Ask HN: Quitting without anything lined up?

2 points by jhatemyjob 7y ago ↗ HN

Graduated college in 2018 and got a job at a startup immediately after graduating. After about a week I realized I hated it. Weird company culture, bad micromanager, disgusting codebase, no WFH. It's not terrible but there are certainly better jobs out there. I decided to stay; the pay is decent and I had a lot to learn (about being professional, office politics, marketing, knowing when you have PMF, sales, branding, stock options, NOT engineering). Just for a year though. Then I was gonna switch to another, better job.

What I didn't anticipate was being incredibly burnt out. I want to quit and not work for a while. Issue is I heard that's "bad" around the Internet.

Here's what I have going for me:

* I can live with my parents at any time for as long as I want no questions asked.

* About 10 months in I started getting regular pings (2x per week) via email/LinkedIn from recruiters for various other jobs, varying from startups to Uber/Facebook/Google.

* I have been shipping production-quality software since 2007. Based on my experience at this startup I believe I have the equivalent of 8 YoE but that's hard to put on paper.

* I have friends at various other companies that could refer me.

Basically my career goal is to bootstrap a SaaS company and either turn it into a lifestyle business or get acquired for like $1-5M. The job market is a backup plan for me. I've had 2 engineering jobs at this point and I fucking hated both of them.

Will this recruiter outreach stop once I quit? I'm also kinda worried about closing the door to Google/Facebook/Uber but honestly I'd rather work somewhere that let me work part time remote so I could focus on my own stuff. Working on other people's code blows and I'd prefer to do as little of that as I possibly can.

12 comments

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1k 7y ago ↗

This is an easy one - go for it! With your age, experience and accessibility to support from friends and family I think the upside far outweighs the downside.

You haven’t mentioned any financial commitments (loans, dependants, filial support, etc) so presumably you have none.

You will probably regret not going for it more than sticking with something you hate.

jhatemyjob 7y ago ↗

Yeah I'm definitely gonna quit. Just kinda scared of closing doors by not having something lined up before I quit. But maybe I'm just being paranoid

WheelsAtLarge 7y ago ↗

Best advice, bite the bullet,stay and make sure you have a job before you quit. While it might be easy to find a job once you quit there's a big possibility that you can fall into a situation where it's easy to not get a job for a long time or you can't get a new one. If you hate the job you have then use that as motivation to get a better job. Also make sure you are really in the career that you like. What you describe in your job is not out of the ordinary when it comes to having a programming job. Work is work that's why they pay you instead of you paying or you doing it for free.

[deleted] 7y ago ↗

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[deleted] 7y ago ↗

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techjuice 7y ago ↗

The doors are always open for great talent, modern skills in demand and professional experienced engineers.

If you want to go on your own path that is fine and normally the best path if you want to have more control over your time and freedom for the short and long term.

[deleted] 7y ago ↗

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jhatemyjob 7y ago ↗

Yep control over time and freedom is my goal. Thank you for the encouragement.

nartz 7y ago ↗

Nah, just start interviewing, and spend more time getting offers to find a company you might actually like.

Avoid starting something until you see what doing it correctly looks like.

You can always start your thing on the side, and transition when it becomes more than a side project. Plus, it is 100% easier to do while you have a salary.