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Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

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Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#271

Post by barthom »

randomopining wrote: post #265
barthom wrote: post #119

I quit my job 3 months ago, in late August. I didn't have a plan but I was feeling pretty burnt out (the work culture was pretty toxic) and a bit depressed so I wanted to take some time off to figure out my next steps. I also have a lot saved up so I knew my financials wouldn't be a problem short-term. The first month or so was tough. It felt weird not working on something. Which I think is part of a healthy process…

How much saved up do you think is a lot? Just wondering

~50k dollars. It's obviously not nearly enough to retire on but I can sustain my current lifestyle for at least 3 years without issues, even if my income would be 0

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#272

Post by randomopining »

osrec wrote: post #12

I quit my investment banking job in 2017 and set up my own SaaS. Very tough for the first two years, making little to no money (but I had a good amount of savings). Four years since quitting, I'm better off (many times over), both financially and in terms of how much time I have to do the things I want to. Not for the faint hearted, but I definitely recommend it.

So SaaS is just some online app that does something that somebody pays you a monthly recurring fee for?

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#273

Post by jnguyen64 »

georgeburdell wrote: post #102

I'm going to caution that I have NOT quit my job, but I did take a ~3mo leave of absence from work to study full-time for getting a job as a senior software engineer. This thread seems to take a very optimistic view of quitting, and that getting another job was easy as a fallback option. I can say as an average dev in the Bay Area, I've failed the vast majority of first round technical screens I've encountered. Conse…

interesting perspective - was it mainly leetcode questions that you ended up getting asked for first round technical screens?

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#274

Post by ssss11 »

I’ve done it twice - moving overseas and moving back again.

I did enjoy some travel however it is REALLY difficult getting a job without having a job when you do want to look again. I also spent way too much time stressing about it while I was trying to enjoy the time off.

For me the hardest part was being confident in interviews when I was unemployed - maybe that comes easier to others.

I don’t think I’ll ever resign a job again without the next one lined up.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#275

Post by drudoo »

gaws wrote: post #264
drudoo wrote: post #218

I quit my job of four years because I got a green card and wanted to try to work in the US. I am from Denmark and got the green card through marriage. Moved to Orlando (as my wife had a job there) and applied to roughly 300 IT jobs but only got 2 interviews. Nothing really came of it, as they either wanted to pay me pennies or I didn’t have enough experience. I had about 4 years of project management experience with…

> Moved to Orlando (as my wife had a job there) and applied to roughly 300 IT jobs but only got 2 interviews. > Maybe I was picky but coming from a $95k/y salary and going to a $20/h hourly position wasn’t what I wanted. Nah. Orlando, and Florida in general, is a terrible tech market. Orlando is also a god-awful city. You might have better luck if you were in San Francisco, Austin, New York, or Chicago.

You are probably right. We only moved there because my wife already had a job there and a lot of our friends are in Orlando. We have zero connection to any of the bigger tech cities, so that wasn't even an options.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#276

Post by crossroadsguy »

Was going bonkers without having anything to do during the raging second wave. Started interviewing and joined another job which, now, I already find miserable after these few months.

Do it, but iff, and this is just my opinion, you have clarity about what to do next with or without pay (if your finances allow that).

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#277

Post by tomlagier »

Maybe not quite the answer you're looking for, but I'll throw it in anyway.

- I planned on quitting my FAANG job in February 2020 to go travel the world for 9 months (midlife crisis, sabbatical, whatever you want to call it).

- COVID hit, we came back March 2020.

- Decided to take the opportunity to leave the Bay Area and try our hand at freelance / contracting for time flexibility so we could go travel again once lockdown ended and international travel became a possibility.

- We thought we might come back to the Bay Area once "it was over" and we'd travelled.

- Lockdown stretched on, borders stayed closed.

- Contracting picked up, was able to negotiate part-time hours making enough to live on.

- My partner switched careers successfully, starting a new business.

- Fast forward to now, I'm still contracting. We've put down roots in the small town we moved to. My partner's business is thriving. We're saving up for a house.

Overall life is good. We've traded the stresses of the Bay Area for a different set of stresses - it's equally difficult finding housing here, starting a new business has been hard, and figuring out what I want out of a freelance career has been a struggle as well. We've got a lot more free time, and the flexible hours have been a huge blessing.

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#278

Post by kwere »

DrammBA wrote: post #127
edmcnulty101 wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you define as living 'paycheck to paycheck'? What kind of friends do you have that have loanable startup money? I think you and I come from totally different classes in life.

I was thinking the same thing. Begging my friends for money would land me a couple hundred dollars, maybe a thousand if I cry enough, and I definitely don't have any friends that would let me gamble money on crypto and pay me back if I lose it. It's interesting seeing the stark difference in safety nets.

wait, you can get money from friends?

Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?

#279

Post by kwere »

josh2600 wrote: post #89

Note: I am not an engineer. I’m mostly skilled in telling stories. I got fired from every job I ever had before I started working for myself. Each time I left I ended up in a better job until the last time when I got laid off from a telecom PM role. I went to look for another job and never found one. At the time I was living paycheck to paycheck (barely) so this was quite scary. I did have a small severance but that…

for DD: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuagoldbard/
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