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

joshuahu.io

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

#171

Post by dunkelheit »

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…

On the surface this is an obvious thing to do, but somehow this is not the default (and not only because of monetary reasons, the societal pressure is real). But it is inspiring to know that it is possible and you have found success on this path.

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

#172

Post by thestephen »

thomasahle wrote: post #152
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?

Have you tried, or considered trying org-mode?

I found that once I got over the hurdle of learning emacs, the friction in managing tasks once you have learned the tool is nearly nil.

Further, it definitely supports embedded latex fragments, exporting to pdf, etc.

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

#173

Post by adamnemecek »

MaxBarraclough wrote: post #170
adamnemecek wrote: post #45

I recommend quitting your job even if you don't have anything lined up. Read those books you wanted to read. Contribute to open source (people contact me with consulting work thanks to this). Learn new frameworks. You'll figure out something. Go network. I sometimes contact maintainers of open source projects I contribute to. This is the best networking advice anyone can give you. 1337 h4xx0rz don't go to meetups. Ho…

> I recommend quitting your job even if you don't have anything lined up. Devil's advocate: career breaks can be toxic to your getting hired. I recall once reading that it can be comparable to a criminal record.

That’s 100 percent not true.

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

#174

Post by badpun »

Ancalagon wrote: post #90
txcwpalpha wrote: post #55

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. Yea, I'm aware of that, and I don't necessarily blame the recruiters for that, but it does suck for me. >But seriously, if you enjoyed the job so much, why leave? Why not just take a quick vacation and keep enjoying the job? I didn't…

Honestly sounds like Amazon.

Amazon does not have a great reputation.

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

#175

Post by forcedefrappe »

meuk wrote: post #147
forcedefrappe wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This sounds very unfamiliar based on my experience with the US job market, but does match with some experience of the European one.. Which country are you in? Maybe that would make for better advice.

Good observation. I'm in the Netherlands.

Given that you have a degree, would you consider going to the US for a year or two of work? While the Bay Area isn't for everyone, in my experience the environment is very driven by competence as opposed to tenure. For me, returning to Europe after working there also opened a lot of opportunities.

I also saw you writing that European companies are very driven by specific technologies. I do not think this is true. Sometimes companies will write "5 years of React" but what they are actually looking for is an experienced frontend developer.

What you should show is your ability to solve problems and learn independently. A company that does not believe a skilled frontend developer can learn another framework quickly (or don't want to give you the time to do so) is probably not a place you want to work.

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

#176

Post by mettamage »

csomar wrote: post #164
sizzle wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

1%'er you say? You've piqued my interest, mind sharing what your family did to get there? Can anyone guess how many 1%'ers are on HN?

My guess is that most HN'ers are 1%'ers. Those who are not are on the way to get there. The 1% is not really special and doesn't take much money/effort to get there. The 0.1% would be more interesting.

You mean in income? I would love to get there. I am based near Amsterdam and willing to relocate.

Specialties: web dev, ios, coding bootcamps

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

#177

Post by meuk »

forcedefrappe wrote: post #175
meuk wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good observation. I'm in the Netherlands.

Given that you have a degree, would you consider going to the US for a year or two of work? While the Bay Area isn't for everyone, in my experience the environment is very driven by competence as opposed to tenure. For me, returning to Europe after working there also opened a lot of opportunities. I also saw you writing that European companies are very driven by specific technologies. I do not think this is true. Som…

> Given that you have a degree, would you consider going to the US for a year or two of work?

I'd consider it, for the right job. I haven't looked for jobs in the US, and I would prefer a job in the Netherlands, but it's a possibility.

> I also saw you writing that European companies are very driven by specific technologies. I do not think this is true. Sometimes companies will write "5 years of React" but what they are actually looking for is an experienced frontend developer.

Possibly. From my perspective, it is hard to tell the difference, since I don't have a lot of professional experience.

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

#178

Post by BjoernKW »

Cursuviam wrote: post #46

I've been treating my sabbatical time post graduation as basically summer vacation and honestly, it's been pretty nice. For the past 4 years, I've been researching, in school, or working an internship, so I haven't had a period of time to just be carefree for quite sometime. I'm very happy right now, but mostly that's because I have a roommate who's unemployed right now, so most of the time I'm not alone in the house…

> I wish I could say is the goodness of my heart, but is honestly out of guilt and boredom.

It's good to be self-aware enough to recognise this. If you're privileged enough to be able to afford yourself a sabbatical or if you belong to the 1% the best use of your time if you want to give back probably isn't to volunteer for a local cause.

At best it's only a drop in the ocean. At worst it's a self-serving effort to absolve yourself from the 'sin' of privilege.

If you're well off one way to help is Effective Altruism ( https://www.effectivealtruism.org/ ), particularly the pledge to give: https://app.effectivealtruism.org/pledge

That isn't to say that helping others around you by putting in time and effort isn't a worthwhile, rewarding endeavour but one probably shouldn't trick oneself into believing that by doing so one automatically has made a considerable difference.

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

#179

Post by i_made_a_booboo »

biscottigelato wrote: post #159
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 projec…

For me it's about creating a personal connection and telling a good story. I dunno I just have a belief in my ability to do that from past experience.

This is new territory for me though, so we'll see.

I'm not in the US on, so I don't play the whole unicorn game. I imagine that's a whole different ball game.

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

#180

Post by automoton1 »

biscottigelato wrote: post #159
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 projec…

I think side projects can make a difference if it's relevant to the business that your applying for. For example, in college I did a lot of Amateur Radio and was part of a club there. I did a lot of Amateur Radio related things, building circuits, programming microcontrollers, etc. This helped me get a job at a Radio company working on SDRs. However, I think a lot of my ability to get that job was because I networked a lot with the recruiters.

Side projects aren't the be all end all to gainful employment. You need to use your network to build relationships and engage with people you know that can help you get employed.

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