So... I quit again
Why I quit my great tech job just after 7 months
Hey wonderful humans, it’s been a while, hasn’t it? This probably wasn’t the update you were waiting for. Nor was it the update I actually wanted to (finally) reconnect with you on. Believe me, I have 10+ posts in drafts that I never had the energy to finish over the last 7 months.
So, yeah, I managed to start and quit a pretty decent job within 7 months. Pretty record-breaking, if I do say so. The old Jenny is cringing at the fact that I dared to leave a job before the 1 year mark. But post-sabbatical Jenny was like, “Yo, life is too short. Who has another 5 months?”
So, what the hell happened?
In my last post, you may have seen that I was harping on about ✨ work-life harmony ✨ and how product management was my ✨ ikigai ✨. You must’ve thought that I had all her shit together, right? I thought so too. 🥲
Jokes aside, nothing dramatic actually happened. I didn’t burn out. For the most part, I had a really good balance. The job paid well and had interesting challenges. The team I worked with was lovely!
First, I struggled with the whole …5 day a week thing. My body forgot what structure and stress felt like — I got sick multiple times within the first few weeks of work. Secondly, I missed being in charge of my own destiny. To be able to act on however I felt that day. Don’t get me wrong — I had a lot of autonomy and they were genuinely pretty supportive. But at the end of the day, you have a job description to adhere to and a team that’s relying on you.
A shift in fundamental beliefs
During the last few months, I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about how the “old me” would have totally made different decisions. It made me realise how much my sabbatical really challenged my fundamental beliefs about what my career should look like.
Future-proofing my career 💪
My friends joke about how I can now put “ex-Atlassian”, “ex-Eucalyptus”, and “ex-Canva” on my LinkedIn profile, as if I were collecting rare Pokémon. Although, I’d like to remind people that Eucalyptus used to just be a small, lesser-known startup when I joined. 😭 But honestly, there’s some truth to it — I have always been pretty strategic with my career. I worked hard in every company I have ever worked for and made sure I left amicably so that I’d be set up for success in my next career. I chose Atlassian instead of other startups for my grad job because I knew it would open doors for me in the future.
Now, I look at my resume and I can see that the last 2 years have been a bit of a mess: a career break, a few unrelated jobs, and a good tech job I couldn’t keep for more than 7 months. But I couldn’t care less about that anymore, which is pretty dumb, given how fragile the job market is right now. Part of me is excited by the fact that if I never find a job in product management again, it might be the push I needed to kickstart my next career or something. 😂
Financial security 💸
Growing up in a financially unstable home, I valued having a reliable income stream where I would always have more than enough cash for any unexpected emergencies. Of course, this also meant owning a home. And as soon as I got a stable job, my husband and I started to look at buying a second property, ideally a townhouse, where we can start our future family.
It sounded great on paper. It is the typical Australian path to wealth, isn’t it? But as we went to more inspections, the more I realised the financial burden did not outweigh the expected joy having a home would give us. To me, that financial burden was synonymous to my sense of freedom, something I now valued much more than security.
And so, we decided to park our plans to buy a second, bigger home, until we felt that it wouldn’t a burden, but rather something that would enhance our lives. Although with this economy, that might take a while…
Autonomy and freedom 🕊️
Onto our third and last fundamental belief — the one that probably influenced my decision to quit the most. Before my sabbatical, I believed autonomy meant being able to make my own decisions in a company. After my sabbatical, I tasted what true autonomy and freedom actually meant: being able to make decisions for myself — something you don’t quite get to do for someone else’s company.
After all, the decision you make for someone else’s company is never going to be the one that you would make yourself, unless you and the founder are the same person. So for better or for worse, my sabbatical has set expectations for a career and life that probably cannot be achieved in the more typical 9-5 job.
Carving my own path
Many people happily go back to their old career after their sabbatical. For me, I still love working in tech, but probably in a slightly different form. So what does that actually look like? I’m not entirely sure, but I do know:
I have been building a couple of apps and ideas with a couple of friends, and it’s been some of the most fun I have had in a long time. I’d like to do that more.
Every time I make $5 from my Notion templates, it feels like I won the lottery.
I get energy working with ambitious founders of early-stage startups to further their vision through hands-on consulting and/or advisory.
I miss having the energy to write and connect with y’all about how weird and wonderful life is. I hope I can pop up in your inbox more.
So yeah, let’s just start with that. You’ll see me doing some freelancing with startups, creating content, and building software with my friends. And I hope I’ll be able to update you all on that very soon. 💜
💌 A love letter to YOU
Every time I get a notification about a new subscriber, I feel two things: (1) guilt because I know I haven’t posted since January and (2) gratitude that my content is still useful. It’s these emails that give me the courage to come back and connect with you all through sharing my experiences on life and career.
THANK YOU to everyone who stayed on (almost no one unsubscribed 😭). Thank you to the new subscribers who decided to subscribe anyway despite my radio silence for the last 7 months. A special thank you to those who still tell me about how my newsletter has helped them feel heard. Sometimes, it’s hard to believe people want to read what I say, and I am still so humbled that I get to take up some real estate in your inboxes now and then.
How has 2024 treated you? Leave a comment so I can catch up with your life.
Super excited for this next chapter! It’s gonna be epic ❤️
I feel this sentiment of just being like "I just wanna build fun stuff with my friends" is, 1, super healthy, and 2, what everyone eventually lands on as the big thing that's been missing. Of the friends I've known who've given up weapons-grade, cross-functional team life and just started making pixel art, indie video games with friends, they seem vastly happier than others I know. Less money maybe, but happier, no doubt.
It sort of feels along the way the whole software thing got overly complicated for many of us and turned into such a grind.