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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?

#381

Post by MetalGuru »

newsbinator wrote: post #9

Before making the "jump", I recommend you take a leave of absence for 1 ~ n months. Go live abroad, make new friends, shake up your day-to-day, challenge yourself in non-tech ways. Then after n months test how you feel about going back to work (and to your high salary). If you're dreading it like it's torture, there's a strong indicator you should be thinking of alternatives.

I wish taking a sabbatical was this thing you could just up and decide to do. A lot of times you’re needed to much by management. I guess you could give them an ultimatum if you’re absolutely ready to follow through and leave.

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

#382

Post by hinkley »

mepiethree wrote: post #230
blablabla123 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> mature tooling that exists at FAANG I never worked at FAANG but even after more than 10 years working in tech, it still surprises me how undervalued well working tooling is. I'm not talking about 100% automation with infinite possibilities. Just really basic stuff, like deployment or setting up a development environment. That should always be a no-brainer.

I used to work at Google, and I find the tooling much better on the outside. Heroku is much better than Google's deployment tool; Github is much better than their review tool. The only things I miss are the snacks and the searchable codebase

I did a short contract at Amazon (not AWS) and I couldn't get away fast enough. What a rat's nest.

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

#383

Post by fooker »

ghaff wrote: post #290
fooker wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>barring misfortune like a health incident. Here is a reminder to everyone that a health incident is only a financial misfortune in the US.

If a health incident makes you unable to work, that's a financial issue in much of the world.

> that's a financial issue in much of the world.

Well, unless they have a pension. Which about half the countries in the world seems to provide, at least for government jobs.

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

#384

Post by virtuabhi »

ambicapter wrote: post #324
o-__-o wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was you, 5 years later I am working at a FAANG making 400k/yr Mind you I was making only 80k less at my last job, a non-FAANG startup. So not saying FAANG is everything, but the workload is sufficiently less than the mad max startup lifestyle.

What did you do in the 5 intervening years?

leetcode

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

#385

Post by wopila »

Seems to me that you need some time, not to ask HN, but to ask yourself. Take a break for a few weeks. Go to a silent meditation retreat? Wake up to the fact that your financial compensation may be high, but that you're currently feeling very poor because of the lack of authenticity in your life. Follow that authenticity, no matter where it's calling you, and you'll be wealthy.

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

#386

Post by ghaff »

fooker wrote: post #383
ghaff wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If a health incident makes you unable to work, that's a financial issue in much of the world.

> that's a financial issue in much of the world. Well, unless they have a pension. Which about half the countries in the world seems to provide, at least for government jobs.

There often are in the US as well for government jobs. But they usually depend on a significant number of years of tenure and defined benefit plans are pretty rare at this point for private employers. (Which isn't even necessarily a bad thing unless you think retirement benefits should be heavily tied to decades of employment with a single company.)

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

#387

Post by hinkley »

whitehouse3 wrote: post #291
badfrog wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> these engineers, while they all tend to be very smart, tend to be borderline junior engineers in the real world Define "real world"?

Small-medium sized businesses without dedicated devops people. I'm working with an ex-Googler who struggles with basic dev stuff like * How to make a Python environment for a brand new project * Source control basics like commits and merging * Reading documentation or using SO * Basic command-line debugging or even using print() statements! I've asked a few times: "How did you get anything done before?". And (S)He re…

I've heard a similar commentary about Microsoft millionaires founding startups and having absolutely no clue how hard logistics is.

Because if you have a guy showing up on Monday, there's an office already set up and ready for him by close of business the previous Thursday.

I like to solve problems at work with openly available tools. I will often file patches or add comments to tickets or StackOverflow so that when I am at a new place all of that information is still documented somewhere I can get at it.

In house tools are a siren's call. And the fact of the matter is that if you wrote a tool because you had a need for it before anyone else did, that eventually others will want it too, and there will absolutely come a day when their version eclipses yours. You have to have a way to run your systems without tying them that tightly to a specific tool. And you have to accept that the 4 years of utility you got out of that tool was money well spent and you can retire it now with a clean conscience.

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

#388

Post by simonebrunozzi »

I left "big corporate" after 8 years (AWS, VMware) of which last 2 as executive/VP, to join a young startup as CTO, and then founding my own company as CEO. Both experiences have been extremely challenging and/or disappointing, for multiple reasons.

