that. The majority of Americans can't afford a sudden $1,000
| expense. They can't just quit their job out of the blue.
| ryandrake wrote:
| Both times I have quit my job with nothing else lined up have
| been stress-filled disasters with a dreadful financial
| countdown timer. I would never do it again. The second time,
| our savings left us about 1 month away from my wife and I
| living in our car.
|
| This thread has been unreal! I don't know who these people are
| who can just leave their jobs and go off to windsurf in Ibiza,
| but congratulations on how fortunate you are! I think the rest
| of us have bills to pay that can't be deferred, a need for
| health insurance, a family that likes food and shelter, and
| maybe a few months of an emergency fund. I would certainly not
| use an _emergency_ fund to go "find myself" in Bali.
| JohnClark1337 wrote:
| Kids straight out of college whose only responsibility is to
| themselves, rich people, or people with rich friends.
| taliesinb wrote:
| > It also looks like you should have a strong plan to do
| something (hobby, hike, or work in another capacity). If you
| don't, you may just stagnate and waste some of your prime years
| for growth and development.
|
| Having been on this journey too, I provide this reassurance for
| those on the edge of quitting: trust in your superego. Your
| superego is always there, always watching, always asking: "is
| this what you should be doing?". When you are working on
| someone else's project, doing something you don't want to, it
| is easy to ignore this inner voice, because in a way it is not
| your own. Procrastination, and stagnation, are natural when
| your job isn't your dream. But when you're on your own dime,
| things feel _very_ different.
|
| It is a mistake to extrapolate your tendency to procrastinate
| from the world of work to that of a free agent: with no
| immediate constraints it is much easier to recognize and slip
| out of those peculiar knots of irrational behavior that tend to
| trap smart people with unsatisfying jobs. But on the other
| hand, you will be forced to confront the terrifying choice of
| what to actually _want_! This is terrifying because, in a way,
| it is the most important choice you 'll ever make.
| sershe wrote:
| My 2c is that it can also be reverse. I have generally had a
| reputation of being very productive at work, even though I
| don't even really like or care about most of my projects that
| much, and my productivity doesn't increase very much when I
| do like a project. On my own projects where I can do whatever
| I want, I have a track record of being able to procrastinate
| for unlimited amounts of time.
| jrumbut wrote:
| Being in a situation where you only have yourself to blame,
| when you can't say "oh if only I didn't have these coworkers
| and that boss and my family and everything else holding me
| back (holding you up, really)," it's a different kind of
| fear. It's probably healthy, but surprisingly intense.
|
| You're totally exposed and get to see exactly what you're
| capable of accomplishing. It's like that machine in The
| Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that shows you exactly how
| insignificant you are in the universe.
| taliesinb wrote:
| Very well put!
| patrickdavey wrote:
| The total perspective vortex (the machine in hhg)
| walktheplank wrote:
| >Quitting to do your own thing, as long as you show employers
| why you did it in a year or two, shouldn't be a detriment for
| getting rehired. That said, hiring managers may question if
| you'd quit again in a year (depending on your past employment
| tenure)...
|
| It shouldn't be a detriment for getting rehired, period. If you
| are qualified for a role and pass an interview bar, there is no
| reason a potential employer should care about a break you took
| from working. I treated being asked about this as a yellow
| flag, as it may indicate the employer thinks you should be
| living to work.
| stjohnswarts wrote:
| My breaks have mattered "occasionally" with a few companies
| but by and large what you say is correct and it barely made
| people scratch their chin more than a few seconds, and I've
| had breaks (intentionally) of anywhere between 2-4 months
| every couple of years.
| ebiester wrote:
| Hiring manager here.
|
| Knowledge has a half life. If you have taken 6 months off,
| and have an interesting story, this is not a big deal. (For
| example, I took 8 months off to live in Istanbul. I had two
| interviews and two offers when coming back, one of which was
| completely outside my network.)
|
| However, I had also just taken a month to do a functional
| course, and had worked half-heartedly on a startup that went
| nowhere. I had a story.
|
| The longer you take off, the more of a story you will need,
| even if that's "in the last 3 months, I built a small toy to
| get myself reacquainted with React and Python" even if this
| is a Rails omakase shop.
|
| Or, that story may be something completely different. All I
| care about is "can you hit the ground running?"
| Damogran6 wrote:
| OP is also asking people their experiences, but those
| experiences are informed by their local set of pros and cons.
|
| What I've encountered: 1. I've never had bigger improvements in
| my financial outcomes than when I said 'f-it' and pulled the
| ripcord 2. Doing so dropped my into a stresspit that was
| grinding me into a red paste, resulting eventually in being
| Riffed 3. Which let me find a job that, while not great, has
| good work/life balance and is good for me, at this time, in my
| walk down my path.
|
| Go into it informed and mindfully and you'll probably be fine,
| assuming you're in a market that needs you (A french chef in
| Washington, KS...population 1100, is probably not going to have
| a sustainable skillset in Washington, KS)
|
| Dad told me 'Never quit on a Friday', but he was also a fan of
| trusting your skills to support you.
| brianrice wrote:
| what's the reasoning to never quit on a Friday?
| qw wrote:
| It gives you time to slow down and reflect if this is
| something you really want, or just a reaction to a long and
| difficult week.
|
| It's similar to the "count to ten" principle, before
| yelling at someone.
| throwaway743 wrote:
| Good points mentioned by others at this level of the
| thread.
|
| I'd also assume that it may be that having the weekend
| could put one in the mindset of relaxation and cause
| procrastination at the start of what could be an intense
| process that requires drive (depending on individual's
| circumstances).
|
| Or maybe it's kinda the opposite where if one were to quit
| on say a Monday instead, there's a good chance that the
| work week mindset holds, kicks the individual into being
| productive (maybe more productive than usual out of
| necessity), and then that weekend would be very much needed
| to wind down/refresh and reflect on the progress that was
| made.
|
| Again, just my assumptions, but seem like likely scenarios
| that could play out
|
| Edit: spelling
| Damogran6 wrote:
| Changing a job should be the result of measured, long
| term, reflection. Any one given Friday at the end of a
| bad week is not the best time to make a snap judgement.
|
| If you still want to quit on Monday? Go right ahead...but
| a lot of times the stuff that seemed insurmountable on
| Friday, don't look quite so bad with a bit of reflection.
| Unless they still suck.
| de_keyboard wrote:
| Because you've been working all week so you're at peak
| tiredness
| stjohnswarts wrote:
| Personally on big decisions I set a date 2-4 weeks out to
| make a decision and let it gestate in my brain. I think I've
| only "pulled the ripcord" once in my life on a particularly
| malodorous company that I worked at after I was talked down
| to over my decision to refuse. to sign off on something. I
| felt it was a safety concern until I had taken the time to
| fix it and check it well. It caused some friction with a big
| client over a delay (a few weeks), but I didn't care because
| above all I'm going to do what is right and what I feel pride
| in. Never let anyone gaslight you ever; if they don't respect
| you then speak up and let them know that shit is not allowed.
| Sure you may get fired but I guarantee you will regret not
| doing it for forever. Probably I got thrown off a few
| athletic teams in high school :)
| dpweb wrote:
| It's impossible to answer the question for someone else, you
| have to address things like, what are my real values and
| priorities in life, not just work.
|
| But some lessons learned. Manage your money carefully so you're
| not always in a inflexible spot, and manage your stress levels
| carefully. Pay attention to what is affecting you and why, and
| be good/take care of yourself emotionally so you're not always
| in stress/reactive mode.
| mikkelam wrote:
| I had severe burnout after doing 2 years remotely. I spent 4
| months doing very little. A friend then convinced me to join his
| startup and I had a lot of fun (this time IRL). I'm still there
| 1.5 years later and we're doing well.
|
| Random luck I reckon. I needed a break though.
| eel wrote:
| I quit a previous job in 2016. The role had transitioned from
| software development to system administration. I realized it was
| no different for my career's future to just stay home instead of
| upgrading build servers. I gave a two and a half week notice and
| quit.
|
| I was fortunate to have little debt, plenty of savings, and a
| supportive spouse. I ended up playing a lot of Counter-Strike
| Global Offensive and other computer games. I attended more
| meetups. I applied and interviewed for jobs that sounded
| interesting. I turned down two offers and accepted a third. In
| total, I took 9 months off work.
|
| There's a piece of me that wished I had been more productive
| during that time off. But it was relaxing, and I attribute that
| time off as my best career move yet. The job I finally took paid
| 2x more to start and I still feel like I am thriving at my "new"
| job 5 years in.
| wheybags wrote:
| Did this twice (never left a real job any other way lol) and it
| turned out fine. Both times I ended up getting a job offer before
| my notice period ended.
| aaccount wrote:
| I did it once. Did absolutely nothing of value for 8 months and
| went back to work. I had savings so I was ok financially. Mostly
| played games and watched movies. Traveled a bit. Didn't realize I
| needed it until I was doing it.
|
| I think I will do it every 5 years of work.
| jtolj wrote:
| I left my job (Senior Developer at an Agency) a little over a
| year ago. I did have a plan in that I've always wanted to build a
| SAAS product, but I knew going in that it was very unlikely to be
| successful enough to make a living at.
|
| It's been overwhelmingly positive experience for me. Caveat is
| that I have no children, no debt outside of student loans, and
| had several years of living expenses saved if I needed it.
|
| The peaks:
|
| - I built a SAAS product I'm proud of that a few companies are
| using and paying for. This has been on my bucket list for a
| decade or more.
|
| - I have total control over how I spend my day, which has mostly
| (see valleys) been a tremendous boon for my mental health.
|
| - I've had a healthy amount of time to spend with my partner and
| loved ones (although Covid obviously complicated this pre-
| vaccine).
|
| - I've had more time to focus on my hobbies, and have made more
| progress on music in the last year than ever before.
|
| - I've managed to contract with some great companies and
| individuals to cobble together a meager living while still having
| a lot of control over my time.
|
| The valleys:
|
| - Some days can feel directionless. Sometimes I can turn this
| into a positive and take a meandering walk and think about
| things, sometimes it makes me feel unproductive and down on
| myself.
|
| - Even though I've barely tapped into my savings, I'm frequently
| concerned about money / unplanned expenses.
| [deleted]
| __alexs wrote:
| Have done this several times and it's generally been very easy to
| find a better job than the one I was in.
|
| The only thing I will say is that you are in a much worse
| negotiating position which can be a problem if you're heading
| towards the top of the payscale in your area when you quit.
| josh2600 wrote:
| Note: I am not an engineer. I'm mostly skilled in telling
| stories.
|
| I got fired from every job I ever had before I started working
| for myself. Each time I left I ended up in a better job until the
| last time when I got laid off from a telecom PM role. I went to
| look for another job and never found one. At the time I was
| living paycheck to paycheck (barely) so this was quite scary. I
| did have a small severance but that was it.
|
| I decided to make a startup and begged my friends for enough
| money to get going (secretparty.io). It started to grow. At the
| same time, one of my dear friends told me to put all of my
| severance into ethereum. It helped that he said he'd give me the
| money back if I lost it, he just wanted me to see what was going
| to happen.
|
| My severance 10x'd in a month. I stopped working on the startup
| and begged my friends for money to start a crypto hedge fund.
| That was crypto lotus and ended up being one of the first serious
| crypto funds.
|
| While being at crypto lotus, I grew frustrated that no one was
| making a consumer-friendly crypto project. That's when I started
| working on mobilecoin.
|
| Now mobilecoin is worth over a billion dollars in equity and
| several billion in coins.
|
| All I can say is that I never would've gotten any of this without
| an insane amount of luck. It all could've very easily have gone
| another way and I might be homeless right now. Life is a series
| of dice rolls. You're lucky if you can avoid getting snake eyes
| every now and again.
|
| If I had it to do all over again, I would've started working for
| myself much sooner despite all of the risk.
| gaws wrote:
| > I got fired from every job I ever had before I started
| working for myself.
|
| Why?
| canaus wrote:
| This entire comment reads odd. The begging. The purchasing ETH
| with severance. The multiple advertisements.
|
| I'm glad it worked out for you, but this is a 1% of 1% tier of
| luck (especially situationally).
| [deleted]
| edmcnulty101 wrote:
| What do you define as living 'paycheck to paycheck'?
|
| What kind of friends do you have that have loanable startup
| money?
|
| I think you and I come from totally different classes in life.
| DrammBA wrote:
| I was thinking the same thing. Begging my friends for money
| would land me a couple hundred dollars, maybe a thousand if I
| cry enough, and I definitely don't have any friends that
| would let me gamble money on crypto and pay me back if I lose
| it. It's interesting seeing the stark difference in safety
| nets.
| kwere wrote:
| wait, you can get money from friends?
| kwere wrote:
| for DD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuagoldbard/
| Chris2048 wrote:
| > he said he'd give me the money back if I lost it, he just
| wanted me to see what was going to happen
|
| Uh, so why didn't he just buy the ETH?
| VRay wrote:
| My guess is his friend had a 6-7 figure net worth and loaned
| him a 3 figure sum, otherwise this doesn't make any sense to
| me
| JansjoFromIkea wrote:
| Probably depends a lot on whether you're renting or not? (or
| whether your finances are solid enough that you can buy a place
| whenever)
|
| For me quitting would immediately mean I'd be losing four figures
| a month to rent before accounting for anything else so there
| wouldn't be much of a feeling of a grace period; the option of
| traveling or whatever else would also come with the knowledge
| that I'd likely have to set myself up somewhere else eventually.
| Then beyond that I'd have to be on a salary long enough to get a
| mortgage.
|
| So like... there's a lot of stuff that needs to be accounted for
| where if I owned a place it'd just be "do I pack up my stuff and
| let this place for a couple of years if I want to travel or will
| I return regularly and keep it as a hub.
| tayo42 wrote:
| The rent thing bothers me too. I wish I could just pack up and
| go. Throwing money away on an expensive apt I won't be using
| kind of bothers me. I guess I could do storage for my stuff
| when my lease ends but the schedule is tough to work around and
| there is nothing to go back to. Where do I live then lol
| rip_netrunner wrote:
| Just put out an ad to have someone take over your lease.
| Sweeten the deal if you have to (offer to pay their first
| month). I've had a couple people do this without problem.
| asdasiodjaoij wrote:
| fucking great
|
| removed myself from an incredibly toxic environment. the relief
| was incredible.
|
| I then landed my first job in my new field and loved it.
|
| 10/10 would recommend to anyone (providing you have at least a
| few months runway of personal funds)
| omeysalvi wrote:
| I went from making $3500 a month to making $500 a month. Barely
| scraping by. Also, I didn't exactly quit but was let go. I just
| didn't want to go back to a job. Making my own games and
| freelancing right now. I wouldn't recommend quitting your job
| unless you have a plan or are secure enough in your self worth
| that the amount of money you make doesn't change your own opinion
| about yourself.
| elif wrote:
| I had a backpacking trip planned, so maybe I don't count.. But
| I've been home longer than backpacking by now, and still don't
| regret quitting.
