Ask HN: Quitting Big Tech, what is it like?
I am struggling with this as well. If you were there a decade I&#x27;m guessing you are set for life financially? I know I would have been at a decade but left after 5 years so I am not set for life which means I&#x27;m in this dilemma. go back for the money (safe retirement) or do something more risky (dad took the risk, failed, might be in the poor house except married a younger wife who has good job). I&#x27;m 54 so not a lot of time to recover.<p>In any case I know other people who left. One told me he went stir crazy and joined his friend&#x27;s startup part time (because they can&#x27;t afford him full time) but he doesn&#x27;t need the money, just doesn&#x27;t want to feel taken advantage of.<p>Another had enough that he mostly just enjoys is life with his wife. His kids are adults and live around the world so he travels to see then. Him and his wife attend investor meetups to invest in startups. He makes simple robots as a hobby (and possibly a new company but so far just hobby). They also left the USA, tried a year in Asia and so far 2 in Europe, a year in the first spot, and starting a year in the second, no plans to move but of course they have the means to switch.<p>I know for myself, looking back on my own happiness, I was happiest when working with best friends on projects I liked. There are at least 2 companies with close friends I could work with but their projects are not so clearly projects I&#x27;m interested in and both would pay low compared to FAANG (guess is 1&#x2F;5th to 1&#x2F;6th) so it&#x27;s not an easy decision. Also not clear if it would pay out of they do well. I other words don&#x27;t want to feel I&#x27;m selling them my life for their success.<p>I was also happiest when I was part of the core team helping to make the decisions of what ships, what the shape the product is. On at least one team I was &quot;just an engineer&quot; and found it so frustrating to watch the leads go have their meetings to decide everything and then just be told what the direction was. Not sure how to fix that except to start my own thing which is easier said than done.<p>Feels so stupid to be so worried about this spoiled engineer problem though.