Ask HN: Should I quit for 6 months?

25 points

7 years ago

Sorry for the typical, unoriginal advice thread.

BACKSTORY:

25 years old. Not married. I've spent the last 3 years working at a FAANG company - more or less right out of college. For the first 2.5 years I lived at home with my parents. As such, I've saved quite a bit. Now I'm living in the city. With recent changes to my team goals and product, I find myself extremely unfulfilled as of late. I now regularly engage in fantasies of quitting, and my gut tells me it's the right call.

I've always had personal projects I work on. Mostly ones that are intended to make a tiny bit of passive income. No one-hit wonders. But none of them have seen the light of day. I lose interest half way through. In my time off, I would like to finish one of them.

I'm somewhat risk averse, so I would only allow myself to go 6 months before trying to find another job (provided I can't come up with any solo income in that time). I hold no belief that I'll make a profitable project being solo. I don't fantasize about being a startup founder who makes millions. I just want some time to work on projects I enjoy. Maybe make some money off them. Probably not.

USEFUL INFO:

* Rent + everything else = ~4k a month. I can get that lower.

* I have 275k in savings. Not counting 401k.

* 6mo would cost about 25k.

* My lease is up for renew in 6mo, which is a nice coincidence.

* Got promoted in the last 6 months. This may help job prospects in the future - companies may more easily hire me at that level, than if I quit without getting promoted.

RISKS:

1) Sucking it up and working at this company the next 8 years would result in a very lucrative career, and that's a large opportunity cost.

2) Getting a job 6 months from now may not be as easy as I pretend it is. (What if the economy explodes!)

3) I may find that I have motivation for personal projects either, and live 6 months in a quiet depression in my underwear.

ALTERNATIVES:

1) I suck it up and do my job. People would love this job. It's cushy and it pays very well. Just do it for 5 more years and then consider this stuff.

2) Change teams at work. I imagine this might be only a mitigation, but maybe it would make things better.

3) Talk to my manager about working on stuff that I want to. I love to create and experiment. I know our problem area well now. I have things I want to create that would be valuable to the company that I would be passionate about. Would it be wise to ask for a 3 month trial of working on my own solo thing within the company? I would like that.