|
| Work is a conditioning program for your brain. Own your thoughts
| for a while. Experience your own stress and solve your own
| problems.
| blindmute wrote:
| Did it a couple months ago and haven't started looking for a new
| job yet. Based on my email inbox, when I haven't even updated my
| LinkedIn status, I don't foresee any issues.
|
| I still don't feel like I'm 100% back to normal, but I'm
| definitely improving. I didn't even want to touch tech before,
| but lately I've been tinkering around with some light things. I
| feel no desire to go back to work, but I also feel little to no
| dread anymore, which is good. Probably give it a bit longer and
| then get back to the grind. If you can afford it, I would
| recommend it. It took over a month before I stopped feeling
| stressed about work memories.
| 2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote:
| I quit a job in defense around October of 2019 then COVID hit so
| I took a job at another defense company. I quit that job around
| June of this year and I'm still looking. I enjoy the time off but
| I'd really like to get back to work, every company that I apply
| to seems to take their sweet time recruiting.
| mwidell wrote:
| I quit my last real full time job in 2015 (CTO at my own tech
| startup with around 130 employees at the time), with no plans
| whatsoever. I felt burned out and wanted some rest and a new
| career path.
|
| The first project I tried was writing a book. A few months in I
| realized I didn't enjoy writing as much as I thought I would, but
| I found myself taking longer and longer breaks to go out
| photographing with my camera.
|
| Photography was something I had never done earlier in life, and
| it came pretty unexpectedly for me that I would enjoy it so much.
| Photography quickly became an obsession, while my book project
| never sold well at all. I took a couple of part time jobs to
| sustain myself while starting a youtube channel about photography
| in 2017.
|
| Now 4 years later I have quit all part time engagements and can
| actually kind of make a living from my youtube channel, which is
| pretty amazing. I am so very happy and thankful for where I am
| today, as I truly love my new career. I would have never found it
| if I didn't give myself a year to explore different
| possibilities.
| rswskg wrote:
| Er, hi tom from myspace!
| badtension wrote:
| I quit in December 2019 (best time for that kind of thing). I had
| some money put aside and decided to put my time and effort into
| getting a deeper understanding of ML to find a more meaningful
| job (my old one was draining me so much).
|
| After a few months it looked like the job perspectives weren't as
| good during the pandemic so I decided to finish my side project -
| get some more experience, maybe even earn some side income if all
| goes well.
|
| After a bit over 1 year working on it on and off I can say it is
| really hard to stay focused and disciplined when being alone. I
| feel ashamed (I probably shouldn't) but it seems like I can only
| be a slave. When working along other people or under a boss I
| have no problem in getting things done.
|
| I am determined to at least get to the minimum sensible demo to
| show potential users. It will probably take another few months to
| make it and if everything looks good, a few more to get to a
| point where it can be a a solid value proposition.
|
| It really isn't great, I am not diagnosed with any mental
| illnesses but one day I feel it all is going to be great and help
| many people, the next day I can see in my mind how its value is
| seen as minuscule or Windows or Android API changes and kills it
| off in a year.
|
| Keeping the good mental state and working reliably is very hard.
| zivkovicp wrote:
| Don't feel bad, or ashamed, this is perfectly normal.
|
| I find renting a desk in a co-working space has helped me stay
| a little more motivated and positive over the last several
| months (home office gets too monotone).
|
| Just do your best and make a genuine effort, if you do and you
| still want to go back to a classic job, then do it. As long as
| you know you gave it a genuine effort, you have nothing to feel
| bad about.
| badtension wrote:
| Thank you for the kind words. I more and more think that
| renting a desk was something I should have done long ago. I
| didn't realize working from home would be this bad (without
| people around or external pressure).
| mritchie712 wrote:
| One thing that helps with not having a boss is getting
| customers paying for your product as quickly as possible. They
| become a type of "boss", but one you can easily "fire" if
| needed. This means scoping down your grand vision to what's
| essential for someone to pay. It's hard, but it's worth it.
| badtension wrote:
| I've never had a customer so I'll take your word for it, it
| makes sense.
|
| I am trying to get the scope down to the very core value.
| Then build on that if there is any traction with the basic
| service.
| andi999 wrote:
| Not speaking from experience, but I believe you should start
| every day with sales. Demo doesn't need to be ready, get
| potential customers, feedback etc. Even the big ones start
| sales before the product is ready.
|
| Also if you see there is interest it will help you to finish.
| You cannot skip the sales part, so instead of after finishing
| put it in front (it is also the hardest part for developers).
| badtension wrote:
| I have talked to a few people (yes, friends) that said it
| would solve some of their problems but nothing like selling
| up front or contacting random people.
|
| I am a programmer and have a hard time "inverting" the
| process. This feels like a fraud or maybe is just a part of
| the imposter syndrome. I want to start with something that is
| at least a bit "interactive" to see how people behave using
| it. I think this may show a truer response, especially that
| this is directed to normal people (mostly nontechnical).
|
| I read a lot about getting sales first but I really struggle
| with that concept especially when there's nothing to show
| other than screenshots and diagrams.
| andi999 wrote:
| If you have time and think it might be good maybe read
| 'lean startup' , and maybe 'crossing the chasm'.
|
| I believe sales doesn't get easier even if you have a fully
| fledged out product.
| zz865 wrote:
| I had the same experience. The other part is without a team you
| have to do every single low level task, which takes a lot of
| time you didn't really think about before.
| idrios wrote:
| My former senior developer was an incredibly competent nodejs dev
| and a great mentor. He left our company because management
| wouldn't really respect his opinions because he'd only been with
| us for 3 years when others had been for 20. The company he moved
| to was a fintech startup that worked him insanely hard but again
| didn't give him much respect or agency over what he was building.
| Then the pandemic hit and they reduced his pay, so he left that
| job without anything lined up.
|
| He ended up in a 6 month job search, and when he finally got a
| job it was in a role no more senior than either of the 2 he had
| just left. Those 6 months were pretty grueling for him, and I'm
| sure a lot of the reason it took so long was because it was hard
| to find a job in the pandemic, but when you're trying to find a
| job and failing to, it wears on your self esteem and your soul,
| in ways that compound the difficulty of finding the job. And
| realistically, 6 months isn't even that long when it could've
| become 1 or 2 years.
|
| That said, I became insanely burnt out at my job after he left
| and kept telling him that I was going to quit with nothing lined
| up. He just kept telling me it would be the stupidest mistake for
| me to do that and for my situation (still early in my career,
| have some savings but not a ton, some minor family-related issues
| going on) he was definitely right. I did work through the burn-
| out, though I may have permanently lost some enthusiasm for
| software development because of it. Or possibly I'm just still
| burnt out.
| nathias wrote:
| I'm on day one, it's going great.
| harel wrote:
| It was great! So good in-fact, that I made a point to stop
| actively looking for work. I'm a contract software
| architect|developer|consultant|etc. When one contract ends I do
| not start looking, as long as I can afford it. Work comes
| knocking and I take it on if it's too good to refuse.
|
| HOWEVER|BUT|NONETHELESS
|
| This is just me... You will hear a lot of positives about taking
| the plunge|risk|adventure. I learned the hard way to stop
| recommending stuff that works for me to other people without
| heavy disclaimers and caveats. What works for one, does not
| necessarily works for the other. There are simply too many
| variables not including the biggest one - yourself.
|
| So, if I was you, and had savings and no dependents, I'd go roam
| the world "like Cain in Kong-Fu" AND do my own thing while I'm at
| it. But I'm not you. Nobody is so take everything being said to
| you here with large grains of crystal salt.
| memetomancer wrote:
| I quit my job due to stress-related flame out a few years ago,
| abruptly and with no plan at all (mentioned here[0]). I am a
| single father with no support network. It was a ridiculously
| stupid move in retrospect, but at the time I really couldn't face
| another day due to stress coming from all directions in my life.
| I froze up.
|
| Thankfully, the company I work(ed) for was unreasonably cool
| about it - they gave me a good 5-6 weeks off, kept in touch while
| making it clear I would be welcomed back, and finally, re-
| instated me and offered a significant promotion and raise if I
| could move to another office in another state.
|
| That's what did the trick - I was unable to see clearly that it
| wasn't the job, it was the living conditions that were really the
| problem (shared a house with my brother as he descended into
| alcoholism). Accepting the new position and moving across country
| was reinvigorating, even though we got to the new city mere days
| before the lockdowns hit.
|
| Anyway, turns out I got a massively lucky break here and doubt
| I'll ever pull such a stunt in the future. Despite the lockdowns
| _everything_ has improved and my child and I are flourishing.
|
| Point is - if you are about to make such a stress induced,
| abrupt, massive decision with no backup plan... it's worth being
| clear about it to your employer, taking a leave and gaining some
| perspective. It really is the case that you may regret it!
|
| This little episode messed up my credit, threatened the well
| being of my kid, put even _more_ stress on me to figure things
| out. Despite the good outcome I'd strongly recommend nobody ever
| do anything like this. I could very easily ended up in a hovel or
| out on the street or some sort of horrible crap like that.
|
| [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20951444
| gaws wrote:
| > Thankfully, the company I work(ed) for was unreasonably cool
| about it - they gave me a good 5-6 weeks off, kept in touch
| while making it clear I would be welcomed back, and finally,
| re-instated me and offered a significant promotion and raise if
| I could move to another office in another state.
|
| Wow. You really got lucky with this company. Too many will
| easily cast you aside.
| kfarr wrote:
| Congrats to you, your child, and your employer who was
| remarkably amazing throughout the whole thing! You're a good
| dad
| VRay wrote:
| Comeon, man, you're reading HackerNews
|
| Everyone here is ridiculously hireable right now
|
| If things suck, just save up 6 months' worth of expenses and
| quit to start a SaaS business. If it blows up in your face,
| start looking for a new job when you're down to about a month
| of runway.
|
| No sweat!
| mlac wrote:
| The troubling part of this is that I genuinely cannot tell
| whether this is meant to be sarcastic or not...
| VRay wrote:
| I have nothing but sympathy for a dishwasher or a random
| office worker who gets mistreated by the system
|
| Software engineers, technicians, build engineers,
| sysadmins, etc are a different story. You have the power to
| change your circumstances, and it sucks that the world
| works this way, but you're going to have to use that power.
| popotamonga wrote:
| I quit just last week. Saved up 10 years worth of salaries.
| Currently on the doing nothing stage. Doing more sports,
| running/cycling everyday, taking my time to cook, more time for
| kids, so far so good, i have no plans for the future, whatever
| happens happens. Previously i was working 15 hours a day, i did
| like my job but was impacting my health severely.
| f0e4c2f7 wrote:
| May I suggest that if there is a book you've always wanted to
| read now might be a time you could really enjoy it!
| turnsout wrote:
| I think that's called retirement?
| orangepanda wrote:
| Surely there's a balance between working 15 hours a day to save
| 10 years of salary versus doing nothing?
| echelon wrote:
| Perhaps it was for a startup that had a substantial exit? You
| could save up 10 years of salary in just a few. But the
| demands for those few years could be really steep.
| Quindecillion wrote:
| What job do you like doing 15 hours a day? Genuinely curious...
| jagger27 wrote:
| Maybe some sort of artist? I'm sure there's someone out there
| who likes to live like that.
| [deleted]
| yetihehe wrote:
| > I quit just last week. Saved up 10 years worth of salaries.
|
| "Having 10 years worth of salaries" is almost on the opposite
| side of spectrum than "without anything planned".
| MichaelBurge wrote:
| Money isn't the same thing as a plan. If anything, it's the
| exact opposite: You have the freedom to do many things, so
| there's more uncertainty than someone with less money.
| snarf21 wrote:
| That much money means you don't need a plan.
| andi999 wrote:
| Money is worse than a plan, because until you run out of
| money you do not need a plan.
| yetihehe wrote:
| Such differences can be called "academic", useful if you
| don't have a plan, not really useful for people without
| money. If you have money, you don't really need a plan, so
| whole discussion is then moot.
| robocat wrote:
| That comes across to me as being thoughtlessly
| dismissive.
|
| Money helps, but there are a huge number of other factors
| that are just as important. That is demonstrated by the
| number of answers here by people that quit without having
| money, and the variety of stories and outcomes.
|
| I quit my job a few years back, and I believe I have the
| financial runway to do so, but I am still unsure if it
| was a good idea.
|
| Not working is weird because most of my peer group works.
| I have found there are social costs to not working. I
| find that not working has other significant issues, even
| though I have had plenty of chance to learn mitigations
| (I have had multiple job sabbaticals in my life e.g.
| travelling when I had little money).
|
| I would be happy to work again, if it were a job that
| invigorated me rather than slowly killing me. Our time is
| our most valuable asset, and every second our remaining
| balance diminishes.
|
| There is a certain amount of mystical or wishful thinking
| while working, about quitting work and relaxing or
| refocusing for a while. I have found reality turns out to
| be more mundane.
|
| It is still my ongoing choice not to work, but the
| consequences of that decision are not quite so clear cut.
| puszczyk wrote:
| Tell it to yahoo.
|
| Money is obviously a great help, and saving money aside
| is a great hedge against future risks (so you can call it
| a plan).
|
| I think that the OP had no "career" plan in mind. You can
| burn through all the money in the world if you are not
| careful.
|
| But again, having money helps immensely whether you have
| a plan or not. If possible do put some aside for future
| emergencies or crises.
| selestify wrote:
| Also, only 10 years of salary means you'll eventually have
| to start working again... so no plan means that you don't
| know what you'll do after 10 years
| DavidPeiffer wrote:
| The runway length is dependent on their expenses. If they
| earned 100k and spent 50k, it would last 20 years
| assuming no investment returns. If they spend around 4%
| of their 10 years salary annually, they're very likely to
| be fine for 30+ years as long as it's invested
| reasonably.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_study
| beardyw wrote:
| If the money is sensibly invested an adjustment in
| lifestyle might allow you to live on it a considerable
| time, or even indefinitely.
| popotamonga wrote:
| Left out my wife is still working and its enough for 70%
| of living expenses.
| VRay wrote:
| Now you follow The Way of the House Husband
| Archelaos wrote:
| No necessarily. It depends on a person's yearly expenses.
| If, for example, she was able to save 10 years salery in
| 20 years, it would mean that she consumes only 5 % of the
| total savings per year. This sounds quite sustainable,
| because you need only to achieve a 5 % return on
| investment (after inflation) on the savings to live just
| from these returns not touching the savings at all.
| ridaj wrote:
| Practical question: if you're in the US, how do you deal with
| health insurance?
| paulgb wrote:
| I'm not OP but when I quit my job earlier this year I went
| with a plan from the healthcare marketplace. It's not cheap,
| but that's the reality of US health care.
|
| COBRA is also an option for a limited amount of time after
| leaving.
| yardie wrote:
| Move abroad and get an international health insurance plan.
| Price of 1 months premium covers the annual premium for an
| international gold plated plan.
