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Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

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11–20 of 182 posts

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#11
> Part of me is tired of spending so much of my life in front of a computer.

I left my job 2022 February to not sit in meetings and mostly be a preventer of bad engineering rather than a builder of good stuff. On a good day, I told people how they were wrong - on a bad day, I told them how they were wrong, again.

If you have the option of taking a sabbatical, I would recommend taking one out of your own choice rather than being an unemployment statistic due to your own lack of motivation.

I quit rather than a sabbatical, because I could hand-pick my successors for the roles I occupied and it was better to kick about 3 people into core roles & get them promoted for it, than have them do the work only for me to show up 8 weeks later to hand it all back in for no benefit to their careers.

Took me 3 months before I didn't feel the need to "accomplish something today" to feel good about my day and mostly I went through my Netflix list, read through a ton of books that I've always meant to read and went for walks to the coffee shop instead of driving.

This isn't the first break of my life and it's technically possible to double your summer break in a year, because we've got options for winter.

The biggest thing that has always helped me in these situations is to head to the other side of the planet, because being in a cold place with short days feels bad when you wake up and there's nothing to do immediately on your mind.

I just got back from a trip to Patagonia and the only reason I haven't headed back to New Zealand again, is because I'm now interviewing again for jobs (also kids, kids need to be in school).

If you are talented, with a significant experience going back years, the fact that you took a break from your career to do something else for a bit isn't going to matter to a single employer. Oddly enough, I also spent enough time away to be out of the no-competes for a few work related systems, so my open areas expanded because of a break.

If you're tired of work, don't find another job - you probably need to remember who you are outside of work, before you can go back in to do something else.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#12
post #6

I know self-driving cars have had a rough several years, but there are still some good companies out there where ML would be highly valued and the problems are more grounded. (Cruise, for example - have a friend who works there)

Having worked at Cruise it's the last place I'd recommend to someone who's burned out.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#14
You mentioned office politics but some of the FAANG parts aren't that bad. Why don't you see how your friends feel? Friend of a friend works at google with autonomous vehicles (I think it was android for cars), he liked it there while the web dev at google left pretty quickly.

If you have a passion and want to share it, see if you can contribute to home assistant, there's a project to add a chat gpt like to it although it looks more like a decision tree.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#15
post #6

I know self-driving cars have had a rough several years, but there are still some good companies out there where ML would be highly valued and the problems are more grounded. (Cruise, for example - have a friend who works there)

Having worked at Cruise it's the last place I'd recommend to someone who's burned out.

How come? Just long hours or something else?

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#18
When it comes to burnout, the general advice I received is take minimum 1 year off work.

I left my job a few months ago as the burnout got so bad I wasn’t able to conjure up the motivation to tackle the simplest of tasks.

First couple months I didn’t feel any better and I was getting worried. But I’m _just_ starting to feel better now. I’m finding myself more positive and less stressed.

So what am I doing? I’m living out of my car travelling around NZ, doing a crazy amount of hiking, and a tiny amount of freelancing.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#19

(OP here) I wanted to avoid a wall of text, so I'll elaborate here on where I'm coming from. My complaints with FAANG have to do with perverse incentives that reward nonsensical decisions, poorly thought-out and over-engineered projects, grandiose documents, duplication of work, selective reporting of metrics, etc. The few times I had a really good manager, a sane environment, and fulfilling work only lasted until th…

I don't know if your lifestyle allows you some 'runway', but you may consider rekindling your passions by dedicating time to FOSS projects, where you don't have crazy management structure and can find a project where innovation is possible and aligns with your interests.

Re: Ask HN: Burnt out from big tech. What's next?

#20
Go travel for a few months. Some place you don’t know the language. Change your environment to something different than what you’re used to!

It may not immediately reveal what the best option is. But you won’t regret traveling, and this sounds like the perfect time to do it.

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