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Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

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Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#121
- Save as much as you possibly can

- Find a nice piece of land (with mineral rights if US) in warm-summer Mediterranean climate in a small, safe town that's run sensibly

- Start a homestead and family on said land

- Start a B&M store that would be vital to the area

- Pickup a hobby

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also big consultancy, which allows you to see all kinds of companies, work on different types of projects and still have a bit of consistency at your firm. It's not for everyone, but if you value some consistency, decent pay and working for different types of projects and companies, it's definitely worth checking it out. It's not the type of job to find a 'mission' though, usually.

I've seen consulting being suggested freq as a viable gig to support yourself when you run out of money to pay the bills. How does this work? Register on Upwork or fiverr? What if your capabilities as a consultant are inadequate? What if you struggle more than you actually did at a full time job? How do you position yourself for the gig?

Fiverr and Upwork are for inexperienced people with no network and no deep skills. I am sure there are people who are good who are on both but that's not who they are for.

Most of the time, you make money consulting to people you worked with, directly or indirectly, previously. To make consulting work, you need to offer a specific, deep skill that is not widely available. This can include specific systems or toole, specific markets, specific deployments, and so on. This is specifically why Upwork and Fiverr don't make any sense - no one who hires someone to do consulting is going to look on either for highly skilled hires and likely wouldn't take seriously anyone who was on them.

Unfortunately, this does mean that doing consulting prior to getting career experience and building out your network is quite difficult and has a very different earnings profile than it would otherwise.

Being close to the customer helps in finding these gigs, especially vendor-side.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also big consultancy, which allows you to see all kinds of companies, work on different types of projects and still have a bit of consistency at your firm. It's not for everyone, but if you value some consistency, decent pay and working for different types of projects and companies, it's definitely worth checking it out. It's not the type of job to find a 'mission' though, usually.

I've seen consulting being suggested freq as a viable gig to support yourself when you run out of money to pay the bills. How does this work? Register on Upwork or fiverr? What if your capabilities as a consultant are inadequate? What if you struggle more than you actually did at a full time job? How do you position yourself for the gig?

big consultancy sounds like BCG/Bain/McKinsey/etc to me, not freelance - aka you have a brand and other people driving the business engine and handling logistics like taxes for you

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's also big consultancy, which allows you to see all kinds of companies, work on different types of projects and still have a bit of consistency at your firm. It's not for everyone, but if you value some consistency, decent pay and working for different types of projects and companies, it's definitely worth checking it out. It's not the type of job to find a 'mission' though, usually.

I've seen consulting being suggested freq as a viable gig to support yourself when you run out of money to pay the bills. How does this work? Register on Upwork or fiverr? What if your capabilities as a consultant are inadequate? What if you struggle more than you actually did at a full time job? How do you position yourself for the gig?

I think the parent suggested joining a consultancy company. The work I did for one was regular coding work, just with projects changing faster. It was nice having new colleagues frequently when switching clients. Salary was lower than product companies in the area paid.

I joined it as my first job after graduating. I was expert in nothing but was billed as one straight from day 3. Excellent way to learn as a motivated junior, assuming the company cares and places you among seniors who know what they are doing. For senior people independent freelancing is way better deal monetarily.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#126

I quit full-time work in 2001, after being burned out in the dot com boom. I did well for myself financially after the startup I was in got bought. The phrase "well" is of course subjective, considering that no colleague of mine quit. I left a whole lot of money on the table, but never once have I regretted it. I decided that the name of the game is to optimise quality of life. That means, infrequent brutal deadlines…

This is great. As a new (1 year) coder starting out at 39 years old, this sounds very similar to the path I envision for myself. Thanks for the inspiration!

What language/s are you starting out in (if you don't mind answering)?

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#127
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Small companies more easily provide perks such as part/flex-time and remote work.

Totally disagree as someone who has done both a few times: Try working remotely or from home with a small company or startup. In those environments you typically wear more than one hat and it requires face time. You'll also often work longer hours which throws any chance at a work/life balance out the window.

Just as a counterbalance, my experience is the exact opposite. No client yet succeeded at making me work more than 20 hours a week (and even that I agreed to after heavy negotiation).

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#128

You might relate with the following article titled: “Only Intrinsic Motivation Lasts Why I Quit a $500K Job at Amazon to Work for Myself“ https://danielvassallo.com/only-intrinsic-motivation-lasts/

I personally know several people who quit and left behind seven figure payouts who did so because they were stressed out and hated the environment in which they found themselves. Every single one of them has, at one time or another, noted that this was a stupid mistake and they should have just ground through to at least the next big vesting cliff. Without exception.

They're all doing OK now, and all of them had done OK before that, but I think that for every person who claims no regrets, there's someone like the people I know who did it for similar reasons but have decided that it was, all in all, a dumb thing to do.

Maybe when this author is past the "Last week I left my cushy job at Amazon" (first line of the essay) phase, he or she may also conclude this was silly. People have a way of re-evaluating things.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#129

Don't think of your FANG job as a way of doing productive work. Instead, treat it as an opportunity to: * Network with the smart people that the BigCo's HR has carefully vetted for you. Specifically, find the ones that share your interests and may want to found a startup together. * Hone your presentation skills in numerous meetings. * Make contacts to other companies and learn about some business models previously u…

I don't know. I feel that most FAANG employees are too risk averse to start a startup (which is why they work at a big company in the first place). YC actually gave the advise to work at a startup to find cofounders.

Re: Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?

#130

> How do I know what the source of the problem is? You don’t like working for FANG. That seems like a totally normal sane response to me. I’d be more concerned about the people who love that corporate environment rather than those it doesn’t give meaning to. Some people like the security and routine and structure (understandable), some people like the politics (weird), but I don’t think you need to overthink this. Th…

This response resonates a lot with me. To give one perspective on working in non-tech: I'm pretty much the only tech person in my organization surrounded by economists and agronomists. I love it, it gives me a lot of autonomy and potential for impact. It's also really fun to mix different disciplines and learn how everyone else approaches things. It's an NGO so definitely not FAANG-level compensation but the work feels meaningful which I think makes up for that. Can't really compare to FAANG though, never worked there.
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