|
| If I didn't have a child in school I'd be on a plane to the
| Caribbean so fast.
| rokhayakebe wrote:
| Do they have good schools in the Caribbean?
| CrazyPyroLinux wrote:
| I'm looking into crowdhealth or a health share. I'm
| young(ish) and healthy; ymmv.
| walktheplank wrote:
| In my situation, I used COBRA.
| Ken_Adler wrote:
| ACA (ObamaCare) is available. Your monthly cost for top tier
| coverage can be as low as ~$5 a month for a family of 4.
|
| The qualifying income cap is based on you _anticipated_
| "Modified Adjusted Gross Income". They don't count assets.
| This means that if you _may_ have losses that bring your
| income for the year down to the income limits, then you can
| honestly say that and get subsidies. If you currently don 't
| have any income, but you can imagine yourself earning the
| minimum income in the calendar year, then you can claim that.
| (If you are lower than the minimum for ACA, you will get
| MediCal for free)
|
| For example, in California, for a family of 4, if you can
| honestly estimate that after potential losses and potential
| earnings, your modified adjusted gross income would be
| between $39,750 - $53,000, you can get top tier coverage for
| ~ $5 a month, no co-pay, very low prescription costs.
|
| If your situation changes (you start working again) you just
| notify the state and either pay a higher rate or cancel and
| use your new company's plan.
|
| Search for "2022 ACA Income limits [your state]"
|
| Here is the 2022 chart for California:
| https://www.coveredca.com/pdfs/FPL-chart.pdf
| ridaj wrote:
| Thanks for the very informative answer!
| popotamonga wrote:
| Not on US, top top insurance here costs 100EUR month
| throwaway2037 wrote:
| Where is that?
| mxuribe wrote:
| The cost of healthcare in the U.S. is the only reason that I
| don't take (often higher per hour paying) contract roles.
| Also, i'm a great wingman for sales but not great as sales
| lead or generating sales, else I'd have gone into business
| for myself. (And, no, skipping health insurance is not an
| option at all for me.)
| mgkimsal wrote:
| I understood that mentality, somewhat, in the past, but
| what is preventing you from purchasing a plan under ACA?
| corysama wrote:
| That's what I did when I took a couple years off. If you
| think of health insurance as disaster coverage, the
| "cheap" ACA coverage has a better worse case than the
| premo platinum offerings.
|
| Under https://www.coveredca.com/health/coverage-
| levels/bronze/hdhp... coverage for an individual 40 year
| old making $150K/year will cost you $6k/year with an out-
| of-pocket max of $7K/year. Not great on either end. But,
| not disaster either.
|
| But, if your income is $30K/year, the cost drops to $0.0
| to $1200 per year.
| southphillyman wrote:
| I resigned in July. So far things have been going well as I've
| concentrated on a combination of relaxation, studying, traveling,
| and exercise/yoga. Last week was my first week actively looking
| for new employment, so far that has been going well too as I have
| recruiter introduction calls booked for the next 3 weeks. Right
| now I'm not sure how to frame my period of unemployment so I've
| just been speaking as if I'm still employed.
| activitypea wrote:
| I had been planning to quit my job for a while. Got an exciting
| offer from a startup, handed in my resignation, then had the
| offer rescinded. Since I had zero savings, I had to find a new
| job in a month, 2 max. I wish I had the opportunity to do more
| stuff in that time, but the burden and anxiety was too crippling
| :\
| throwaway6734 wrote:
| I did this almost a decade ago when I was younger and it went ok.
| I worked a service job at first and then went through an
| alternative teaching certification program. Back in software work
| now.
| trthatcher wrote:
| I quit my job in May 2019... before the pandemic started.
|
| I was working as a senior data analyst at an insurance company in
| Canada. The work was boring, thankless and pretty exhausting but
| I was paid well (for a data analyst, anyway). There were no
| opportunities on the data science team since I didn't have an MSc
| so I didn't have a clear next step. At the same time, I had
| started the OMSCS program that January and that was eating up my
| off time.
|
| I was too busy just trying to stay on top of school and work that
| I just couldn't see myself having the time to prep for tech
| interviews or do some side projects to jump-start the tech side
| of my resume. I decided I just wanted a breather.
|
| I resigned and cited wanting to get ahead on my degree. I figured
| this would be a reasonable narrative if the gap in my employment
| were to ever come up during an interview.
|
| I spent 10 months focusing on school, enjoying my time and
| improving my development skills.
|
| When I started looking, I applied to about 25 data scientist and
| a handful of ML engineer roles. I received no callbacks except
| for one ML Eng role which didn't go anywhere. Luckily an old
| manager was starting a data science team at another insurance
| company at the same time as I was looking. He basically handed me
| a data engineer role with a bump in compensation in early 2020.
|
| If I reflect:
|
| - It worked out extremely well for me. I left a non-technical
| job, had a nice 10 month break and ended up getting a development
| job where I get to write code all day. I actually enjoy my work
| now and I have learned so much since then. Zero regrets for me.
|
| - At the same time, I underestimated how little my experience as
| a data analyst meant to data science teams. I would have had to
| apply to many more jobs to get something via the standard online
| application approach. I think that would have been really
| stressful.
|
| - I ate through about 25% of my cash which was a little painful
| to watch.
|
| I think if you have a strong skill set and experience profile,
| its probably just fine. If you were like me and trying to make a
| big switch (eg. data analyst to data scientist or some kind of
| eng), it was a risky move and I wouldn't recommend it without a
| plan. I lucked out. YMMV.
| disgruntledphd2 wrote:
| > There were no opportunities on the data science team since I
| didn't have an MSc
|
| As an aside, this is total nonsense. For gods sake, if someone
| has the skills to do data science (and if you can code and do
| analysis then you definitely do) arbitrary gatekeeping on a
| credential makes no goddamn sense.
|
| EDIT: > At the same time, I underestimated how little my
| experience as a data analyst meant to data science teams.
|
| Not all data science teams, I've been doing this for a while
| and absolutely adore getting people with analytics experience,
| as it's critical to success in a lot of DS teams and is hard to
| train.
| miltondts wrote:
| Depends a bit on how long you want to be out of a job. However if
| you want to do this for some months/years, then consider
| investing in relationships. Either creating new or strengthening
| existing ones.
|
| Whatever you decide to do, if you don't have people that can (and
| want to) accompany you during this time, this is just a recipe
| for loneliness and depression.
| anon2020dot00 wrote:
| I left a dead-end and soul-sucking job without anything planned.
| I did stay at that job for 7 years so I had already learned as
| much as I could.
|
| Some of my reasoning for leaving was that it was much better for
| my mental health for me to leave and also, I would have some good
| job prospects since I had already gained 7 years of experience
| from it.
|
| I took a month off to recharge and reset mentally and then I
| began my job search. After about a month, I was lucky enough to
| find a good job that was a better fit for my interests.
|
| My network did help me out during this difficult transition. So
| I'd recommend having a good network for such a move.
|
| I was also a little bit lucky since it was through my network
| that I came to know of my new company and so if not for my
| network then I probably would have had a much more difficult time
| in getting a better job and in worse case, I could have been
| unemployed for a long-time.
|
| I did take the risk though because I was already at the a low
| point during that time. I guess sometimes that works out but it
| was indeed a risky thing for me to do as well.
| taliesinb wrote:
| I've had quite a journey since quitting, so sorry for the long
| post!
|
| I worked at a company writing mathematical software for 8 years.
| The work was interesting, but I kept feeling there was a deeper
| way of thinking about some particular topic I was working on
| (e.g. data science, array programming, visualization, deep
| learning). Unfortunately, writing production code didn't leave me
| the time and energy to pursue these "deeper truths". Thinking
| deeply takes a lot of time!
|
| It was a hugely difficult decision, but in 2018 I quit, without
| much of a plan. I attended some summer schools in different
| things, taught at some other summer schools, started reading
| papers and watching lectures on youtube about things that
| interested me. I trained with a friend to get a job as research
| engineer at DeepMind, but when it came time to apply, I worried
| I'd repeat the same pattern as before if I got the job. So I got
| cold feet.
|
| The second decision, even more difficult, was to trust my
| instincts that I could learn topics and work on my own proto-
| ideas independently without the imprimatur of a PhD program or
| industrial lab. I had saved money, and I had enough runway for a
| couple years.
|
| I have roughly 3 ideas in me that I need to formalize -- or die
| trying (meaning run out of money). I have cute names for them:
| hyperbooks, algebraic arrays, and discrete geometry. I'm working
| on the last one right now [1].
|
| My inspiration was people like Andrew Kelley (author of Zig), and
| Rich Hickey (author of Clojure). They just did the things they
| believed in, worked hard, and have contributed something useful
| and novel to the world. Of course, I don't know if what I'm
| working on will be useful to others, but I have reason to be
| hopeful.
|
| If one of my ideas succeeds, I'll be able to find a way to make a
| living off of it somehow. If they all fail, I'll have learned an
| enormous amount, had an adventure, and I can still go back to the
| ordinary career path.
|
| In the end, the fundamental question was: "do I believe in an
| idea enough to pay my own salary to work on it?" Realizing I
| could honestly answer "yes" was a profound inflection point in my
| life.
|
| [1]: https://quivergeometry.net
| BlueTemplar wrote:
| Can't wait for the "Geometric algebra" part !
| bby wrote:
| I quit my job many years ago, and now I am a NEET. I am neither
| employed, in education, or training. I live a hikikomori
| lifestyle and am ashamed to go back into the workforce. Living
| with parents as a parasitic single. Each day is a struggle.
| ericskiff wrote:
| Here's my personal perspective on this:
|
| - I was at an abusive job and was underpaid
|
| - I had interviewed with Flickr and got the role, but didn't
| realize I'd have to move out west and so said no. I now
| understood I was marketable
|
| - I quit the job with the plan to take a month+ to decide on my
| next move
|
| - I shopped around a bit and had 2 roles lined up, and took the
| one that sounded the most fun to work at and most sustainable
| (the one I turned down had a 45+hour a week MINIMUM)
|
| THEN
|
| that company got acquired and I was once again without a job. A
| few of us thought about starting a company, and I seriously
| focused on leveling up my Ruby on Rails skills. Within 6 weeks I
| had a role at a new incubator which was one of the most fun jobs
| i ever had.
|
| THEN
|
| That incubator got shut down, and a few of us thought about
| spinning out one of the companies or raising money. In the end, 2
| of us decided to start our own development shop. That was 10
| years ago and it's been hard work but awesomely rewarding.
|
| I would NEVER have achieved all of that if I didn't take the leap
| to leave the abusive job. I highly value the time I took between
| jobs to test things out and make the right decision at each turn.
|
| I didn't have to take the time off to do it, but if it's
| financially viable for you to take a few weeks and see the
| playing field in front of you, my personal experience is that it
| pays off well in the medium to long term.
| klipklop wrote:
| Considering how "judgey" bay area tech is I would never make such
| a move. Any sign of not being a steadfast workaholic is a "red
| flag."
| Dumblydorr wrote:
| I worked as a data analyst at a hospital, but by early 2020 I was
| tired of it. They harassed me whenever my butt wasn't in the seat
| from 9 to 530, a seat which was in a cubicle dungeon with barred
| windows and bright fluorescent tubes. I asked for WFH for years
| and they never relented. Right after I left, no job lined up, the
| pandemic hit, and they all got moved to WFH: guess it was
| possible after all, bad luck for me!
|
| I was funemployed throughout the pandemic. I did a lot of
| childcare, art projects, home repairs, and yardwork for my
| family. I kept my eyes open, eventually finding a massive upgrade
| in QoL job after 12 months of looking.
|
| You only have one life. If your job is unbearable, you need to
| make a change. Every year is 2% of your career, don't waste it at
| a dead end. If you can't afford to leave, figure out how to lower
| your expenses, or use time at your current job to search for
| other jobs.
|
| Life is too short for miserable jobs.
| 93po wrote:
| I've done this twice and I'm about to do it a third time in a
| couple weeks. Each time I've only had about 40k of liquid assets
| I could spend, and managed to mostly eff out of wherever I lived
| and not worry about a lease. Also I was single and have no kids.
| Both times I spent about a year not working. It didn't really
| help me at all. I didn't give me any direction, I didn't learn
| much new about myself. I dated a lot and really hyperfocused on
| dating, so I guess I got better at that. For my upcoming time off
| I do feel like I have a somewhat good idea of what I want to do
| in 6 months to a year career wise, so that's a good improvement.
|
| My advice: be sure to have at least some cushion of money, it's a
| hell of a lot easier when single and no kids, force yourself to
| have some structure and discipline after a month or so of grace
| period, consider staying with family and friends to save on
| money, and finally try to live a little. You only live once.
| avl999 wrote:
| It went fine. I did this ins 2019. I had more than enough in
| savings and no other responsibilities (no mortgage, wife or
| kids). I took about 5 months off during which I travelled for a
| couple of months. Felt it was worth it and had no trouble finding
| a new job when I was ready to go back.
| crossroadsguy wrote:
| Was going bonkers without having anything to do during the raging
| second wave. Started interviewing and joined another job which,
| now, I already find miserable after these few months.
|
| Do it, but iff, and this is just my opinion, you have clarity
| about what to do next with or without pay (if your finances allow
| that).
| steine65 wrote:
| Since most of these answers are tech-related, here's my financial
| services perspective.
|
| I spent two years working as an auditor for a large public
| accounting firm. This was my first post-college job. I disliked
| the job from the beginning, but was not confident I would find
| another good entry level job, so I stuck with it until I burnt
| myself out. Covid resulted in more work hours than usual.
| Compensation per hour was terrible for the number of hours
| worked, and I felt like I was wasting my life.
|
| Near the end (August 2020), I struggled to do anything. Since I
| didn't have strong relationships with coworkers, I quit without
| much discussion or a plan. It was easy because: the parents paid
| for college, I don't spend much, I have minimal monthly expenses,
| and I have no major commitments.
|
| After quitting, I drove around the US for two months seeing cool
| places and old friends. Eventually I was offered a short-term
| contract as an auditor again, and I took it. I really didn't want
| to be an auditor, but the hourly pay was great, and it was a
| promotion. Turns out, higher compensation made me a happier
| auditor.
|
| Bonus points, after that contract I hiked the Pacific Crest
| Trail, which I just finished. The 6 month gap from the hike did
| not cause any issues when finding a new job, and actually made
| interview conversations fun and easy.
| dandellion wrote:
| I quit my job a few years back without anything lined up. I had
| enough saved up to last a couple years and the hiring market was
| booming so I wasn't worried about my next job, I was pretty
| burned out and just wanted a break.
|
| I spent a couple months lazying around until I felt like going
| back to work, then spent a month doing interviews until I got a
| couple offers I liked. Nobody seemed to care that I took a break
| between jobs, and the only time it came up I said I had the
| chance to relax for a bit so I just took advantage of it and they
| didn't question it or anything.
