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Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
181–190 of 241 posts
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
I've seen the same attitude a lot of times. "I was an investment banker for 10 years but then I moved to Colorado and became a ski bum and I couldn't be happier!" Like alright man live your life but stop acting like you discovered some dark secret that anyone can reproduce. You know you ain't out here paying student loans.
100% - all my arty, bohemian friends have trust funds.
They are fortunate, then. I have known some pretty fair painters over the years--good enough to be shown in a local gallery--and they have not had trust funds. Some taught, some worked in printing production.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
$1m is not enough for most people in the US to never work again, unless they are quite frugal. It's barely enough to retire with.
What bubble/ivory tower part of the country are you in? $1m is enough. Especially with a paid-off mortgage. Most people get by for way, way less than that.
$1m + paid off mortgage are probably enough for most of the country. You'll still need to be frugal, depending on your age.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#184The golden handcuffs are real.
From my own experience feeling trapped in a job that makes significantly less than $500k, and those of several friends, sure it may be a privileged position to be in, but the human mind doesn't care whether it should be feeling a huge mental burden.
Taking the leap and giving up a well paying but soul crushing job is hard. And it can feel really isolating and guilt inducing, when you certainly can't talk about it to your friend who is barely making ends meet and yet has a job seemingly less soul crushing. I'm sure they would tell you to go cry in your pile of money.
But work is most of life and I basically see finding work you like as a primary means to happiness. I've been scoping out interest for a coaching business around this topic lately and it seems that a lot of people have this problem. Heck, the "is freelancing the best thing ever or your worst nightmare" posts seem to come up every other day. I'm glad we are taking about it.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#185Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#186The golden handcuffs are real. From my own experience feeling trapped in a job that makes significantly less than $500k, and those of several friends, sure it may be a privileged position to be in, but the human mind doesn't care whether it should be feeling a huge mental burden. Taking the leap and giving up a well paying but soul crushing job is hard. And it can feel really isolating and guilt inducing, when you ce…
That's true. Just for the record though, I wasn't in a soul crushing position. Things were good, but I'm vastly more excited about the new path I'm about to take.
About the handcuffs, tbh it's not just the money. There's also other intangibles. I had built a lot of connections and a good reputation inside the company, and by leaving I've lost access to that. I could reason about the money in a spreadsheet, but the other things were harder to value.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#187That's great if you can earn a lot of money and save up for early retirement. But, that's not what's happening here. It looks like by his own admission of "running out", that he really hasn't been saving aggressively and will be back in the job market in a few years, possibly with a rude awakening. I see these types all the time: making a ton a money thinking they're on top of the world, the same ones saying how they don't mind higher taxes.
I don't know how long the good times will last, but I don't think we can just count on super high demand for developers forever. There will come a day when the market balances out the supply and demand in favor of employers and when that happens people like this guy are going to really regret their earlier choices.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#188OP - what does your wife think of this decision?
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Author here. I got a big bump from $230K to $396K in 2016 when I got a competing offer and Amazon matched it so that I wouldn't leave. From then on, the growth from $400K to $500K happened because the AMZN stock nearly tripled in that time frame.
Well, this just illustrated why a company shouldn't play the matching game. What did Amazon get for matching the offer? They got to keep you for a couple more years at a premium. I'm sure you did some good things in those two years, but the accounting side would probably have a difficult time assessing the real value of those two years.
with Amazon's reputation, i imagine it's pretty difficult for them to hire and retain talent.
Re: Why I quit a $500K job at Amazon to work for myself
#190> I joined Amazon as an entry level developer. Within 3.5 years I had been promoted twice to a senior engineer, and I was practically guaranteed another promotion to principal engineer this year if I had stayed.
> My potential at the company was high, I was told.
> My esteem within the company grew along the years and I was regarded an expert and a leader in my field.
> People looked up to me and respected me.
> I made $75K in my first year and that gradually grew to $511K by my last year.
> I could have made another $1M if I stayed another couple of years.
> My work–life balance was good too, despite Amazon’s reputation.
> I didn’t need to prove myself anymore, and I could get everything done in 40 hours a week.
> My team worked from home one day a week, and I rarely opened my laptop at night or weekends.
> Also, the people I worked with were exceptional. I had three managers in total, and all were generous people with lots of empathy.
I can't fathom the number of people who would kill to have 1/3 of this list, myself included. I'm sure leaving all this behind is good for now, but, as someone else said, you're in for a rude awakening when you're back on the job market and you're grinding like the rest of us. Enjoy the vacation while it lasts.