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How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

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Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#111

Post by marssaxman »

throwaway289910 wrote: post #6
minimaxir wrote: post #2

About a year ago, I quit my job at Apple because I wasn't able to apply my technical skills in my role and I was not successful in transferring to another department (full blog post: http://minimaxir.com/2017/05/leaving-apple/ | HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14270897 ) Despite the loss of a salary and frustration in getting another job (Tweetstorm about data science job hunting: https://twitter.…

I'm currently about to quit Microsoft and am going through the exact same set of questions in my head. I joined the company a few months ago and am blown away by how bad the culture is - or how badly I fit into the culture, take your pick. If you don't fit the culture, it's time to leave.

I stayed at Microsoft a lot longer than I should have because I could not imagine what I wanted to do next. That experience ground away at my self-confidence, every day I was there, and I should have left much sooner. Only after leaving did I start to unwind enough that I could imagine other possibilities worth pursuing.

I've heard that the culture varies widely between groups, but the culture in the Visual Studio group was not one which ever had any hope of creating space for me to use the skills and creative outlook everyone genuinely seemed to believe they were hiring me for. If you don't fit the culture, then yes, I agree, leave as soon as you can.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#112

Post by Redoubts »

ttul wrote: post #73
yfiapo wrote: post #33

Yeesh, the mindwash is strong. I had a hard time continuing to read this post after the Prestige by Association section. Working at a respected company known for cutting edge work is generally a good sign but it does not make you an Internet God or widen my eyes. It is like saying you went to Harvard or MIT. That's neat. You are probably reasonably intelligent. However, even that isn't an automatic and I'll reserve j…

Two fucking years of savings? What world is this guy living in?

I don't understand how you couldn't save 50% of your income per year while working at facebook.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#113

Post by beisner »

CiPHPerCoder wrote: post #62
jonjojr wrote: post #51

How to Quit? really? "Hey Jerry, got a min? Look, I don't think this is working out. Here is my letter of resignation, and my two week notice. Thank you." Done! How hard is that to do? There is nothing holding you in chain in that job unless you are actually being held in chain in that job, at which point you should seriously analyze your life choices.

> and my two week notice That might not be a good idea to give.

Contrary to the downvotes, I agree with this sentiment. Technically you don't even need to give 2 weeks notice at most tech firms, it's completely at-will, so you can quit any time you like. Very few people do that though, and for good reason: unless there's a majorly important reason (i.e. death in family, horrible work incident, etc.), doing so leaves coworkers and management in the lurch.

Now, you might think, "I don't owe the company anything", and that's totally true. But at the end of the day, you are in fact working with other people, and how you treat other people (and how they perceive you are treating them) has consequences both on your interpersonal relationships with these people, and potentially on your future career path. Tech is a pretty small community, and people have a funny way of having way too many mutual connections, so quitting (and leaving colleagues in the lurch) might come back to bite you somewhere else down the line.

My advice is usually to quit with enough time to wrap things up or hand them off gracefully, and not to blindside anyone (unless, again, of extraordinary circumstances). This amount of time is totally position-dependent; for some it could be 3 days, for others (maybe the director of an organization) it could be months. But 2 weeks in all cases is nonsense - it's totally dependent on your situation and rapport with colleagues.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#114

Post by foepys »

deckard1 wrote: post #102

......................

> That said, you're going to be unemployable after 2 years

Bullshit. 2 years means time for personal projects that could even make you more employable. Even then, your skills and experience don't suddenly become obsolete. You might not get another job at Amagoosoftple but there are a lot of other companies out there that seek skilled workers.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#116

Post by bthornbury »

boffinism wrote: post #67

Oh good lord. If you want to quit a job, quit it. Top tier tech is no different to anything else. OP should have titled this post "How to not realise you're having an existential crisis and respond to it by massively over-complicating a very simple career decision."

Fundamentally this is true, but bringing yourself to the point where you "just quit" is quite difficult.

I think you're ignoring a lot of human things like that a lot developers are quite isolated and working 60+ hours a week. Their social group is quite likely just their co-workers. Especially for new devs who have relocated.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#117

Post by Cofike »

wil421 wrote: post #105
hellllllllooo wrote: post #93

2 years of savings is a crazy suggestion. 3-6 months should be fine especially if you've got top tier company on your resume.

Why would you quit before finding a job? I work on a relatively mundane but desirable platform at a boring megacorp and get hit up by recruiters on LinkedIn weekly.

Take some time to work on stuff you find interesting? That's been the reason I've done it so far.

If you are in the financial situation to do it I would recommend. Granted I work in a location where no one cares if you have a two year gap, let alone a two month, on your resume.

The real trick is not just bum around the entire time otherwise then yes it was probably a bad call.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#118

Post by danShumway »

I quit my job around two weeks ago (post: https://danshumway.com/blog/leaving-oracle/). I'm mostly working on Open Source now, might expand to contracting in the future.

It was not an easy decision to make; I don't know if that's because of the culture I was in or just because of me. What eventually pushed me was realizing that it wasn't an all or nothing venture; the most realistic worst case scenario is that I flesh out my portfolio, learn a bunch of skills, and then join another company via a better resume.

I disagree about a lot here though. 2 years of income is unnecessarily lavish for most people. If you've worked at a reputable company for a few years, the "prestige" will follow you. No one will care if you worked there for 3 years or 4.

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#119

Post by jogjayr »

caymanjim wrote: post #32
AceJohnny2 wrote: post #20

> you have enough savings to last at least two years. I've always heard it as being 6 months. Especially with his next point assuming you can certainly find employment. Or maybe that's what I chose to remember, because I'm lucky enough to work in a high-employment sector in a region that can't fill enough positions: i.e. my profile is in high demand. (... for now. I know)

Almost no one has enough savings to last two years. It's an absurd metric and enforces how out of touch the author is. It reads as nothing more than a brag. Anyone good enough to get hired by Facebook in the first place is going to have no problem finding a job in two weeks, nevermind two years. Quit, shop around and burn some savings until you find something good enough. If it's not your dream job, stick with good e…

> Almost no one has enough savings to last two years. It's an absurd metric and enforces how out of touch the author is.

You should check out r/financialindependence sometime. A whole community of people (358k subscribers at present) who would consider that amount table stakes. I'll admit not all 358k of those subscribers would actually have that much money but it's still hardly "almost no one".

Re: How to Quit a Top Tier Tech Job

#120

Post by phyzome »

deckard1 wrote: post #102

......................

On the other hand, Facebook is made of people, and if the people leave, there isn't a Facebook. If it's not going to happen all at once, it has to happen gradually.

The candidate pool for good devs is still relatively small, too. It does hurt them, incrementally.

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