| danielvaughn wrote:
| I quit in May of this year. I don't regret it, but starting to
| feel like maybe it wasn't the best financial decision. I'm not
| very good with finances and I didn't really adjust my lifestyle,
| so I dwindled my savings quite a bit more than I wanted.
|
| On the other hand, I did a bunch of sweat equity work for a
| startup and now own almost 10% of the company. So I'm thinking of
| it as an investment. A risky, not-very-well-thought-out
| investment, but still.
| qooiii2 wrote:
| If you can afford it, do it! The worst that can happen is you'll
| just get another job.
|
| I quit a job about 15 years ago with no plans and enough money to
| last me a year or two. It taught me a lot about myself. I had
| planned on hiking and skiing and maybe starting my own company,
| but mostly I just sat around catching up on TV shows and movies
| because all my friends were working full-time. I also did some
| volunteer work to fill the time and keep up contact with other
| people.
|
| After about a year of that, I was really bored, and it only took
| a month or two to line up another job, even in the 2008
| recession. I took a pay cut relative to my previous job, but I
| met great new people, learned a lot of new stuff, and eventually
| got enough equity to more than make up the salary difference.
| minimaxir wrote:
| Years ago, I YOLO quit Apple after my professional development
| stalled (HN discussion then:
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270897) and I felt I had
| enough in my personal data science portfolio that I could
| leverage it to get a job in the industry. I had overestimated my
| hireability but I eventually did get a DS job after four months,
| and am still at that company.
|
| In retrospect, it was correct from a career standpoint, but I
| will not quit a job again without having another job lined up,
| especially since for data science in particular the industry is
| competitive and would result in another prolonged job search.
| ipv6ipv4 wrote:
| I've done it twice so far. Both times were great for me. I am on
| the cusp of doing it a third time. Hopefully, permanently this
| time.
|
| Keep in mind, I have an advantage of being a decent software
| engineer in the biggest industry boom in history. So it has
| always been easy for me to step back into the market when I
| wanted.
|
| The first time was for about 6 months to welcome a child. I had
| had enough of my job at the time and decided to stop without a
| plan. It was great and possibly planted the seed of future
| breaks. After 6 months I was ready to start again and got a job
| within a week or two.
|
| The second time was for 4 years. I moved my family to another
| continent. Eventually, moved back for personal reasons and so had
| to find employment again. This time I found a job through
| connections.
|
| I'm now financially at the point that I likely don't need to work
| anymore and I'm itching to break free again so I'm likely to do
| it in the near future.
|
| My advice is to have enough saved up for at least a year and to
| jump. It's liberating.
| JSavageOne wrote:
| Traveled the world for a year and a half, then started
| contracting remotely while remaining abroad, making more money
| than I was before in NYC (I wasn't working at a FAANG type
| company though). Zero regrets, life is too short to be miserable,
| and people severely overestimate the repercussions of quitting
| one's job and difficult of finding employment again.
|
| Although NYC is fun to visit from time to time, I don't miss
| living there one bit. And nowhere else in the U.S really appealed
| to me as someone who actually likes cities, though who knows
| maybe that would change when I start a family.
|
| Spent this year living in South/Central America and Europe, and
| currently in Rome of all places. Not my ideal city, but been
| seeing a girl here and want to see where it goes.
|
| Financially, lucked out on going all in on crypto a year ago at
| some friends' advice. That being said I still wouldn't consider
| myself FIRE. I would have millions had I not sold my altcoins a
| month or two too early against my friends' wishes (who's now
| definitely FIRE). I might've been better off focusing more on
| crypto and less on my day job, but can't blame anyone but myself,
| and it takes some real cajones to hold for a year and not sell
| even after 5-10xing. Once this contract ends though, I'll
| definitely be doing something in the crypto space.
| secondcoming wrote:
| Are you a US citizen? Don't you get double-taxed on foreign
| earnings?
| JSavageOne wrote:
| I haven't stayed anywhere long enough to warrant it
| Macha wrote:
| Many countries (and certainly Italy) have a taxation treaty
| with the US. To my understanding, you basically write off
| your foreign tax against your US tax and so only have to pay
| US tax if the foreign tax is less than the US (which in
| Italy, probably not).
| city41 wrote:
| And to add to this, there are other things like the Foreign
| Earned Income Exclusion which for most people boils down to
| about a $100k tax credit.
| randomopining wrote:
| He's just hopping around on a tourist visa
| moeadham wrote:
| I did this in 2010 and I now run a profitable software company
| with 45 employees.
|
| Do it. There is literally no downside. If things don't work out,
| you can just go back to the company you left. They will take you
| back!
| elcomet wrote:
| > There is literally no downside
|
| If you have suffient savings.. Which is definitely not the case
| for most people
| xwdv wrote:
| Literally no downside?
|
| I can think of a few: there's a good chance it doesn't work out
| and you find yourself running an unprofitable business working
| harder to make much less than your old software engineering
| job.
| otachack wrote:
| OP probably has in mind that you can always go back to your
| previous employer, or find a job in the hot market.
|
| I worry people keep thinking it will always be hot. I
| personally have been listening to podcasts of veteran people
| in the tech world and many lived through the dotcom crash
| where the "hot market" went all of a sudden cold.
|
| Hot or not, they did live through it and made remarkable
| things along the way. My advice, make sure you have runway to
| live off your savings for the duration you initially want and
| save for 2-3x that. Life is too short to be grinding until
| retirement, though I imagine paths where if you have a high
| salary you may hit retirement earlier than other generations.
| zikduruqe wrote:
| > There is literally no downside.
|
| Lack of medical benefits for a disabled family member. Lack of
| house. Lack of food. Lack of electricity.
|
| Nope, can't see any downside.
| mdolon wrote:
| I quit my full time job as a Software Engineer in 2019 without a
| solid plan. I had some money saved up and knew I wanted to work
| on a startup, and had a laundry list of ideas I wanted to
| explore. But none were built or had any traction.
|
| I've tried working on side projects and startups while fully
| employed in the past and never made any serious progress. It was
| always too easy for things to drag on for months. For my
| personality type, I needed the pressure and continuous blocks of
| focus time to make any meaningful progress.
|
| During 2020 I went through a few ideas and eventually landed on
| one that has since found some traction. I found a cofounder, went
| through YC and am now finding our place in a competitive market.
|
| All-in-all, it was a great decision, and one I would do again in
| a heartbeat.
| cushychicken wrote:
| So far, so good. I quit in July with nothing else lined up. I
| took about two months off where I was just reading and taking
| care of our new puppy.
|
| I've started a job board for FPGA/RTL engineers at
| www.rtljobs.com. The mailing list is growing at an appreciable
| clip and paid postings should be live early in the new year.
|
| I've also been doing some electronics consulting work. Not much.
| Only about 2-3 hours a day.
|
| I'm making about half as much as I was at my job, but with
| functionally no stress.
| jcun4128 wrote:
| I had a grand but I had a friend. Moved to another state with a
| suitcase of stuff. Took some time off, tried to freelance didn't
| happen. I was living on lentil soup and rice. Eventually had to
| work at a factory/restaurant/till I got into a web agency job.
| Before that I was doing data entry and before that dishwashing.
| My finances imploded (like 300s credit score, was sued by JDBs)
| and yeah it was really dumb on my part but I was able to recover.
| I crashed my car too (in a parking lot doing dumb stuff eg.
| drifting, not bad just busted a tie rod) and yeah, I rode my bike
| around like a dumbass for a few years. Still poor but in a better
| place and helping my families out. I've built my CL back up it's
| nice to have.
|
| A cool thing is I had so much time, like months of time to learn.
| I dove into web development, I didn't know what a CSR was, how to
| get a server to work, learned about XSS/sql injection, etc...
|
| This was in 2016 left from NY moved to Missouri/KS.
|
| I still have that fear of "what if I go homeless" but I've also
| learned not to get too attached to my possessions I can in theory
| sell them on the spot at 70% of their price to get immediate
| buyers. It's not great but guarantees me cash. I can do computing
| on second-hand stuff, in a better position to freelance. I have a
| burn rate of my net worth based on assets/cash/CL divided by my
| monthly needs so I know how many months I can live for ha not to
| get dramatic.
|
| I shouldn't be poor now, I make more than I really need but I
| also keep saying yes to my families, I've given away $30K so far
| which is a lot for me. Funny I could have paid off my student
| loans with that money or I could have saved that. Oh well adapt
| and survive that's the name of the game. Also try not to be too
| much of a nice guy.
|
| I had some crazy experiences though, like riding a bike at
| midnight through a road cutting across a huge field (like a mile
| or two in length) pitch black at night that was scary.
| undefinedzero wrote:
| Since I think burn out is often caused by work issues in
| combination with personal issues, here's my two cents on quitting
| while in it or close to it.
|
| I've been working as a contractor for several years now, and for
| about 2 years now I am also working on my own start up together
| with a partner but it's earning 0 because reasons. After having
| worked A LOT over the past few years, I had a big financial
| buffer that allowed me complete freedom in my decision to quit,
| which was a very important factor.
|
| For a long time I felt like I might be close to burning out due
| to working too much, getting bored of work, being unable to get
| anything changed at the company I was working for (as a software
| architect), and dealing with relationship issues. I took all of
| March off to see if that would help, but within 1-2 weeks after
| getting back I realized I wasn't really ready yet but I kept
| going because it was a very convenient job. Second last week of
| April something small happened that pissed me off more than it
| should, revealing to me that I wasn't in a good state of mind to
| keep working there. The next day I informed the company I would
| quit as soon as possible (which ended up end of April).
|
| I decided I was going to be working on my own startup for the
| foreseeable future while taking it easy to get my head straight
| again. I ended up just coding endlessly on the project as a means
| of being distracted while never really dealing with real issues
| because I did not have the energy to confront them. Meanwhile I
| keep going in circles dealing with the end of my relationship and
| I seem to be unable to move on. I've come to realize spending so
| much time on my own with little distraction has been an issue.
|
| I ended up deciding to try to find a new job again and work for
| my start up only 2 days a week, but it has been hard finding
| something for 3 days a week. I obviously want to work on location
| 1-2 days, which is also not ideal with Covid.
|
| The lesson I learned from this is not to quit when you're not
| happy about your personal situation, even if you can afford to
| financially and professionally. The distraction is probably
| healthy, and if your current job isn't, find another one that is
| instead of quitting altogether.
| dimitar wrote:
| It went really well! I wanted to do something different in my
| career so I thought I had to be in between jobs for as long as 6
| months. Less than 2 months I found a much better job without
| really looking. My wife was almost disappointed as she got used
| to me doing much more around the house and with our child. Oh
| well.
| georgeburdell wrote:
| I'm going to caution that I have NOT quit my job, but I did take
| a ~3mo leave of absence from work to study full-time for getting
| a job as a senior software engineer.
|
| This thread seems to take a very optimistic view of quitting, and
| that getting another job was easy as a fallback option. I can say
| as an average dev in the Bay Area, I've failed the vast majority
| of first round technical screens I've encountered. Consequently,
| I basically have nothing to show for the last 3 months. For
| someone like me, I guess I'll be working the same job (which I am
| rated highly at) until I can actually retire.
| jnguyen64 wrote:
| interesting perspective - was it mainly leetcode questions that
| you ended up getting asked for first round technical screens?
| sumnole wrote:
| I was terminated after asking for a raise and better working
| conditions. It's only been a few weeks but I've been focusing on
| health and hobbies. I plan on traveling for a few months while
| looking for a better opportunity to secure my finances again.
| stjohnswarts wrote:
| If you're in tech, saved a rainy day fund, and good at what you
| do it's fine. I prefer contracts this one. Couple months off
| between 1 and to 1.5 year stints are fantastic. If you love your
| job and your team and your pay/benefits, I would highly suggest
| sticking it out and seeking "life fullfillment" elsewhere. Don't
| just join the "great resignation" just because it's there. I am
| someone who gets bored easily with the same people and company,
| so I move along every year or two and don't take full time,
| salaried positions deliberately.What works for one person doesn't
| mean it will work for others. That doesn't fit everyone's MO
| though. Talk it out with your friends and family.
| setgree wrote:
| I quit in May, and since then have hiked the Appalachian Trail
| and just landed in New Orleans. I'll do a little part-time
| research work but my main goal is to write a lot and play music.
|
| Before I left, I was depressed, and now I'm not. IMO everything
| else is totally second order to not feeling so darn bad all the
| time.
|
| My plans extend to about the end of this current month, and then,
| we shall see.
| subpar wrote:
| Also quit and hiked the AT back in 2018. Plan was to take a
| whole year - hike the first half and travel the second, but a
| month after finishing the trail a unique opportunity came my
| way through a former colleague and I jumped back in to the
| working world.
| plants wrote:
| Wow, hiking the AT is currently my quitting plan as well, but
| for 2022. Excited to see that you aren't experiencing extreme
| post-trail depression - I know it can hit hard for some people
| :). I hope to be in a very similar place/state of mind as you
| next year.
|
| Do you have any advice for an AT hopeful for next year? I have
| done a fair amount of planning and have completed a ~250 mile
| thru-hike this past summer, but would still love some advice
| from a veteran (i.e. tent vs. hammock, how many sets of each
| type of clothing you ended up using, etc.)
| setgree wrote:
| Happy to talk at length about this -- my email is my HN
| username at gmail and my name is Seth -- but I would say that
| a base weight or 12 pounds or less is a good predictor of who
| actually finishes.
| willcipriano wrote:
| I live in the area, go with the hammock. You can struggle to
| find places to put a tent down in the deep forest.
| samcolson4 wrote:
| I quit just before lockdown hit in the UK. Had planned to walk
| Lands end to John O'Groats and then get another job in a similar
| field, but obviously COVID put a stop to that.
|
| I had saved up a lot, so I just gave myself a lot of time to
| think and re-assess what I wanted to do with my life. Ended up
| becoming a developer. So overall, very positive experience and I
| couldn't imagine going back to my old job now.
| smarx007 wrote:
| What was your previous trade?
| PaulHoule wrote:
| I've had different outcomes:
|
| - the very next day I called up another company and was doing
| similar work at a company that was in much better financial shape
| two days later
|
| - the beginning of an (ultimately failed) 2.5 year search for the
| right consulting work
| [deleted]
| [deleted]
| throwaway13423k wrote:
| I quit so I could finish grad school full-time, learn more about
| ML, and just relax a bit from burnout induced by 2020.
|
| I don't have a recommendation either way, on the one hand I
| really needed the time away and I felt much much better after not
| working full-time for a few months. It has been a major relief to
| not have to stick to someone else's schedule, do scrum, pick up
| jira tickets, etc.
|
| On the other hand, it is super stressful looking for a job when
| you don't have a fallback. Even with lots of experience, demand,
| ease of getting interviews, it is still hard. Interviews have
| gotten crazy hard and luck is such a huge factor as to passing an
| interview (talking about big tech, leetcode style ones), the
| pressure is immense when you know you _need_ to pass because you
| don't have a fallback plan.
