Quitting my job has been the best thing I've done for my career • Hacker News Board

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

#151

Post by i_made_a_booboo » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 8:50 AM UTC

I'm pretty much coming to the end of mine now. Except I feel burnt out from the sabbatical whereas I generally always felt pretty good at work.

I read a shit tonne this last 8 months and have noticed a big upgrade in my worldview. I shipped a couple of projects on my own which I'm proud of too.

I grew immensely from the experience and a whole bunch of things I always toyed with the idea while working I actually got to try out and see how I really felt about them and not how I thought I was going to feel.

The recruiters being suspicious about the time off thing is something I wasn't suspecting but I did get that vibe. I made a point to network the whole time I was taking off and have been invited to visit a small company I'm pretty excited about after an hour chatting to the CTO. Political savvy was one of my unexpected skills at my last job, so I feel like so long as I can get in a room I can get a job (provided I'm actually interested and think the company would be a good fit).

So many lessons learned. Perhaps both good and bad.

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

#152

Post by thomasahle » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 8:50 AM UTC

blablabla123 wrote: post #149

> Project managing my life Actually I started setting up a Redmine to pursue more complex goals that are usually not related to work. In the past I also used classical todo lists on a sheet of paper or Asana for some time. But I gave up both, what I observed happens after using this 'tool' after a while: indeed a lot gets done, it's even fulfilling check an item, especially on paper. So after a year or so, the things…

Redmine seems like a very big tool for just one person though, with issues trackers and all.

Something like trello seems more the scale.

Personally I just wish it had TeX support. Does anyone know a good, personal project management tool that allows writing sections in latex?

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

#153

Post by Arbitrary4657 » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 8:59 AM UTC

vesche wrote: post #131

jhu247 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Appreciate the feedback @acconrad. I understand that I'm extremely fortunate, and I try to point that out in the introduction of my article. Like @whack commented, I'm sharing my personal experience---both the good and the bad---and all the better if there's an element to it that a reader can relate to. As for your other point, does the best thing for a career have to make it _materially_ better? For me personally, t…

You severely need a splash of the real world.

Crabs in a bucket

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

#154

Post by yoz-y » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 9:17 AM UTC

nwellinghoff wrote: post #76

nubbins wrote: 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.

What the fuck is a "creative"?

An encompassing term for artists, designers, illustrators and other profession where your job is mainly to get original ideas and implement them.

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

#155

Post by dunkelheit » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 9:18 AM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

dunkelheit wrote: post #17

Recently quite a few articles appeared on HN about escaping the rat race for a while and taking some time off. As someone who has a little savings and who is a bit burnt out I've been toying with the idea myself quite a bit. My biggest fear is that because I have only a vague idea of what I want to do with my time, I will fritter away my sabbatical, not accomplish much and end up pretty much at the same point (but wi…

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…

Thanks for sharing your experience. Specific information about the downsides of this path is very valuable for me (and others, I guess).

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

#156

Post by automatoney » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 9:22 AM UTC

bradneuberg wrote: post #83

I've been in the industry nearly 20 years and I always take breaks between jobs. I've worked for startups, Google, Dropbox, non-profits, etc. Between jobs I've pursued personal growth, traveled extensively, re-tooled my CS skill sets in new directions, gotten healthy, done extensive open source work, and more. I highly recommend it to others in the industry if you have the ability to do so; it's only helped my person…

I'm just starting out so I'm really curious how long the breaks you took between jobs were, and if you had the next job lined up before you took your break?

Also off topic but what was it like working for non-profits, and what sort of work did you do?

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

#157

Post by DoreenMichele » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 9:24 AM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #34

dunkelheit wrote: post #17

Recently quite a few articles appeared on HN about escaping the rat race for a while and taking some time off. As someone who has a little savings and who is a bit burnt out I've been toying with the idea myself quite a bit. My biggest fear is that because I have only a vague idea of what I want to do with my time, I will fritter away my sabbatical, not accomplish much and end up pretty much at the same point (but wi…

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…

It is sort of the job version of "All the good ones are married." A currently employed individual with talent and a great job is a highly desirable candidate. Everyone else is, at best, a bit suspicious.

However, how you present that info can make a difference.

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

#158

Post by dunkelheit » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 9:32 AM UTC

jsemrau wrote: post #59

dunkelheit wrote: post #17

Recently quite a few articles appeared on HN about escaping the rat race for a while and taking some time off. As someone who has a little savings and who is a bit burnt out I've been toying with the idea myself quite a bit. My biggest fear is that because I have only a vague idea of what I want to do with my time, I will fritter away my sabbatical, not accomplish much and end up pretty much at the same point (but wi…

The trick is always to go TO somewhere not FROM somewhere.

Sure, but finding a worthwhile direction in which to go (and not just another soul-sucking job not much different from your current one) takes time and energy and these can be in low supply because of full-time responsibilities and burnout.

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

#159

Post by biscottigelato » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 9:34 AM UTC

i_made_a_booboo wrote: post #151

I'm pretty much coming to the end of mine now. Except I feel burnt out from the sabbatical whereas I generally always felt pretty good at work. I read a shit tonne this last 8 months and have noticed a big upgrade in my worldview. I shipped a couple of projects on my own which I'm proud of too. I grew immensely from the experience and a whole bunch of things I always toyed with the idea while working I actually got t…

I shipped 2 projects that I feel are highly polished. Been almost 3 months in the job market cuz i have since ran low on funds. Being in Vancouver it's just extra tough. The Unicorns doesn't care one bit of your side projects. The smaller guys just doesn't have the resource to relocate. Let alone getting in the same room with them for interviews (aka. fly you over).

So far very disillusioned. Seems like if the projects didn't become million dollar businesses, then it's algorithm puzzles or working at McDonalds. Shipped products doesn't matter one bit...

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

#160

Post by biscottigelato » Sat, Oct 13, 2018, 9:37 AM UTC

bradneuberg wrote: post #83

I've been in the industry nearly 20 years and I always take breaks between jobs. I've worked for startups, Google, Dropbox, non-profits, etc. Between jobs I've pursued personal growth, traveled extensively, re-tooled my CS skill sets in new directions, gotten healthy, done extensive open source work, and more. I highly recommend it to others in the industry if you have the ability to do so; it's only helped my person…

Any tips for companies to take your open sourced work as experience? I've mostly just been thrown the book at doing algorithm puzzles and such... Got rejected for not 'technically competent' despite polished complex app on both the App Store and on Github. It's insulting to the point I want to start cancelling processes with all Unicorns...