4 weeks ago I made the hardest decision of my career - I quit a dream job, in a company I love, to take a 6-8 months break.
I wasn’t burned out, or super-stressed. There is no family emergency requiring me to be at home.
Everything was truly ok. I enjoyed my work, liked the people around me, and got a nice paycheck (by non-US standards..).
There were many good reasons not to make that decision:
Market - The market is shit, It'll be difficult to find a job
Role - Director of Engineering jobs are even harder to find
Money - I have a family to take care of, and this decision will cost us ~$60K (there are many variables in that calculation, not just the salary, like lower tax returns and government payments).
So why did I do it
For the last 12 years, I have been following the classic path, doing what everyone expected from me.
I went through a coding bootcamp, and stayed for 6.5 years at my first company. During that time, I also completed a Computer Science degree (evening lessons) because it was important to my parents.
Then I moved to my latest company. After a year, I was promoted to Engineeirng Manager, and after another two, to Director of Engineering.
I’m on the sure path to becoming a VP R&D/CTO in 5-10 years.
But I never once took some time to really stop and consider: “Is it what I truly want?”.
I know I enjoy programming, and the tech world in general. I feel it’s a truly good fit for what I’m good at, what I enjoy, and what the world needs.
But even inside the tech world, there are many different paths I haven’t tried:
Becoming a CEO - if I want to lead a company someday, I need to get some experience outside of engineering, maybe in Product or Sales.
Founding a startup - a dream of many engineers. Why not try it out? What better time than at 30, when I have experience and energy?
Becoming a solopreneur - working just for myself. Maybe a combination of creating some products, teaching courses, coaching, writing.
So the goal is to take time to explore and figure out what I REALLY want. What’s more important for me:
stability or risk? 9-5 or freedom? family time or ambition? tons of money or enough-but-less money? making an impact on the world or doing what’s convenient to me?
When I read Tim Ferris’s ‘The 4-Hour Workweek’, he mentioned the concept of ‘mini-pension’. Instead of working for 45 years, and then relaxing, why not take 6-12 months breaks during your working years?
It took me a year to make that decision, but I decided to give it a try.
Am I irresponsible?
This decision has 2 main ‘costs’:
1. Money
My father-in-law can’t understand that decision. He has his own business and worked at it for 30+ years, trying hard to save for the future.
He told me: “You know that if you continue investing those $60K for 30-35 years, even at 7% they will be worth $600K by the time you retire? Can’t you just take a 3-4 weeks break?”
I understand his point of view. He wants what is best for his daughter and grandchildren.
But my answer is “Yes, I’m willing to give up on the $600K-in-30-years for those 8 months. I truly believe it will be worth it”.
I thought hard about it, and talked a lot with my wife. She supported me, and we agreed on a length of time that made sense to us.
I didn’t rush into it, or make an impulsive decision. I thought about it for almost a year and planned our finances for that.
2. Career
An 8-month gap never looks nice on the resume, and the market is difficult now, especially for management roles.
If I decide to continue on the CTO path, I know I can be flexible in my job search. We’ll get to my plan in a moment, but I will code a lot in those months, and worst case, I’m sure I will be able to find a role as an engineer (and start climbing the ladder again). I actually believe that I will be able to find at least an Engineering Manager job.
What’s my plan
I want to experiment with different things, and do what I enjoy. I’m coding A LOT with Cursor, and I absolutely enjoy it. In a few weeks, I was able to launch multiple working apps in different domains.
The one I’m currently working on is manager.dev. If you are an engineering manager, check it out! :)
The one question I want to solve is ‘What do engineering managers need to help them enjoy their job?’. I have an ambitious vision for it, and I’m really excited to work on it.
I will also exercise more, read more books, meditate more, and spend more time with my family.
I plan to work 4-5 hour days. This is what my calendar currently looks like (Dan is my son). 1.5-2 hours every morning for a slow routine, and ending my days at 15:30 to pick him up.
Final words
What I enjoyed reading this week:
One of the blog posts I enjoyed the most on this topic is “Quitting My Job For The Way Of Pain” by Nik. I definitely didn’t suffer that way, but some parts of it were relatable.