|
| I had a ton of cash runway saved up, but still it has been scary
| at times. Got pretty sick once and so did one of my parents. US
| society is structured such that you really need the safety net
| provided by an employer to feel capable of handling these kind of
| emergencies.
|
| Personally, I can't say I regret quitting, but I'm never going to
| do it again without something lined up. Just not worth it for me.
| instaheat wrote:
| I mean, I will preface this by saying I have a significant sum in
| the bank which allowed me to take the risk of leaving my job in
| the first place. I've got maybe a 3 year runway before things
| start getting scary. (As in homeless and eating ramen)
|
| I have traveled for the past 6 months and haven't really found
| myself yet. I want the freedom so I could do what I want, but now
| I feel like I don't have a purpose.
|
| I have been taking voice/acting classes and taking singing
| lessons, and reading alot.
|
| I don't want to go back to a W2 job, unless I absolutely have to.
| xoac wrote:
| I was very much burnt out from work and had some other Life Stuff
| happen so I sort of had to do it. I have some savings so I'm
| taking it slow to get back into looking for work etc.
|
| I would say it's not going great, but my hand was forced a bit.
| noolryvfr wrote:
| Would also love to know, sometimes I feel like to really change
| paths, I can't do the whole interview and switch thing while
| employed, but I'm scared of "falling off the train" if that makes
| sense. Also I do take other's experiences with a grain of salt,
| but in general appreciate seeing things from others' points of
| view.
| dempseye wrote:
| > I can't do the whole interview and switch thing while
| employed
|
| Why not?
| 999900000999 wrote:
| I actually did this once when I was 20 or so, and I had
| absolutely no safety net if things didn't go right.
|
| I was working a job that was so stressful, I would regularly take
| unpaid sick days just because I couldn't do it. Now considering I
| didn't have any kids, this wasn't that big of a choice to make.
| I'm okay with putting myself on the line, but if you have a
| family to take care of this is absolutely reckless
| osrec wrote:
| I quit my investment banking job in 2017 and set up my own SaaS.
| Very tough for the first two years, making little to no money
| (but I had a good amount of savings). Four years since quitting,
| I'm better off (many times over), both financially and in terms
| of how much time I have to do the things I want to.
|
| Not for the faint hearted, but I definitely recommend it.
| shnock wrote:
| What is your business model?
| osrec wrote:
| We have a standard "fremium" model, and then do custom
| deployments for larger clients. 95% of our revenue now comes
| from the larger clients.
| randomopining wrote:
| So SaaS is just some online app that does something that
| somebody pays you a monthly recurring fee for?
| thegypsyking wrote:
| How did you know what to build?
| osrec wrote:
| I had an idea cooking away in the back of my mind for a few
| years, but never really managed to build it, as my job
| demanded too much of my time.
| hericium wrote:
| I tend to have 2-3 months of new hobbies picking between jobs. It
| is easy to unnotice burning out but harder to pick oneself up
| after it happens. A start of a burnout has always been the main
| reason for me to move away/forward from a job.
|
| I find vacationing between jobs more rewarding than during a job.
| My mind is clear and I have increasingly more willingness to try
| and do new stuff. It's easier for me to pick up new hobbies where
| there is no unpleasantness that I have to go back to soon.
|
| I have a comfort of working in a field where landing a job is
| easy enough not to worry that quitting will result in
| homelessness.
| patchorang wrote:
| I've done this 3 times in my 8 year career so far. I pretty much
| leave every job this way. I like to take a few months between
| jobs to do my own thing and take a break.
|
| If you are financially stable enough and are in a spot in your
| career where you don't think you'll need to worry about getting
| another job too much. DO IT. Looking back at the last 8 years,
| those periods off are the periods I remember the most.
|
| One time I had a tougher time finding a job (but I was also only
| a little over a year into my career). The other times I haven't
| had a problem. One time my old company hired me back with a
| promotion/raise. Most recently, I did some VERY easy part time
| contract work for about 6 months. I think these breaks are
| becoming much more common and I don't think it impacts my resume
| too much.
|
| I wish there was a way to get a new job with a starting date 3-6
| months in the future. That would be the ideal situation.
| joenot443 wrote:
| Big tech companies rarely have a problem pushing a start date a
| few months in the future. At my last positions at G and Snap,
| HR had no problem accommodating my request that I not start
| until about 5 months after my interview. I was just upfront and
| told them that for some personal reasons, I'd be taking an
| extended break between positions, and wasn't interested in
| interviewing unless they could promise me a start date around
| that time.
| patchorang wrote:
| Good to know, I've mostly worked at startups/smaller
| companies so it's been a little less flexible.
| lnxg33k1 wrote:
| I also do the same thing, it's just nice every now and then to
| rediscover the passion for developing and experimenting without
| meetings and managers ;o
| xyzzy21 wrote:
| 1. Have savings
|
| 2. Have your resume always up to date
|
| 3. Have a network of people who can hook you up
|
| 4. Take a deep breath, commit to leaving but do it on YOUR
| schedule - quitting on the spot is emotional, not rational -
| avoid doing that if you can.
|
| Back in the day I learned something that my employer was doing
| that I knew I could not abide by. I did #4 but I had #1, #2 and
| #3. Within a month I had a job offer and so I THEN quit and took
| the new jobs. In the exit interview I told them exactly why I was
| leaving; and not surprisingly they didn't care. Decision
| validated!
| ramraj07 wrote:
| I always hear have your resume up to date, how hard can it be
| to update your resume ? It can't possibly take more than an
| hour or two?
| millzlane wrote:
| Not hard to update. But if you've been at a place for ten
| years in multiple roles. And haven't updated once...It's
| practically a rewrite, at least in the objective, skills, and
| employment duties sections. I'm going through this now and
| scrambling for job descriptions.
| break_the_bank wrote:
| I think I have #1, #2 and #3 sorted out. I am not sure if
| another Big Tech job is an answer for me. Its either doing an
| indie business, starting a startup or joining one, but yeah #1,
| #2 and #3 help. Definitely need some time to decompress before
| I make the move to working hard again.
| myaccoun90 wrote:
| > 3. Have a network of people who can hook you up
|
| This is easier said than done. When I had my company I could
| hire people on the spot (and did once).
|
| What I've found is that most other people are big hat but no
| cattle. So, many might be surprised to find that their network
| of people are quite less connected in practice. Plan
| accordingly.
| endymi0n wrote:
| > OK, so job quitting and breaking up both have "very large,
| positive, and statistically significant coefficients at six
| months". How big? Ludicrously, insanely big.
|
| > _The causal effect of quitting a job is estimated to be a gain
| of 5.2 happiness points out of 10, and breaking up as a gain of
| 2.7 out of 10!_ This is the kind of welfare jump you might expect
| if you moved from one of the least happiness countries in the
| world to one of the happiest, though presumably these effects
| would fade over time.
|
| > Both results are significant at the p=0.04 level, and
| fortunately I don't think Levitt had many if any opportunities
| for specification mining here to artificially drive down the p
| value.
|
| https://80000hours.org/2018/08/randomised-experiment-if-your...
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=17840275
|
| ^^ big caveat emptor in the top comment though ;-)
| swimorsinka wrote:
| I'll add another cautionary tale....
|
| At the start of my career, I worked as a SWE at one of the
| FAANGs. After 3 years, I couldn't take it anymore. I hated
| everything I worked on, nothing was meeting my lofty
| expectations, and I thought about quitting constantly.
|
| Eventually I pulled the trigger to go and "do my own thing." I
| didn't have a backup job - instead I worked on my own projects
| with a cofounder and tried to turn them into a startup. We
| struggled mightily. We didn't raise money, and we couldn't find
| product market fit. Every month I was watching my bank account
| drain, and I wasn't drawing a salary from anywhere. The stock in
| my own startup was worthless.
|
| This continued for 2.5 years. Eventually, I had had enough, and I
| knew something had to change. I went and tried to get my old
| FAANG job back, but couldn't - probably due to my entitled
| attitude when I was there. I struggled with interviews for a
| couple of months, and eventually landed at a company several
| steps down from my old position, making about half of what I had
| at FAANG.
|
| About a year ago, I switched back to a different FAANG after
| having been at that other company for 6.5 years. Why I stayed for
| so many years is a long story.
|
| So ironically I'm back to where I started, but wow did I cause
| myself a lot of trouble. I watched for years as my old friends
| went on to make double and triple what I did, for doing the exact
| same job. In the meantime, I was more stressed out, dealing with
| a worse bureaucracy at a company that didn't value engineering.
|
| Leaving FAANG was something I had to do. I had to get the startup
| out of my system, and I couldn't continue at my original job the
| way that I was. You can't buy perspective, but I probably cost
| myself something like 1-2 million dollars in the process. Many
| times over the years I've questioned "Why couldn't I have just
| stayed at that cushy job like so many of the people that I knew?"
| I know there's no way that I could have given my emotional state
| at the time, but I can't help thinking about it.
|
| So I could tell you a bunch of lessons from my experiences, but
| unfortunately they're probably best learned yourself. You have to
| follow whatever you think is right and hope that things will work
| out for you. Usually they will in the long run - but the short
| term might be painful.
| gaws wrote:
| > This continued for 2.5 years. Eventually, I had had enough,
| and I knew something had to change. I went and tried to get my
| old FAANG job back, but couldn't - probably due to my entitled
| attitude when I was there.
|
| lol @ thinking this was a viable option. Who returns to a
| company nearly three years later thinking he or she will get
| their old job back? By that point, they've likely filled the
| position several times over.
| knuthsat wrote:
| I quit my great first job because I wanted to move to a new
| country. My plan was to not work at all (my partner would support
| me). Then the lockdown started.
|
| I realized it might not be a good time to not work, so I applied
| to a bunch of remote websites (Toptal, Upwork and others) and
| after 2 months I had a full-time remote position.
|
| That year I earned a bit less, living in a high life-standard
| country than I did at my first job.
|
| Figured out remote work sucks and most companies aren't as great
| as my first job. Also, figured that it's hard to find meaningful
| programming work. Work that pays seem to be mobile apps and the
| teams are much less experienced that the one from my first job.
| No idea how to get back to something that pays more but on-site
| (no one can match remote US/UK salaries).
|
| I would say it was a mistake. Probably wouldn't be if the
| pandemic did not start. Wasted 18 months earning money doing
| silly work and not showing my full potential.
| barthom wrote:
| I quit my job 3 months ago, in late August. I didn't have a plan
| but I was feeling pretty burnt out (the work culture was pretty
| toxic) and a bit depressed so I wanted to take some time off to
| figure out my next steps. I also have a lot saved up so I knew my
| financials wouldn't be a problem short-term.
|
| The first month or so was tough. It felt weird not working on
| something. Which I think is part of a healthy process to get used
| to not binding my self-worth to my productivity. I traveled a
| bit, reconnected with friends and did some freelancing. I tried
| finding enjoyment in programming again, something I felt I'd lost
| at my last job.
|
| All in all, I'm really happy I quit before things got worse. I
| still don't have a plan really, but I know I will probably never
| accept a position as a full-time employee unless I am _really_
| passionate about the work and feel I have a lot of impact. I am
| considering continuing my CS degree (I 'm 22). I'm in a pretty
| fortunate position financially because of some successful side
| projects, so I've decided to take advantage of that and just keep
| working for myself. It's what I truly enjoy, and as long as I
| make a decent living there's no point in earning more money if
| I'm miserable for it.
| randomopining wrote:
| How much saved up do you think is a lot? Just wondering
| barthom wrote:
| ~50k dollars. It's obviously not nearly enough to retire on
| but I can sustain my current lifestyle for at least 3 years
| without issues, even if my income would be 0
| bil7 wrote:
| It's really nice to have an extended break where your return to
| work date is mutable. As long as you have some savings, surely
| you have recruiters messaging you enough on linkedin to find
| something quickly when you want to.
| gwbas1c wrote:
| > Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it
| go?
|
| I was planning to quit in the fall of 2009 to do a startup, but
| things turned sour in my job so I quit earlier and worked on my
| side project.
|
| My side project / startup was a disaster, but in early 2010 I was
| able to devote my full time energies to my job search.
|
| In general, I prefer looking for a job when "it's my job to look
| for a job." It makes it easy to compare different opportunities,
| and I don't need to sneak around on the sly.
| kinnth wrote:
| I think whether it's the right or wrong decision is very
| personal. However, the worst case scenario of quitting with
| nothing to do is:
|
| 1. You have less money 2. You have less upto date skills
| (perhaps) 3. You will then need to get another job at a later
| point in time.
|
| If you can budget correctly and you are a passionate learner, I
| only see 3 as the biggest issue. Even then perhaps that time off
| gives you perspective and you then get a job that fits you
| better.
| kevmo314 wrote:
| I quit Google after five years and moved to NYC right before the
| pandemic started.
|
| Working on my startup now. Pays infinitely less but makes me a
| lot happier. I love getting put in situations I would've never
| dreamed I would be in.
|
| My biggest lesson so far was that I should've left Google
| earlier. I didn't need nearly as much saved as I had expected.
| The only thing I could wish for is more friends who did the same.
| I do miss having coworkers.
| break_the_bank wrote:
| Did you stay the five years to see the initial grant /
| refreshers vest?
| 0xy wrote:
| Alphabet stock is so high chances are he was still wearing
| golden handcuffs when he left due to stacked refreshers at a
| significantly lower price.
| kevmo314 wrote:
| No otherwise I would've left after four. The hardest part to
| leave was my team. I did really like the people I worked
| with.
| yawnxyz wrote:
| I was laid off five years ago, and I never found another job.
| Ended up spending a month doing the Camino de Santiago in Spain,
| and doing more stuff like swing dancing.
|
| Later on I met someone at a swing dance that I worked on a "side
| project" for a long time that became our current startup, which
| has been more meaningful to me than any job I've worked
| previously. (We're doing health and biotech and save people from
| horrible infections, but I'm a UX/full stack engineer).
|
| I think that having had a tech job with tons of savings (and
| living in a cheap city in the South) really helped. Also, for
| many years I thought that a job was like air, and if you quit or
| lose your job you start suffocating, but the opposite has been
| true.
| Lhiw wrote:
| Would you recommend doing the Camino?
|
| My wife and I are thinking about it.
| hardlianotion wrote:
| i certainly do. The Camino has routes from all over Europe
| and a fantastic set of traditions. The countryside is amazing
| and ever-varying. I walked sections in September, through
| Southern France, and at that time, the hostels were full of
| people with wonderful stories of how they arrived on the
| trail and what they planned to do next.
| agomez314 wrote:
| Awesome story! I've been needing an excuse to do el camino.
| What route did you take and how was it?
| gamerDude wrote:
| I did a section of the Camino del Norte. And it was
| fantastic. In my.mind you've got two choices. The cheap
| route, which is staying at the hostels where the most people
| on the Camino go. Or you can live it up, as you'll be jumping
| into a new town at the end of everyday. We did a mix of both
| and it was a blast!
