Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#1

Post by fastbeef » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 10:07 AM UTC

Looking back at my career, quitting each job meant I learned something about myself or the industry.

Job 1: Wanted more money.

Job 2: Learned that what companies say and promise isn't really worth anything. Wanted more money.

Job 3: Learned that companies change with time just like people and that sometimes you outgrow eachother. Wanted more money.

Job 4: I actually don't care about the companies mission. I just want to clock in, work and clock out. Wanted more time/shorter commute.

Job 5: Even if I'm wildly successful at this place, it's a career dead end and I don't want to stay here until retirement. Wanted more money.

Job 6: Self-employed contractor. 30 hour work weeks, paid well and plenty of energy for my family. Staying here for a while.

Why did you quit your job HN?

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#2

Post by timeattack » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 12:25 PM UTC

For the last years I was working on several startups as a contractor.

I always put my very soul to the success of the project, tried to be friend for everyone on the team, committed for 40-50 hours per week. When projects demanded non-profile skills from me, I was open-minded, trying to learn new skillset in no-time to help as quickly as possible.

All the times I was dissapointed on being really no-one in the end for the project.

Despite I was trying to be guiding voice to help project to stay away from bad decisions, project owners were not really listening.

I said, many-many times things like "let's stop delivering new features until we will have at least 1 paying customer and focus on getting customer flow", CEOs just kept pushing in obviously wrong direction which ultimately meant end for the project.

Now I'm fed with all of this and decided to put my limited time to my own projects.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#3

Post by mallowing » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 1:02 PM UTC

Job 1: StartUp shut their doors, got laid off + they paid terrible.

Job 2: Not alligning at all with CTO nor CEO, terrible attitude (OH: "being sick is just a mindset...")

Job 3: Poured my soul into the company, was respected left right and center, but CTO was absolutely clueless. PhD, never coded in his life, had no idea what he was doing. Quit.

Job 4: Marketing and sales driven company, hundreds of Instagram people who drove the StartUp hype train without personality or interest. Good team but terrible environment.

Job 5: Went freelancing ever since. 4-8 months long projects, doubled my income, not attached anymore to a company mission or politics, do my best work and leave.

Job 6: Found a remote + freelance gig. Perfect combination. Have time for my family and myself (Hobbies in the middle of the day, bit more work after my kids are in bed etc.). Be able to have breakfast with them in calm and piece without having to catch a train or beat rush hour.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#4

Post by actionowl » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 2:06 PM UTC

Excluding jobs in High School and College...

Job 1. Not happy with the work I was doing, management was pushing me to learn ASP.Net and Windows stack, wanted to continue using Linux and open source languages.

Job 2. After 5 years I felt like I was stagnating and not learning enough. We started getting projects where I was again spending lots of time in the Windows stack again.

Job 3. Job was "Remote" and an awesome learning experience but I wanted to work "global remote".

Job 4. Currently where I'm at and enjoy the freedom but I do much less development than I used to and that is starting to eat at me I think (We'll see!).

Maybe I've been lucky but I've never switched jobs for pay.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#5

Post by simplecto » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 2:40 PM UTC

There are a few reasons:

"People don't leave jobs. They leave bosses." This is true. I have done it, and I see others do it. And it has happened to me.

You outgrow the position or company. This has also happened for me.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#6

Post by roland35 » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 2:57 PM UTC

Job 1: Lucky to find a job during the recession at an aerospace consultancy which let me learn a lot but after 4 years without a raise I was looking for more money!

Job 2: I enjoyed the project, my team, and the salary was good, but corporate politics eventually killed the project and split up the team. I took a lateral move to a new company.

Job 3: Currently at a smaller company recently acquired, so everything is in flux.

When I am looking for a new job I am not just looking at the current salary but career growth and hoping to get in a strong industry. Right now industrial is a tough industry.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#7

Post by burntoutfire » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 4:05 PM UTC

I quite often feel like I was not made for full time jobs. I know that it's what lazy people say (and quite likely I'm one lol), but I'm amazed that even in spite of my laziness I managed to acquire FIRE money before I'm 40 (and also, without the help of the mad FAANG salaries). To answer your questions - I quit pretty much all my jobs because of the same reason - namely that I don't like working. The job I did were either too dull/repetitive, narrow-minded and/or pointless/stupid to hold my interest. I suspect that the job that would be acceptable for me may not exist - i.e. it would be so nice that the employer wouldn't have to pay for people to work it.

BTW now when I'm basically at FIRE money (I will still work for some months to pad out my account), I feel like I've swam through the ocean of shit to get here.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#8

Post by Jeremy1026 » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 4:26 PM UTC

I only quit once, the CTO (my direct-manager) was a huge micromanager and would belittle you when you answered his questions.

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#9

Post by dsauerbrun » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 4:46 PM UTC

actionowl wrote: post #4

Excluding jobs in High School and College... Job 1. Not happy with the work I was doing, management was pushing me to learn ASP.Net and Windows stack, wanted to continue using Linux and open source languages. Job 2. After 5 years I felt like I was stagnating and not learning enough. We started getting projects where I was again spending lots of time in the Windows stack again. Job 3. Job was "Remote" and an awesome l…

What's your opinion on the windows stack now that .net is open source?

Re: Ask HN: Why did you quit your job(s)?

#10

Post by draw_down » Thu, Jan 16, 2020, 5:41 PM UTC

More money, or the opportunity to work with “better” engineers. (Scare quotes because the betterness was by my perception from the outside. Sometimes they really were better, sometimes they were better at some things and worse at others)

At this point, only money- all the other stuff is subject to change, rapidly, without warning. But the money is written in a contract.