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When you find yourself asking this question, the truth is that you probably should have left a few month earlier. Things rarely improve. Take care of your finances and never put yourself in a position where you are dependent on a job if it is avoidable. It really helps with keeping a clear mind in making these decisions and greatly reduces stress around job changes and uncertainties.
> Raise seed round? - Cashflow more than your full-time income? - Huge traction tho no money yet? or anything else? These sound like the real question is "when should I bail on my FAANG job to try my hand at my startup?", usually antithetical to making the finances more stable (should only do if you are not dependent on a job, which aligns with your advice.)
Earlier quoted context omitted.
The other odd one is Netflix since it's much smaller than the others.
I think its less about size but more about paying ridiculous salary bands. Netflix does that, but to my knowledge Microsoft is still at "body shop" pay levels.
Tech recruiter here in Switzerland with ~10 years of experience: People quit their teams/bosses, rarely do they quit for other reasons, like compensation or brand.
There are definitely some types that only care about their colleagues and bosses (I talked to one in my team just recently), but that's probably not even the majority. These people probably tend to stay a loooong time so maybe they are more visible to the execs?
Despite having a seed round when I left, which definitely weighted the decision, I pay a very little salary to myself, basically covering health insurance and a bit more, so I burn my savings.
I made sure to have around 2 years of savings (not counting my little salary), so if in 10 months the picture is too bad, I can simply get a new job.
Now, what really made the difference in my decision is: - You’re the average of the 5 people you hang out the most. My co-founders are great people with a great tracking record and this makes a huge difference - Learnings. You won’t learn nearly as much about building a business if you continue taking it as a side gig - we have already a product already generating some revenue. Not huge, but we believe in a great potential - as I mentioned, the seed round of course changes the perspective - “if I wouldn’t earn as much, would I stay at my job?”, every time I would think about this, the answer was a big NO! I really didn’t want to live this miserable day to day because of a pay check - lastly, which is very personal, every time I’d think of memories of my childhood and the “rich kids” friend of mine, none of them had parents that were employees. Even now, every “rich person” I know are entrepreneurs. Sure… the odds are low, but I rather take the risk and live the life I want
I left a FAANG-like job in 2016 (VP, CTO) to join a startup. It was a disaster. I then co-founded a startup. I left two years later, parted ways with the other two co-founders in a friendly way. All this time, I funded my life with my savings. I had enough on the side to do that, and thankfully other things went well in my life, so I don't really regret it, but... If I could go back, I'd simply tell myself that most…
As I get older this more and more seems like the way. I have friends with 10+ years at a single job. They work 2-4 hours a day remotely and are so senior they would be very difficult to replace. They will easily be able to retire in their early 40s. Meanwhile I have done 1-3 years at a bunch of different places, tried to start my own things, and am still grinding out 10 hour days.
Tech recruiter here in Switzerland with ~10 years of experience: People quit their teams/bosses, rarely do they quit for other reasons, like compensation or brand.
I left a FAANG-like job in 2016 (VP, CTO) to join a startup. It was a disaster. I then co-founded a startup. I left two years later, parted ways with the other two co-founders in a friendly way. All this time, I funded my life with my savings. I had enough on the side to do that, and thankfully other things went well in my life, so I don't really regret it, but... If I could go back, I'd simply tell myself that most…
Yep. I did the exact same thing ~10ish years ago - leaving my job at Google to run my own startup for 2.5 years. I burned through most of my savings. In the meantime, I watched as my former colleagues got numerous promotions and made more and more money. I wouldn't trade the perspective I got from the experience, but it was extremely emotionally painful.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remove 'into the stock market' But otherwise yea concur. I'm a stickler for diversified asset class allocation Edit: Normally I am not a fan of explaining myself, but the most fundamental principle of wealth management, diversification, calibrating your risk exposure to various markets, is being downvoted. Thank you for the reminder people
Where else are you supposed to get average ~10% returns? Or is your last bit just saying like do some other investments besides purely stock?
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remove 'into the stock market' But otherwise yea concur. I'm a stickler for diversified asset class allocation Edit: Normally I am not a fan of explaining myself, but the most fundamental principle of wealth management, diversification, calibrating your risk exposure to various markets, is being downvoted. Thank you for the reminder people
(this post sponsored by Masterworks)