| SergeAx wrote:
| I once quit due to burnout and it was not great. Mild depression
| plus slight health problems lasted for about half a year and due
| to that I was unable to fully enjoy my freedom and was in a bit
| of hurry while looking for next job.
|
| So, if you have a choice between planned and unplanned quitting -
| stick to planned one.
|
| To everyone reading this: start planning your quitting when you
| feel first symptoms of burnout.
| beefield wrote:
| I have quit a couple of times without anything to land on. The
| first lesson of the first time (for me, that is, YMMV) was to
| have a plan what to do after you quit. Even if you financially
| can afford the break, having nothing to do is quite different
| from having a full time job. Surprisingly soon after the first
| time I quit I got a strong feeling I am wasting my time doing
| nothing - even if I had always thought I have plenty to do.
| nanidin wrote:
| I left my job in February 2021 due to being overstressed and
| eventually burning out. I was in a role where I was essentially
| on call 24/7, with the only calls actually coming in at early AM
| hours on holidays. This made it impossible for me to relax during
| time off, which contributed to the burnout. Around the same time,
| my SO was finishing cancer treatment, so work stress was not the
| only stress I was dealing with.
|
| I left with the stated goals of working on personal projects and
| of going on a road trip to national parks. I have now been on two
| significant road trips - one about 10 days, and the next about 35
| days.
|
| As far as projects go, I have created a few toys that scratched
| itches - a pi calculator, a sudoku solver, and a market data
| collector/analyzer. I also worked on establishing some passive
| income during this time.
|
| I'm now working as a consultant in the same industry I was
| working in previously. I'm not sure yet when I will return to
| full time employment. My plan is to definitely find a job before
| the COBRA insurance coverage expires (October 2022 I believe.)
|
| My advice to anyone planning to take time off is to have some
| idea of what you want to do. Don't end up quitting your job
| thinking all of the free time off will be great, then sit around
| and do nothing for months on end - at the time it may feel great,
| but after those months go by it's nice to be able to look back
| and see that you did something. You don't have to be productive,
| but at least get out of bed, have a routine, and do something
| besides sit around. To that end, I recommend journaling.
|
| I also recommend that if you're going to quit and you like your
| job but just need some extended time off - talk with your
| manager! Mine wasn't very agreeable to a sabbatical on the
| timeframe I wanted, but my SO was able to secure 6 months of PAID
| time off just by talking to her manager about what was going on
| with her and her plans to leave (keep in mind her case may be
| unique due to cancer and working for the company for 8+ years).
| gaws wrote:
| > I also recommend that if you're going to quit and you like
| your job but just need some extended time off - talk with your
| manager! Mine wasn't very agreeable to a sabbatical on the
| timeframe I wanted, but
|
| Securing that much time off is nearly impossible at many
| places.
|
| > my SO was able to secure 6 months of PAID time off just by
| talking to her manager about what was going on with her and her
| plans to leave (keep in mind her case may be unique due to
| cancer and working for the company for 8+ years).
|
| Don't be fooled by management's "kind" gesture. Your SO's
| cancer, while horrible, got her the six-month paid leave, not
| the eight years at the company.
| nanidin wrote:
| In my case the duration was acceptable (I asked for 6 months
| of unpaid leave), but burnout was telling me I needed out in
| two weeks. Management wanted me to stick around for two
| months before taking extended leave. At the time it wasn't an
| option I was willing to consider.
|
| As for SO, I suppose you could be right about the cancer
| (they also gave her 3 weeks of time off earlier this year
| that didn't impact her PTO bank), but even before cancer her
| job was super accommodating.
| nanidin wrote:
| I also want to add that I took some time off earlier in my
| career as well. During that time off I spent a year traveling
| around Asia, then I tried to create a startup. I was hungrier
| at the time due to being a lot less established and due to
| having a clear runway that defined when I would need to have a
| job in order to be self sustaining. I returned to work with a
| 50% increase in compensation after that break.
| random42 wrote:
| I left my job in July, and took a bit of break to introspect,
| focus on my health, spend time taking care of my family members,
| did a few investments, read up a lot and figuring out what I want
| to do next.
|
| I have just started to talk to people wrt to different jobs,
| although I am not sure I want to take up another job. will figure
| it out in due time.
| Kagerjay wrote:
| Question to those in that did this
|
| What did you do about your health insurance?
| tboyd47 wrote:
| Look up short-term insurance. If you're young and healthy (or,
| just avoid seeing a doctor for problems they already admit they
| can't solve), you can probably find decent health insurance for
| a whole year for $1,000 USD (meaning, <$100 monthly).
| walktheplank wrote:
| COBRA
| ldehaan wrote:
| I used to change out jobs at a maximum of 2 years in. Whatever
| they hired me to do has usually been done and automated by 2
| years and I'm bored. A lot changed for me, nothing to do with
| cov19d though, that has barely affected me because I'm in the
| social class that doesn't have to give a fuck. Though I am
| reminded of that quote from nazi Germany, first they came for...
| anyways I digress as usual. The only reason to stay at a job or
| leave a job is the people or the pay. Stay for the people, leave
| for the pay.
| [deleted]
| kaycebasques wrote:
| I quit my job in June 2021. I've been keeping weekly updates here
| [1]. Long story short it's been great so far. I went to Brazil
| and met my partner's (now fiancee) family.
|
| I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on
| fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the
| dark near the Tannhauser gate. If only you could see what I've
| seen with your eyes. [+++]
|
| I made decent progress on projects that I have been kicking
| around for YEARS, including Bookwork Club [2] and my grandpa's
| autobiography [3]. I have read 14 books, including _Thinking In
| Bets_ which led me to get much more systematic about thinking
| probabilistically. I am almost done with a Python class which
| will enable me to finally earn an Associate 's in CS that I
| started literally 10 years ago. I had time to go into rabbitholes
| to build tools that allow me to get more systematic with my
| investing/trading/speculating. I got to make some new connections
| and work in a completely new space when I did a 1-month contract
| working on Corrily's docs. Right now I'm planning out our mid-
| January wedding. Yes it's kind of close but on the other hand
| it's not like I'm trying to juggle this wedding planning with a
| job. In Feb/March I'll probably go back on the market and
| hopefully won't struggle too much to land a new decent job! This
| comment has just been a stream-of-conscious reflection on
| "things" I did but I also want to emphasize that it has been
| rejuvenating and healing to not deal with the low-level constant
| stress of deadlines, interpersonal conflicts, strategy ambiguity,
| etc. that is pretty natural in the software industry. You can
| read my sabbatical manifesto at [4]. In that post I really tried
| to document all my thinking about why I was taking this risk.
|
| [1] https://kayce.basqu.es/sabbatical
|
| [+++] In case you don't get the reference and think I'm a crazy
| person, this is a quote from Blade Runner. As I wrote this
| comment I was reminded of Roy and couldn't resist throwing that
| in. Just having some fun... sabbatical will do that to you! ;)
|
| [2] https://bookworm.club
|
| [3] https://tony.basqu.es
|
| [4] https://kayce.basqu.es/sabbatical/prologue
| Terry_Roll wrote:
| Why cant you start your own thing now, and then travel or does
| your own thing need a physical presence from you that will hinder
| any desires to travel?
|
| Looking for inspiration?
|
| Virtually everyone is living paycheck to paycheck, some live a
| frugal lifestyle others live an extravagant lifestyle and bang it
| on finance hoping judgement day never arrives. Even businesses
| are only as good as their long term contracts and share of a
| market, so are not much different to people, if we are to be
| honest about things.
|
| Some big name companies are still only going because they have
| diversified, and that's it, so working many jobs is for most
| people just a form of diversification in all but name, but then
| spreading the risk amongst employers in todays world can be a
| good thing, reducing exposure is common in finance and there are
| parallels for people as well.
|
| Besides running a business gives you access to finance/credit
| which will have less impact on your personal life if things don't
| work out, than taking on finance/credit in your personal life and
| things then not working out. Most shareholders of small
| businesses take out a lot of money which keeps their personal
| finances a lot cleaner. I don't know why more people don't do it?
|
| The only other thing is remember that the global population is
| still going up, so prices will continue to go up as populations
| in develop countries can undercut developed countries, so choose
| your business venture wisely for a multitude of reasons.
| millzlane wrote:
| I quit a place once, it rhymes with brudwick wealth strategies. I
| was told by the proprietor that he didn't have to calm down
| because "he signs my fucking paychecks" in that second I realized
| that I didn't want to work for someone who thought like that. I
| told him have a nice day Barry and enjoy the extra money.
|
| I applied for unemployment and almost lost the case but then I
| learned of the term hostile workplace and won. Unemployment was
| backpaid. During the time of fighting for it. I studied for my A+
| and Sec+ certs, learned to program, and worked odd jobs from CL
| until every IT job eventually called me back and I had a couple
| to choose from. Eventually found a gig that I have been at for
| about 10 years. I'm happy, the organization appreciates my
| contributions and I'm in a comfortable place financially. I am
| currently looking for an remote gig in the evening US EST hours.
| Some sort of grunt work that someone doesn't want to do. I'm open
| to anything.
| brianf0 wrote:
| I did this. Started a drop shipping business with friends. That
| didn't pan out. Then tried to build a startup. That didn't pan
| out either, so I started consulting. It was fine, but consulting
| and full time employment are really two sides of the same coin. I
| figured I might as well get the benefits and equity that come
| with full time roles. Since quitting I have more than doubled my
| previous salary, and gained a ton of front end knowledge I never
| would have learned just by working at my old job.
| [deleted]
| quangv wrote:
| I had a job I didn't like and left without a backup. It was a
| great move for me cause the next job I liked and stayed with for
| a couple of years.
|
| If you have skills, a good resume, and know how to market
| yourself you should be able to land on your feet.
| mracette wrote:
| Overall, pretty well. I was able to make a major career shift,
| going from a data analyst to a software engineer in the span of
| about 9 months of self-directed study. I reckon this was one of
| the biggest positive changes in my life to-date.
|
| On the other hand, I developed quite a bit of anxiety and felt a
| little lost and depressed at times.
|
| My advice to get the most out of your time would be: make sure
| the other key areas of your life are stable first (e.g.
| relationships, geography, finances, social life).
|
| If you change multiple major facets of your life all at once, you
| are running the risk of becoming a bit untethered.
|
| That being said, maybe it's the feeling of being untethered that
| catalyzes the growth in the first place.
| clpm4j wrote:
| I did it a couple of times in my past (with the intention of
| starting my own thing), and it never played out quite as well as
| I envisioned in my mind beforehand. If you do it, and then you
| end up needing to get another job because the runway ends, then
| it's always more difficult and stressful vs. getting a job while
| you already have a job/paycheck.
| lvl100 wrote:
| I think it's important to have detailed plans (daily schedules
| etc) to keep yourself busy albeit at leisurely pace. More
| importantly have specific goals. It doesn't have to be career-
| oriented goals. It can be something simple like "learning to play
| an instrument". If you're planning on going back to the same
| field, have a side project going (doesn't even have to be
| successful) to keep up with the latest technologies (toolings,
| trends, etc). This is especially important now because things
| move rather fast.
|
| Don't burn any bridges and keep regular contacts with people from
| your prior work. Do not completely unplug. Lastly, do focus on
| your mental health. I am assuming people who do this are burnt
| out and have worked stupid hours for years on end. It takes
| longer than you think to recover from all the physical and mental
| stress. Focus on yourself!
| olavgg wrote:
| I quit a normal job in 2015 to do freelance consulting. I had no
| plan, luckily I found two clients for part time work and for the
| rest of my hours I created a e-commerce site that I operated for
| myself. That quickly escalated and made more money than in a
| normal job, but running an e-commerce site isn't much fun.
|
| 1.5 years later I joined a startup, with 3 other ambitious guys
| which was super successful. The first years was really a lot of
| fun and work. But over time that changed. Now I have left that
| startup and I am planning on building another one, just need to
| find the right ambitious people with a good and realistic
| business plan.
| ovao wrote:
| Just out of curiosity, what about running the e-commerce site
| was a drag?
| jonatron wrote:
| The end of the notice period roughly lined up with the start of
| the ski season, so I'm going to do a ski season.
| claytonjy wrote:
| same here, gave notice last week and can't wait to focus on
| snowboarding.
| dnautics wrote:
| It worked for me. I quit my job due to problems after a
| management switcheroo that shafted me, planned on applying for
| jobs - I specifically wanted something in FinTech, that used
| Elixir - and applied for four jobs, plus one "why the hell not"
| application I did at Facebook. If I didn't get a job, my plan was
| to do Recurse Center until february and then try again with a
| wider search. I got into RC, did not get the Facebook interview
| (it was a miserable experience, where they had me whiteboard over
| coderpad -- code running was disable, WTF seriously, what's the
| point? might as well code over google docs), and then I got a job
| at a fintech that uses Elixir. I didn't even get a tech question
| in my interview.
|
| This probably won't work for everyone. I have a LOT of public
| bona fides as an elixir developer (I have six libraries on the
| public elixir repository that I pinned to the top of my github),
| elixir companies are hiring a LOT, and as an elixir dev, you
| don't have to compete as much with the market of lemons among
| programmers. I also had no debt, and about seven months of
| drawdown.
| jss326 wrote:
| I quit my post-doc 6 weeks ago. Was really burned out and had
| postponed the decision for months already. However, I could never
| motivate myself to look in to other jobs. In the end, I quit
| without anything else planned. Only then I could notice how bad
| that job had made me feel. Now I am working on a small startup
| idea. If this doesn't work out, I'll try something else. I'm
| working from a cheap co-working space, and it is great so far.
| Have more time for my kids as well. Don't regret it at all.
| tomlagier wrote:
| Maybe not quite the answer you're looking for, but I'll throw it
| in anyway.
|
| - I planned on quitting my FAANG job in February 2020 to go
| travel the world for 9 months (midlife crisis, sabbatical,
| whatever you want to call it).
|
| - COVID hit, we came back March 2020.
|
| - Decided to take the opportunity to leave the Bay Area and try
| our hand at freelance / contracting for time flexibility so we
| could go travel again once lockdown ended and international
| travel became a possibility.
|
| - We thought we might come back to the Bay Area once "it was
| over" and we'd travelled.
|
| - Lockdown stretched on, borders stayed closed.
|
| - Contracting picked up, was able to negotiate part-time hours
| making enough to live on.
|
| - My partner switched careers successfully, starting a new
| business.
|
| - Fast forward to now, I'm still contracting. We've put down
| roots in the small town we moved to. My partner's business is
| thriving. We're saving up for a house.
|
| Overall life is good. We've traded the stresses of the Bay Area
| for a different set of stresses - it's equally difficult finding
| housing here, starting a new business has been hard, and figuring
| out what I want out of a freelance career has been a struggle as
| well. We've got a lot more free time, and the flexible hours have
| been a huge blessing.
