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Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

joshuahu.io

111–120 of 233 posts

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#111
post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By household income any couple with google type jobs should be 1%. It is obviously going to be high. What is the interest for there?

Not the asker, but I am always interested in how people come to be wealthy, mostly because it's almost always interesting. Even "worked at google" is interesting because I am personally from a region with no tech unicorns, so it's novel to me.

Not 1%, but it tends to be some element of luck, risk taking, and a lot of hard work. Luck can be such a huge factor. Some times a lot of all three.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#112
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is the kind of mindset that discourages people from taking healthy risks. There are any number of legitimate ways to explain a gap, such as, "No, I was not actually playing video games and surfing reddit the entire time! I actually wanted to invest more time in ____. Can I share with you what I learned?" Disclaimer: my CV has often been a horrendous mess of 3-6 month "gaps" (during which time I learned many of m…

You can easily eliminate every gap up to 12 months and some gaps up to 23 months simply by omitting months on your resume. Quit job A in January and joined job B in December of the next year? 2011-2013 at Job A, 2014-Present at Job B! Solved!

Exactly. If pressured on interview to detail months then have a good fractal story. People love stories. First mention is one sentence; if listener is interested then you go into more detail.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We give our employees time to take sabbaticals. One person took 6 weeks and hiked the El Camino trail in Spain. We actually have to encourage people to take time off :)

We found a unicorn! Jokes aside, that's a really admirable - and in my experience, rare - thing you're doing. Your employees are really lucky.

Thanks. Our business is well set up for it and it makes sense. I think more businesses can do it than they think. We all need hard reset now and again. It doesn’t take six weeks. Probably more like 2, but it is super important.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#115

A "gap" seems to be almost like a crime no tech worker should dare do. I have seen otherwise rational coworkers reject resumes only for having a "gap". Most want to relax, but the same people also punish those who do just that. I thought it was a quirk of the society I live in, but from comments here, it looks like it's the norm in all countries.

I view 1-1.5 year jumping as more of a risk. At the level of maturity that I'm at it's actually more of a mental health concern than it is anything else. I encourage people to move fast but I also know from my own patterns that the fast moves are a sign of depression.

This guy has a biography online about what he did so screw that. Just post a link to this article if you re-enter the work force. But you'll have something to put there anyway.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#116
post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure who your friends are but where I am half the young people are creatives or otherwise not traditionally full time employed and my experience has been people are far more likely to avoid you for being a boring banker/lawyer/accountant in a suit (which I used to be) than unemployed with a good story about what you are doing, which could spark a decent conversation.

I live in Dallas, which is notorious for being pretentious, not very creative, and pretty "corporate", so that probably contributes to the experience I've had.

Hear here.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did this, and unfortunately your fears became reality for me. Like you said, I only had a vague idea of what I wanted to do (including traveling, starting my own company, continuing education, side projects, etc). Almost 2 years into it I ended up just barely dabbling in each. I traveled for a few months, worked on some side projects, and learned some new things, but didn't really do anything "big" or traditionally…

Because these are all the excuses people give when they were fired and couldn't find another job. Especially after 2 years, when the unemployed person has likely given up on the search. But seriously, if you enjoyed the job so much, why leave? Why not just take a quick vacation and keep enjoying the job?

Enjoying the job? Office jobs are not exactly milkshake.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I feel like not being sure what you would do with your time if you weren't working is one of the surest signs you're really truly burnt out. For the intellectually curious, the world has an endless supply of fascinations to explore. For the civic minded, there's countless causes and people who could use your help. For the pleasure seekers, there's a rainbow of experiences left to live. And what better time then when…

I'm intrigued by your sign of burnout. I have over 100 hours of vacation time left that I need to use before 2018 ends. I've been indecisive on how to use it. I don't know if it's because I'm a workaholic, unimaginative or burnt out. I feel like not knowing what to do with free time could be a sign of any three, I don't know how you would figure out which though.

Just sleep and read books, it simply can't go wrong. Books and bedtime help more ideas come. Do lots of cooking if enjoyable.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#119
post #2

I'm happy for you but this is a super privileged viewpoint that most people can't really learn from. I'd be happy too if I could just take a year off and do whatever I want. Most people can't do things like traveling to different cities and trying out a new place for 3 months. It's just unrealistic and only reflects and incredibly tiny population. More importantly: has it really been the best thing you've done for yo…

I think a more accurate title could simply be "not working for a year is fun"... and then the immediate reaction is "no kidding".

Just due to fatigue (perhaps CFS not sure) I've taken 6 weeks off between jobs this year and last. The fatigue is probably why I'm getting crushed by these jobs.

Watched all if breaking bad, did stuff like that. No achievements. Its nice to just rest. With kids there is still a lot to do. It feels like no job + kids is enough to keep me fulfilled if I had unlimited money.

Re: Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career

#120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because these are all the excuses people give when they were fired and couldn't find another job. Especially after 2 years, when the unemployed person has likely given up on the search. But seriously, if you enjoyed the job so much, why leave? Why not just take a quick vacation and keep enjoying the job?

Enjoying the job? Office jobs are not exactly milkshake.

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