The startup I joined as CTO was a total disaster, despite a big series A and two seasoned serial entrepreneurs as founders, and it failed few months after I left.

Running my own company (with two co-founders) was incredibly tough, and we had to endure "crypto-winter" because what we were building was crypto-related (but no-BS, trust me on this). Thankfully, a year after I stepped down, the company seem to be on a promising track.

All in all, I "lost" millions of dollars in opportunity costs (VP total comp in Bay area is easily between 400/500k and 1M per year gross, all included), and having that extra money right now would have been useful for "peace of mind". But at least I tried to do things that I thought were interesting.

My humble suggestion is: make sure that if you quit your personal wealth situation is so good that if the new thing is not going to turn out great, you're still going to be ok.

Also, try to analyze in depth what it is that you don't like about your corporate job. In hindsight, I know that AWS or VMware were not the right type of environment for me (not in general; just the specific teams I was part of) going forward, but I would have probably thrived in a smaller company as CTO or similar.

Right now I'm an operating partner at a VC firm, I really like it (I think the specific VC firm I deal with is outstanding, compared to the average, in my experience), and things seem to be going ok.

Hope this was helpful. Not easy to share personal stuff, especially when it's about a tough period in life. (disclaimer: all is relative; first world problems; etc).

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

#389

Post by aerophilic »

ThrowawayR2 wrote: post #372
aerophilic wrote: post #255

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I realize this may come off poorly, but I intend this as a serious question: What is stopping you from trying a career switch now? I get we all need to pay the bills, but hear me out: could you explore alternative options slowly? One piece of insight I received from my advisor: “How do you know someone really wanted something. They DID it.” If you are serious about wanting to try something else, start doing it. See i…

We all need to pay the bills, as you noted. It's difficult to hold down a job and re-skill yourself at the same time. It's more difficult as one gets older. It's even more difficult if you're burnt out. Once you get done with re-skilling, the question still remains: how are you going to get someone to hire you?

To answer/comment in reverse: “How are you going to get someone to hire you?”

For this question, I fall back in a fundamental belief system I have: value for value. Everyone looks for value when they make a major purchase. You expect to get more “value” then it “costs” you when you buy something. Same is true with employment.

The easiest way to guarantee employment (in my experience) is to ensure the value you provide greatly exceeds your total cost. I am talking ideally a 5-10X multiplier (minimally).

For your cost, keep in mind this is your total cost, and I am not just talking about your “fully burdened rate”, I am also talking about the “Emotional/drama/personality” you bring. If you are a model worker, and the person everyone likes, then you have positive karma, if you are someone that makes things harder, that is an additional “cost”.

For the value, be very honest with yourself. What do you bring from a technical/personality point of view. Are you really a 10X programmer, or if switching fields, how good will you really be on day one, 10, 100.

As long as you can give a positive ratio, with a high multiple, I suspect finding a job won’t be hard.

Okay, to your main point: Finding time/motivation when none is there.

I personally have been through burnout. It sucks. The only surefire way I have found to get through it is time and finding meaning in the day to day.

But to the finding the time: the simple answer is if this is really important to you, then you make the time, every day. You don’t have to spend a ton of time, but even just 30mins a day can get you somewhere if you are diligent. It just comes down to how disciplined you can be with yourself. It sounds easy, but I know from experience that it is usually the “easy” things that are the hardest to really do.

Hopefully this helps...

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

#390

Post by sriram_malhar »

TurkishPoptart wrote: post #358
sriram_malhar wrote: post #148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consult, I teach (distributed systems) at a university, I sit on a few technical advisory boards for a few companies. I don't really go out of my way to find clients; word gets around and I get referrals. If the problem interests me, I'm happy to sit with the potential client and give pointers and advice (for no charge) even if I don't want to take that project (cf. rule 1 -- never pack my calendar). It is a win-wi…

Sorry, can you clarify how you got your health insurance taken care of? I know a number of people that would retire if they could, but need the health insurance for themselves/family/kids.

By taken care of, I meant earn enough to take care of insurance and housing. But there's a lot of wiggle room there. People spend much too much on having a larger space than they can afford, and then it becomes a millstone. For health insurance, I go for high deductibles and copay and take the risk. For vision and dental, I go for health-tourism ... hang out by a beach and get your checkups done as well.
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