| nettleseyeball wrote:
| I worked at agencies for about 8 years and always wanted to go
| freelance. I handed in my 1 month notice with nothing lined up,
| created a LinkedIn, made a CV, sent some emails. I started my
| first freelance contract a week after my last day at my old job.
|
| Honestly I thought I was going to take a while to get the ball
| rolling but nah it was super easy. Best choice I ever made. My
| life is 10 times better now. If you're thinking about it make
| sure you've got a bit of money saved just in case but otherwise
| go for it. Life is short.
| cobertos wrote:
| Not too bad, I'm still riding it a bit.
|
| I went part-time at my coding job before the pandemic due to
| stress/anxiety from some unknown work-related source. I then quit
| during the pandemic from constant erosion of salary and quality
| of work life.
|
| I ended up kinda floating undecided for a couple months. Tried a
| couple game jams and realized my dreams of game design were not
| my life-long calling.
|
| Then needed money so ended up starting to freelance. I didn't
| really market myself, so I didn't have many clients, but I had
| one big one through a friend that paid well and I did a couple
| really big things for them.
|
| I'm now doing a contract that's 3x my previous salary (but also
| 1099 so more taxes) and struggling to figure out if I'd ever want
| to be W2/full time employee again.
|
| I also got about 6 or so months of near full-time work on a
| personal project, and it's been very enlightening to get that
| much effort behind something of my own for once. Also isolating
| socially
| drudoo wrote:
| I quit my job of four years because I got a green card and wanted
| to try to work in the US. I am from Denmark and got the green
| card through marriage.
|
| Moved to Orlando (as my wife had a job there) and applied to
| roughly 300 IT jobs but only got 2 interviews. Nothing really
| came of it, as they either wanted to pay me pennies or I didn't
| have enough experience. I had about 4 years of project management
| experience with a year as a senior project manager (and a MSc in
| CS). Maybe I was picky but coming from a $95k/y salary and going
| to a $20/h hourly position wasn't what I wanted.
|
| My wife's job couldn't sustain the both of us, so after 5 months
| our savings were kinda gone and I got an offer to move back to
| Denmark and get my old position back.
|
| Pretty happy that I at least tried, else I'm sure I would regret
| it, but we are happier in Denmark than in the US.
| gaws wrote:
| > Moved to Orlando (as my wife had a job there) and applied to
| roughly 300 IT jobs but only got 2 interviews.
|
| > Maybe I was picky but coming from a $95k/y salary and going
| to a $20/h hourly position wasn't what I wanted.
|
| Nah. Orlando, and Florida in general, is a terrible tech
| market. Orlando is also a god-awful city. You might have better
| luck if you were in San Francisco, Austin, New York, or
| Chicago.
| drudoo wrote:
| You are probably right. We only moved there because my wife
| already had a job there and a lot of our friends are in
| Orlando. We have zero connection to any of the bigger tech
| cities, so that wasn't even an options.
| tonis2 wrote:
| I have quited like 3 times and been fired 2 times. Had small
| savings so I didn't starve, also could live at our family house,
| where I didnt need to pay rent, so that helped.
|
| But I always got better job next time, because when I was
| unemployed, I learned lots of new things in webdevelopment and
| app development.
| cko wrote:
| I did this, with a passive income cushion from some investments.
| I live very simply. I found travel pretty boring after a few
| weeks. I found whatever I was doing outside of work (YouTube and
| mindless browsing) filled up all my free time after I quit.
|
| I started learning web development but haven't had any ideas that
| stuck. I mean I had a lot of ideas before quitting but perhaps
| lack of motivation or discipline killed them all.
| sumtechguy wrote:
| I did it accidently about 5 years ago, structured layoff and
| wildly good severance package. Had enough for 3-4 years of
| coasting. What I found for myself personally is that I did just
| that, coast. I did not have any great plans to do anything. I
| went back to work because I was bored. Days of YT, video games,
| and coursework can be interesting and all but after awhile it
| wears thin and I personally wanted to work on something a bit
| more interesting. But I had no 'interesting' ideas of my own.
| So I got a job and borrowed someone's. I lasted about 7 months
| before I was ready to go back to work and started applying
| anywhere. Would I recommend it? Not really. It may be time to
| jet from this place though.
| cko wrote:
| I actually lasted exactly 7 months myself, then went to work
| for 1 year. Quit again and now it's been almost two more
| years of coasting. I think it's time for me to get a job.
| cobertos wrote:
| Same feeling with the passive time being filled with YouTube.
| Hard to avoid as their app captures you at every interaction
| point. I just want to watch YouTube videos from friends...
| bellyfullofbac wrote:
| Try NewPipe if on Android: https://newpipe.net . You can
| disable comments and recommended videos, at night I just do a
| search on some of my favorite channels (despite everyone
| moaning "please like and subscribe" I think I have one
| channel I subscribe to, I guess I do miss a lot of things) to
| see if they have new content.
| sodality2 wrote:
| > (despite everyone moaning "please like and subscribe"
|
| Try https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe. It has
| Sponsorblock integration. Meanwhile upstream newpipe
| refuses to integrate it:
| https://github.com/polymorphicshade/NewPipe#why-isnt-this-
| in...
| rootsudo wrote:
| I've blocked Youtube, it's a bit easy via a HOSTS rule, or
| firewall level (littlesnitch on OSX is great) or such. The
| HOSTS rule is probably too much but the later isn't.
|
| ublock also can remove comments, the front page of youtube,
| etc.
|
| I don't block youtube now, but I don't have "mindless"
| browsing, it's like the front page of google.com. I search for
| exactly what I want, and no ads.
| BlueTemplar wrote:
| You can spend all your time in "mindful" rabbit holes too :
| consider Wikipedia...
| Svperstar wrote:
| I was really sick of where I was living, I quit my job, drove
| across the country. Took one week off to relax, unpack, etc. Put
| up my resume on the usual sites and started getting calls 9 am
| the next day. Had a job in a week.
| jwmoz wrote:
| Survived the first year then flourished the 2nd and 3rd!
| throwacct223 wrote:
| I quit mega tech co 1 over sexual harassment and commute after a
| few years there. Enjoyed being unemployed for about 6 months.
| Then got a job at "hit startup about to ipo. That job was good
| and extremely lucrative, but provided little fulfillment.
|
| Quit and did my own thing for a year. That worked out pretty
| well, but one man team got old. Now been working at mega tech co
| 2, best job of my career. Comp doesn't match the hot startup
| though.
|
| Do it, nobody cares.
| f0e4c2f7 wrote:
| The first time I did it the startup I was working for was drying
| up and blowing away so I decided that was a good time to start my
| own startup. I figured it would take a couple months.
|
| That was a spectacular failure where I realized that most of my
| mental models were either explicitly broken or the Fischer Price
| version of the actual model. I learned an outrageous amount. By
| the end I was glad I did it and wondered if I would do it again.
|
| I found it easy to get a new job. Quitting and working on my own
| project was probably the best career move that I had made up to
| that point.
|
| I took the next job and realized that I no longer enjoyed working
| for other people. I had seen too much. Office politics now seemed
| extra goofy too. It's just hard to take seriously.
|
| So I reloaded my savings and then after a while quit again and
| I'm back to working on my own projects.
|
| I learned a lot since last time but I'm sure I still have a lot
| to learn. Learning has always been the fun part for me. This time
| rather than working on just one thing I wanted to experiment with
| a bunch of different projects which is proving to be fun and
| already yielding more traction.
|
| I'll tell you what the not fun part of the whole thing is, part
| of this is just the part of the world I live in and people I hang
| out with. People hate it! Boy do they hate it. Did you remember
| the part in pulp fiction where Jules is telling Vincent "I'm just
| gonna walk the earth, like Caine" and Vincent is going "No, Jules
| you're gonna be a god damn bum". Most conversations I have seem
| to have that undertone.
|
| Not having a boss, especially before you reach success seems to
| make people really uncomfortable and sometimes upset. On the
| other hand not everyone reacts that way and I feel like it can
| shine a light on who your best friends are so thats cool.
|
| It's a weird path, but I've enjoyed it quite a lot so far. I'm
| also sort of a weird person so I don't think it would work for
| everyone. I don't have any kids. I'm not really into material
| things so my expenses are extremely low. I usually work for
| longer than this but I've done the math and I'm pretty sure I
| could cover 1 year of expenses with 1 month of work. It's a good
| ratio.
|
| I've also thought about doing this in SEA or Eastern Europe to
| cut expenses more. The idea of being a "digital nomad" (if thats
| what they still call it) seems super fun.
| aogaili wrote:
| shit...^^
| tunnuz wrote:
| How do you make sure you don't get survivor bias from the
| responses to this post?
| sigmaprimus wrote:
| I can't say I didn't have a plan because I did have one but after
| a few years since quitting here are a few not so positive things
| that I didn't plan on.
|
| 1. Early mornings and late nights ----- I really thought I would
| be able to unwind and relax but I guess that is just not my
| nature. I still find it very difficult to turn off, the stresses
| and thoughts that used to center around my job gone but new ones
| have replaced them. Eg. Current ones are based on inflation and
| my savings burn rates, investment bubbles and on and on.
|
| 2. Loneliness ----- I really do miss having those daily
| interactions with coworkers, even the "useless" meetings. Things
| may be different now as I left long before Covid so it could be
| that those interactions are gone forever.
|
| 3. Weight Gain ----- Correlation isn't causation and it is also
| likely as much to do with my aging as not having a job, but not
| being on a daily schedule has contributed to the extra weight I
| am carrying.
|
| 4. Stigma from financial and services institutions ----- This one
| might be more of a personal perception but when starting
| relationships with banks, investment firms and even utility
| providers there are always questions regarding employment. I have
| a very healthy bank account but still feel it is more difficult
| to get a credit card for example without filling out the employer
| section.
|
| Anyways I don't want to stomp on anyone's dreams here, I just
| wanted to share a few things I found through personal experience.
| I am still content with my decision and the good outweighs the
| bad.
| mikkelenzo wrote:
| I took 3 months off after shutting down my startup back in 2019
| without knowing what was next. Went travelling, spent some time
| in London reading books and chilling out and enjoyed sitting at
| coffee shops at 8am watching other people go to work.
|
| If you can afford it and have some confidence that you can easily
| get a job afterwards, I'd highly recommend it.
|
| For me, it really helped not at all thinking about what was next
| until 2.5 months in. If you start interviewing already after a
| few weeks you don't get proper headspace to really relax and get
| out of the work mindset.
| irjustin wrote:
| Oooo one I can answer!
|
| I moved from Seattle -> Hong Kong, circa 2012, with a contracting
| job to an old team in Seattle. About 6-7 months in HK, the team
| said no more contractors or remote members, and I was effectively
| out of a job.
|
| The original goal of moving to HK was to learn Cantonese (mother
| tongue) so I said maybe I should actually do my goal and started
| taking classes. That didn't work out so well. While I learned
| Cantonese, it's not at any useful left (can't even speak to 5
| year olds for any meaningful length). I did get married instead!
| So it worked out.
|
| If you're young with little responsibilities, I say do it.
|
| "They" always say it's harder to do it while you're older. For me
| and everyone I know, this is 100% true. While always possible, a
| lot more care and planning needs to happen even with a
| significant other.
| ufmace wrote:
| It worked great when I did it, though I'd put an asterisk on the
| "without anything planned". I decided I wanted to move to NYC,
| but on my terms, not anybody else's. So I quit my job and kind of
| treated planning on moving as a job, as well as doing a few other
| things with the extra free time.
|
| But I also was pretty confident in my ability to find a new tech
| job in a good market. It worked well the last few times, and I
| changed my Linkedin location before I went just to see how many
| recruiters popped up. The traffic left me confident I'd be able
| to get a tech job there when I was ready.
|
| I also had a rough idea of how long I planned to stay without a
| job and how much it would cost and had enough to cover that
| comfortably, with enough extra buffer to come up with a new plan
| if getting a new job turned out to be harder than I thought.
|
| You don't necessarily need a "plan" like having a job, but you
| should do that sort of planning. Some people have enough rich
| family or friends that they'll never really end up on the streets
| somewhere if something goes wrong. If you don't, you'll just need
| to plan a little better, and beware of unknowns. There's a lot of
| ways things can go wrong, it'd be best to account for them. And
| to have the life experience to know what might go wrong and how.
| ajkjk wrote:
| Great. I took three years off after the first three of my career,
| until my savings ran out. Easy enough on regular tech salary if
| you don't live extravagantly. I didn't use the time particularly
| well (I wish I had traveled a lot more, and for longer), but it
| was still good.
|
| It's so strange that we expect adults to work continuously until
| they are too old to do so. Do whatever you feel like and can
| reasonably make work. If you don't want to work for a while,
| don't. Make it happen. Go make some art or start a band or hike
| across the country or live in the woods or make a video game or
| play sports or party a lot or get in great shape or read a lot of
| books or do a lot of volunteering or have a garden. Whatever.
| it's your life.
| [deleted]
| onion2k wrote:
| I did this about a decade ago. I spent a couple of years just
| helping other people with web things (sort of consulting /
| freelancing, but more from an advice perspective than writing any
| code), and then some friends and I founded our first startup. It
| didn't work out in the end, but I had a fun 5 years or so
| learning a lot and helping people take their businesses online in
| ways that would be better than if I'd not been there. The
| startup, raising a couple of rounds, and closing down was quite
| fun too. I'm back being a proper developer again now.
|
| If you have the resources to do it without too much risk then I'd
| definitely recommend it. You'll get a lot from it in terms of
| personal development and skills, but you'll probably end up with
| less money than you went in with. You can always make more money
| though.
| Glench wrote:
| Both times I've taken time off without plans have been really
| transformative for me.
|
| In the first I discovered I had a passion for helping other
| people learn and ended up working at MIT on the Scratch project
| and then with Bret Victor (http://worrydream.com) at his research
| lab, both really amazing opportunities.
|
| In the second I decided to quit tech to become a therapist. You
| can read about that here:
| http://glench.com/WhyIQuitTechAndBecameATherapist/
|
| Your mileage may vary.
| rikroots wrote:
| When I quit my last job my plan was to work on some personal
| projects for a few months while looking for a new position,
| hoping to land something before the money ran out.
|
| One of the personal projects was writing up a short memoir for
| family/friends[1]. This was a mistake as it fed some mental
| health issues that had contributed to me walking out of my job.
| Things got a bit serious for a while, and then the money ran out.
| Thankfully I had the massive good fortune to get a referral to a
| psychotherapist who helped guide me to a safer place. Then Covid
| struck.
|
| All-in-all I was without a pay check for just under 2 and a half
| years. I did manage to complete some projects in that time, which
| I'm really proud of ... but next time I think I'll listen to my
| Mum's advice: don't walk out of a job until you've got another
| job to walk into.
