The end of the notice period roughly lined up with the start of the ski season, so I'm going to do a ski season.
same here, gave notice last week and can't wait to focus on snowboarding.
Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
131–140 of 320 posts
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#132I worked as a data analyst at a hospital, but by early 2020 I was tired of it. They harassed me whenever my butt wasn't in the seat from 9 to 530, a seat which was in a cubicle dungeon with barred windows and bright fluorescent tubes. I asked for WFH for years and they never relented. Right after I left, no job lined up, the pandemic hit, and they all got moved to WFH: guess it was possible after all, bad luck for me!
I was funemployed throughout the pandemic. I did a lot of childcare, art projects, home repairs, and yardwork for my family. I kept my eyes open, eventually finding a massive upgrade in QoL job after 12 months of looking.
You only have one life. If your job is unbearable, you need to make a change. Every year is 2% of your career, don't waste it at a dead end. If you can't afford to leave, figure out how to lower your expenses, or use time at your current job to search for other jobs.
Life is too short for miserable jobs.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#133I've had quite a journey since quitting, so sorry for the long post! I worked at a company writing mathematical software for 8 years. The work was interesting, but I kept feeling there was a deeper way of thinking about some particular topic I was working on (e.g. data science, array programming, visualization, deep learning). Unfortunately, writing production code didn't leave me the time and energy to pursue these…
Can't wait for the "Geometric algebra" part !
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#134I was laid off five years ago, and I never found another job. Ended up spending a month doing the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and doing more stuff like swing dancing. Later on I met someone at a swing dance that I worked on a "side project" for a long time that became our current startup, which has been more meaningful to me than any job I've worked previously. (We're doing health and biotech and save people from ho…
Awesome story! I've been needing an excuse to do el camino. What route did you take and how was it?
I did a section of the Camino del Norte. And it was fantastic. In my.mind you've got two choices. The cheap route, which is staying at the hostels where the most people on the Camino go. Or you can live it up, as you'll be jumping into a new town at the end of everyday. We did a mix of both and it was a blast!
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#135[deleted]
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#136> Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
I was planning to quit in the fall of 2009 to do a startup, but things turned sour in my job so I quit earlier and worked on my side project.
My side project / startup was a disaster, but in early 2010 I was able to devote my full time energies to my job search.
In general, I prefer looking for a job when "it's my job to look for a job." It makes it easy to compare different opportunities, and I don't need to sneak around on the sly.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#137I had severe burnout after doing 2 years remotely. I spent 4 months doing very little. A friend then convinced me to join his startup and I had a lot of fun (this time IRL). I'm still there 1.5 years later and we're doing well.
Random luck I reckon. I needed a break though.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#138After skimming half the thread and only seeing one view (DO IT! It’s GREAT!), I’m going to throw this out there: - You will have heavy selection bias here (people who did not succeed might be working at a crappier job and unable to comment at this moment) - You will also have confirmation bias among those who willingly quit (“of course it was the right move”) - You are asking a very unique set of people with very val…
OP is also asking people their experiences, but those experiences are informed by their local set of pros and cons. What I've encountered: 1. I've never had bigger improvements in my financial outcomes than when I said 'f-it' and pulled the ripcord 2. Doing so dropped my into a stresspit that was grinding me into a red paste, resulting eventually in being Riffed 3. Which let me find a job that, while not great, has g…
what's the reasoning to never quit on a Friday?
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#139I went from making $3500 a month to making $500 a month. Barely scraping by. Also, I didn't exactly quit but was let go. I just didn't want to go back to a job. Making my own games and freelancing right now. I wouldn't recommend quitting your job unless you have a plan or are secure enough in your self worth that the amount of money you make doesn't change your own opinion about yourself.
Re: Ask HN: Those who quit their jobs without anything planned. How did it go?
#140I quit my job in May 2019... before the pandemic started.
I was working as a senior data analyst at an insurance company in Canada. The work was boring, thankless and pretty exhausting but I was paid well (for a data analyst, anyway). There were no opportunities on the data science team since I didn't have an MSc so I didn't have a clear next step. At the same time, I had started the OMSCS program that January and that was eating up my off time.
I was too busy just trying to stay on top of school and work that I just couldn't see myself having the time to prep for tech interviews or do some side projects to jump-start the tech side of my resume. I decided I just wanted a breather.
I resigned and cited wanting to get ahead on my degree. I figured this would be a reasonable narrative if the gap in my employment were to ever come up during an interview.
I spent 10 months focusing on school, enjoying my time and improving my development skills.
When I started looking, I applied to about 25 data scientist and a handful of ML engineer roles. I received no callbacks except for one ML Eng role which didn't go anywhere. Luckily an old manager was starting a data science team at another insurance company at the same time as I was looking. He basically handed me a data engineer role with a bump in compensation in early 2020.
If I reflect:
- It worked out extremely well for me. I left a non-technical job, had a nice 10 month break and ended up getting a development job where I get to write code all day. I actually enjoy my work now and I have learned so much since then. Zero regrets for me.
- At the same time, I underestimated how little my experience as a data analyst meant to data science teams. I would have had to apply to many more jobs to get something via the standard online application approach. I think that would have been really stressful.
- I ate through about 25% of my cash which was a little painful to watch.
I think if you have a strong skill set and experience profile, its probably just fine. If you were like me and trying to make a big switch (eg. data analyst to data scientist or some kind of eng), it was a risky move and I wouldn't recommend it without a plan. I lucked out. YMMV.