|
| [1] - https://rikverse2020.rikweb.org.uk/book/riks-army-career
| getty wrote:
| I saw burnout happen to a few guys around me, the work was pretty
| interesting but constantly moving goal posts caused a great deal
| of undue stress at work. I was also preparing to undergo a big
| change in my personal life too so decided to quit with a month's
| notice. I've been off work since mid September and did a week
| long silent meditation retreat, walked/solo wild camped the
| Pennine Way for 16 days and spent some time in Rwanda exploring
| at my own pace.
|
| In between i've been cycling, reading and working on things I
| neglected for the past few years. I feel much better for it
|
| Today I'm going to polish my CV up and have started letting my
| network know I'm keen to work again. I have a better sense of
| what I want to do this time and tools to prevent as much stress
| in future
| rolisz wrote:
| I quit my job last November. In January I started my own business
| doing machine learning consulting. It took off slowly, until July
| I was not making too much, only small clients.
|
| Then business started taking off and now I'm too busy for my own
| good. I learned a lot. Biggest lesson is that I need to charge
| more. A lot more. Another thing that surprised me was what
| brought in the most income, both in absolute terms and in a per
| hour rate, so I'll have to reconsider my positioning and
| marketing strategy for next year.
|
| And I love what I'm doing and I feel like growing a lot. There
| have been many moments where I doubted things (The Dip as Seth
| Godin calls it), but somehow I got over them.
| ssss11 wrote:
| I've done it twice - moving overseas and moving back again.
|
| I did enjoy some travel however it is REALLY difficult getting a
| job without having a job when you do want to look again. I also
| spent way too much time stressing about it while I was trying to
| enjoy the time off.
|
| For me the hardest part was being confident in interviews when I
| was unemployed - maybe that comes easier to others.
|
| I don't think I'll ever resign a job again without the next one
| lined up.
| jagger27 wrote:
| It sucked financially but it was the right choice for my mental
| health, at least in the short term.
|
| Just don't wait too long to find something new.
| an9n wrote:
| A while back I quit with nothing to go to due to promises not
| being kept. Wonderfully liberating and empowering, and I found a
| new job within weeks. Strangely I've found it much harder finding
| a job while I'm in work... Got some ideas about drone routing if
| anyone's interested in working on something (current company
| aren't bothered!).
| bellyfullofbac wrote:
| I took an extended leave from my work to travel. I did wonder
| what I was doing going to places and basically looking
| around/being a tourist, but at the end of it I came with the
| realization that I was capable of tackling any problem that came
| at me (not that I encountered any huge problems during the trip,
| although of course I was nervous of what I might face before I
| went), so that's encouraged me to go freelance, and I've handed
| in my notice recently.
|
| The final boost was talking to someone who said I should
| recognize my own strengths, like having the bravery to leave home
| at a young age to go to college. I told her "I didn't feel very
| brave, I had my parents to fall back to in case things went
| wrong.", and I realized, if the freelancing idea didn't work out
| straight away I currently also have enough saved to fall back to.
| streamofdigits wrote:
| It went as not planned
| deepGem wrote:
| So I have done this a couple of times and both outcomes were not
| so great during the journey. In hindsight however, yes it feels
| great.
|
| First job at IBM - I quit in a heartbeat. Had no idea what to do
| next. Attended a Startupweekend event and started working on a
| startup, didn't go anywhere. After a year or so got hired at MSFT
| as a contractor. Quit that for another startup. Reason - this was
| just turning into another cushy job, no real focus just some high
| level strategy etc.
|
| Again quit that startup, without any plan. I was the engineering
| manager I wanted to try building a startup again. A long time
| friend had come down so we teamed up. No idea, nothing to go
| with. We were not in our 20s and had families to support and all
| that. Tried multiple ideas for a year and we split. I pursued
| startups for about 5 years got tired and am now a DE at big tech.
| Like I said, in hindsight all this feels great - but during the
| journey I felt quite miserable. None of my ideas were taking off,
| damn frustrating.
|
| If you want to start your own thing, it's best to not look for
| ideas. My approach is to get to a job where you'll get as close
| as humanly possible to interact with customers and find out where
| their pain points are. Are they happy with the current company,
| what are the issues etc. Try solving those pain points from
| within the company - and you'll know what it really feels like to
| run a startup. If you succeed, great the company will support
| you, you grow and all that. If you figure that the company is
| unsupportive, quit and start up. By then, you already know the
| pain points, and you have some idea of how to solve them. You
| just have to execute.
| nishparadox wrote:
| Few years back I was a co-founder and director of tech and
| research. We were not doing well. I was personally struggling
| financially not just at startup level but also at my
| person/family level. For 8 months nobody (co-founders) took any
| salaries. Because of personal financial struggles, I was drowning
| in a mild debt (asking money from friends) to even sustain
| everyday life. After a year, due to some internal politics (which
| I absolutely hate on any organization and given my more "nice
| guy" personality, I couldn't bare), I decided to quit. I quit
| without any second thoughts. I remember giving resignation
| without anyone anticipating it. I didn't have any plans. After
| quitting, I asked for some compensations which lasted me for only
| 2 months. It was hard for me and my family (you know how Asian
| parents are). Out of nowhere, I decided to pursue grad school. So
| started GRE+TOEFL. Gave it. That was 2 years back. I am still in
| "going to grad school" phase for my Master's. Let's see how it
| goes in next 2 months.
|
| However, out of nowhere during the end of 2019 I was approached
| by a startup here which works in Document AI space. I am the only
| senior. I am juggling through research + engineering ML. But in
| some ways, I didn't anticipate that I would be enjoying so much
| here. But still, imposter syndrome hits hard often.
|
| If I hadn't quit my initial startup plan, I don't know what might
| have happened to my research and career. I might have been more
| miserable.
|
| :) ---
| halkony wrote:
| I quit my job as an actuary 2 months ago, and I'm only 3 years
| out of college. I did work setting up Python backends for annuity
| inventories. I felt underapplied. Quitting was a good decision
| for me.
|
| Another post mentions the common expectation that, without a job,
| you would "suffocate" (though it's far from that). I like that
| idea.
|
| My worldview is pretty similar. To me, money is just a way of
| organizing value. So if I'm a valuable person, why worry about
| money?
|
| I'm very relaxed and better attuned to the humdrum of the world.
| jmkr wrote:
| Was in a rough spot a year ago so I took 3 months off. Found
| myself with a better company, less stress, and more interesting
| work.
|
| We're pretty lucky a lot of us are able to do that.
| ravenstine wrote:
| I've quit my job without a plan a few times in my life. Sometimes
| things get a bit tough, but it works out in the end and I think
| everyone should do it at least once so they can get over the
| fear. Once you don't fear quitting, you're much more
| psychologically free.
|
| I will say that a cash reserve is definitely key. The second time
| I left a job without a plan, I underestimated how much cash I
| would need to sustain myself for a long period of time. I ended
| up moving in with a friend and did a combination of contract work
| and GrubHub for around 6 months. In that time I also wrote and
| shipped a mobile app that I ultimately abandoned because I didn't
| have a good model for monetization.
|
| The closest thing I had to a "plan" for if things really went
| south was to live out of my car. I spent some time to retrofit
| the trunk of my car into covert sleeping quarters and practiced
| sleeping in it. LOL
|
| When I started applying for jobs again, I simply explained that I
| took the time off from traditional employment because I had a few
| apps I wanted to write and needed to dedicate my time to, which
| was 100% true. Employers seemed to have no problem with this at
| all; I actually got more interviews that year than I did in the
| past.
|
| The last time I left I had quite a bit of cash saved up and had
| less rent to pay, thus it was much easier to simply leave without
| another job lined up. I had a few business and engineering
| projects to work on, so my plan was to work on those.
|
| IMO, having more than a simple _financial_ plan is overrated. It
| 's industry dependent, no doubt, but as a developer it can be
| scary to leave a job without another one lined up, and everyone
| will tell you to never quit without already having another job.
| If you are single or at least don't have kids, it's not that hard
| to recover from mistakes, especially if you have a support
| system.
|
| The one other thing I would say is that I think it's best to have
| a _purpose_ when quitting. Definitely quit if you are miserable,
| but quitting and then not having something to do can also be bad.
| irchans wrote:
| I've quit my job with no plans several times. As I got older, it
| got harder to find a job.
|
| When I left the Navy at age 25, I had just been overseas. I had
| applied to a Master's degree program at the same university where
| I got a BS. There was a mix-up and no one had ever looked at my
| application, but several people knew me and they had my grades
| from my BS, so when I showed up in person one week before
| classes, they accepted me (I was paying my own way) and I
| started. I ended up getting a Ph.D. instead.
|
| In 1999 at age 34, I quit my job as CFO for a small unsuccessful
| hedge fund. I applied at Raytheon where I had worked briefly
| before (they were impressed with me) and I applied to work at a
| lab at the university where I got my degrees. I got offers from
| both places within a month, and I was working again.
|
| In 2004 at age 39, I quit my research job at another small
| unsuccessful hedge fund (run by the same people). I once again
| applied at Raytheon and at the same university job and again got
| two offers. I was working again in two months.
|
| In 2006 at age 41, I quit again. I spent a year taking fun
| classes in Machine Learning and Astrophysics. In 2007, the people
| at the small hedge fund convinced me to work again for them.
|
| In 2009, I quit again because my son was having very serious
| health issues and I wanted to stay with him in the hospital for
| six months (he is OK now). In 2010, I applied at the university
| lab where I had worked before and I ended up working there for 7
| years. After 7 years, I was laid off. About a
| year later, I ended up getting a job a huge prestigious hedge
| fund as a quantitative analyst. I quit about six months later in
| 2017 (I just could not hack living in New York City). The same
| night that I quit, my old boss from the small hedge fund called
| me just to say hi. When he heard that I quit, he immediately
| offered me a position which gave me a small salary but also made
| me a partner in the firm. I still work there now.
| Aeolun wrote:
| Depends on how much money you saved up. Did it once with barely
| any savings (<1 month) due to the toll it was taking on my
| health, and it was ultimately the right decision, but I wouldn't
| recommend it.
|
| Spend 4 months doing interview after interview and failing
| miserably (not in the bay area). Until I finally found my current
| position.
| TOTG2 wrote:
| I quit my job early this year with no plan on what to do next. I
| had reached a savings milestone, and so had enough to feel secure
| with no plan.
|
| In that time I travelled with my wife, found and nurtured a
| passion for guitar, and in retrospect it's been one of my
| favourite and most satisfying years in memory. I say in
| retrospect because I find it incredibly hard to recognize "happy
| times" in the moment. The hard parts of life always seem more
| apparent day to day. Also, it took me about a month to start
| feeling anything other than emptiness after I quit.
|
| Having savings was SUPER helpful. It's taken a lot longer to find
| a job than I thought it would. I have a new one lined up, but at
| the moment I'm a little worried it's too soon.
| Normal_gaussian wrote:
| A few years ago my project pipeline was going to pure maintenance
| and upper management was obviously 6mo+ away from knowing what
| they wanted in the next decent sized project. So I talked to my
| manager (CTO) about going down to a 4 day week (pro-rata) to do
| more in my own time. The CEO gets wind, comes in and is really
| agressive and dismissive of what I'm suggesting. This behaviour
| (ceo/cto dynamic) was pretty much the bane of my employment there
| so I wrote up and handed in my resignation.
|
| I had more money than id ever had before and no commitments
| beyond rent and my gf. There were a bunch of things I wanted to
| do, so I did them. Lots of small things like seeing family
| (spread all across tye country, most of whom I hadn't seen as an
| adult/since parents divorce), side projects, and exploring nearby
| cities.
|
| I started freelancing part-time after 6 months (bored mainly) and
| six months after that joined a great company (that I had
| freelanced for).
|
| Honestly, I keep my finances and lifestyle in a place such that I
| can quit when I want, as a result I'm happier and can choose work
| I want when I am prioritising money.
|
| I'm fully remote now and with covid "in decline" have been able
| to spend high quality time with family and friends whilst
| working. Remote work is the best work, no work is better. However
| it is certainly the money that makes it low stress.
| mthwsjc_ wrote:
| It went very well - much better than expected.
|
| My wife was enthusiastic about it and gave me the confidence to
| quit. Until then I'd been looking to get the transition locked in
| before quitting, which wasn't happening and probably never would
| have. At the time I was working in corporate finance and my first
| child had just been born.
|
| I think the added pressure of being scared or uncomfortable gives
| you a huge edge when learning new skills, taking calculated risks
| and trying new things, and working super hard. Working hard in a
| grind or dead-end is sole destroying (I think), working harder on
| something you chose, with tangible personal benefits is
| exhilarating. My career took a new direction and a much steeper
| upwards trajectory.
|
| That was 3 years ago. I've become a freelance data-scientist,
| working remotely in a new country, with a much higher quality of
| life.
|
| I wrote a couple of blog posts at the time reflecting on
| corporate life in London with a young family.
| https://johnmathews.is/corporate.html,
| https://johnmathews.is/london.html
| sooham wrote:
| It was a much needed break. I was burnt out working at Qualcomm
| during the first two years of my career, and to be honest I don't
| think I was a good fit for my team as I lacked understanding of
| hardware. I took a three month break to interview with startups
| and big-tech companies, got an offer from Amazon for 44% more pay
| and travelled to Turkey. I am returning to work in two weeks with
| a fresh mind.
|
| Maybe I will start my own entrepreneurial journey in my late-20's
| but for now I am young.
| andi999 wrote:
| Take as much leave now as possible and use that time to come up
| with a plan. A friend quit a couple of years ago, and for 18
| month he couldn't decide what he wants to do. Eventually he said,
| 'well anything' that pays the bills and then looked for another
| job (which he found). But these 18 month were a total waste of
| time.
|
| And I also believe if you do not have a dream now, it also won't
| come magically to you while doing nothing.
| martindbp wrote:
| I left a job earlier this year due to health issues both for me
| and my wife, plus the strained childcare situation due to Covid
| had us both close to burnout already. It was the best decision we
| could make for the health of our family. Instead I've been
| working on something which I still haven't released, but it's
| close. Our financial future is not really dependent on this
| project replacing my full salary within X months or anything, so
| I find that it hasn't added any extra stress so far. We'll see
| what happens long term though. I'm not ruling out getting a job
| again if this project fails, but so far it's been very nice!
| rzerda wrote:
| Every time someone is in the middle of a career change, I send
| them "Settling" from XKCD: https://xkcd.com/1768/.
| extr wrote:
| My job sucked and I hated it (doing sales analytics for a FinTech
| startup). Boss was an asshole, his boss was an asshole. You know
| how it goes. I had probably a year's worth of living expenses so
| I said fuck it and just quit with nothing lined up. I had the
| idea that I was going to try to start a business. That didn't
| really get off the ground. I'm still piecing together why
| exactly. Perhaps I'm not the kind of person that's good at that
| kind of thing.
|
| In the end I spent about 4 months unemployed. I did get a new
| job, which paid better than my previous one (and had less
| assholes). And then about month into that, a FAANG recruiter hit
| me up and I got a job at one of those places. Ended up doubling
| the salary I had originally quit at. So it all worked out. But I
| feel I got very lucky.
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