Can we ban rand now?

Nice update OP, sounds like you are in a great spot and can only go up from here.

Agreed, normally I ignore what he says, but this response was almost unconscionable.

Wait offended you guys by sharing my opinion? Unconscionable how?

Interesting topic... A few things..semi-grunch too

I saw suggestion that you lose 30-40% at least in salary getting new job when employed vs non-employed (might have related to a semi-dying function but I think the idea is sound)

Have you tried headhunter? Searching for a job is a pain, I know... HH to certain degree takes $$$$ for stuff u could do your self, but saves hassle and less risk of permanent unemployment

Unless u have very specific skills (ideally something certified), finding a new job is hard

As I said, I am grunching (didn't read much).. Leaving something like a cushy, overpaid government job these days wud be insanity. Never replace that and those jobs will be more and more coveted as time goes by

epic

I'll just bold this for everyone else thinking quitting before finding an another job...

So after going through 22 months of heartache that you are now telling him to go start over again and into marketing? Don't be a D#$K.

And if you meant to respond to the initial post, stop being so cavalier when people are asking for help by do a better job of editing your posts to reflect a response to the intial post.

Opened this thread thinking it was going to be a thread about quitting a high paying job to grind 1/2 for a living and "flip houses" on the side.

Glad it wasn't. Refreshing change of pace.

If you are already thinking about quitting and the company is re-organizing and laying people off, it should be a great time to ask for a pay raise. Leverage the fact they want you to stay and clean things up and the fact they are laying people off to cut expenses, they can still cut expenses and pay you more. gl

Sad, but probably true. I remember in one of Michael Lewis's book he was talking about how the big dream of everyone in Greece is to land a government job with a pension. Look at where that's gotten them.

Amazing that this thread just came up as my last day at my current company is tomorrow. I am doing pretty much the exact same thing as OP, but my circumstances are a slightly different. Like OP, I have given myself 1 year before I pull the parachute cord and start looking for a job, but I'm pursuing a more entrepreneurial route, alongside taking a year to dive deeper into learning to program. I have a few streams of revenue coming in right now but moonlighting just isn't working while also trying to juggle being a decent husband and father, along with holding down a full-time-and-then-some job.

This was a very difficult decision, and definitely goes against the generally accepted norm, but I'm at a point in my life where if I don't do this, like OP, I am also going to be in my 50s wondering what would've happened if I had gone through with this plan. Also, while I assumed I'd hear the same spiel that OP got regarding this being a foolish decision, pretty much all my friends and colleagues have expressed that they wondered how long it would be before I made the leap....very encouraging.

I have a bit of a leg up because I already have 15+ years of various IT experience with 1 year as a programmer, which is an industry that I enjoy, plus a standing offer from my current employer that I am welcome back any time. I am not naive enough to think that this is guaranteed to work out, but I have very clear goals over the next couple of months in addition to a well thought-out exit strategy. I just set a calendar reminder to give an update in 6 months.


Edit for OP: I'm wondering what your first 3-6 months looked like? Were your day structured? Did you have a portfolio on Github of projects you created? Other than the lack of experience, were there other reasons you couldn't get a job? Entry level code-monkey type jobs are constantly popping up in my news feed and all of my friends that are hiring managers say they can't fill them fast enough. They're also saying that the kids coming out of college aren't necessarily ideal candidates because they don't have real-world experience in a corporate environment, so I'm interested in hearing your thoughts on why you couldn't quickly land something.

It's funny that most people view these as "bad" things, when these situations are where true personal growth takes place.

I'm always glad when an OP in threads like this takes the time to provide an update after a decent amount of time has passed. Happy for you that, despite things being rough for awhile, everything worked out ok and you found your stride.

Good luck to you!

It sounds like you are starting off from a better position than I was as you know more about what you want to do and have more applicable experience.

When I started to learn programming (1 month after I quit), I had never before worked in a Linux/Unix environment (just Windows) and had only basic knowledge of HTML/CSS and some experience with macro/script writing (Word/Visual Basic/perl).

I had a long learning curve just to get up to speed with installing and managing software from the command line. I didn't even know what Github was until 4 months after I quit.

When I did start job hunting for a coding job (9 months after I quit), I had some projects on Github and some apps deployed on Heroku, but while they demonstrated a basic competence, none of them were really impressive. I should have paid or collaborated with a graphic artist/web designer to get a professional look for my apps. I'm more than competent with html/css, but I don't have much interest in or talent for design, and my portfolio was dull.

There are indeed a ton of low level coding jobs out there, and with your background in IT if you can demonstrate some solid coding ability you will not have too much trouble landing a job (if you know servers, look into DevOps...).

What I think was the problem for me was that my background was not obviously applicable to the jobs I was looking for. I had a lot of project management experience, which will ultimately be useful, but that is something more valuable in a sr. dev than a jr. dev -- and possibly might have been seen as a negative (e.g., that I might not be comfortable being "junior").

My sense of why I had so much trouble finding a job in an industry that is desperate to hire people came down to 2 primary reasons:

1. Competence. There were some jobs where I just didn't have the technical chops they required. I remember one interview where I flubbed some SQL questions and another that had a coding challenge that was primarily Test Driven Development with Rspec, which I'm just not that good at. I could have learned either of these fairly quickly given some support, but they wanted someone who could walk in the door with competence in these things, and I could not offer that.

2. Culture Fit. Most of the jobs I interviewed for were at start ups where the average employee age is 15-20 years lower than mine, and where they placed a lot of importance on team bonding. I'm middle-aged, married, and have a kid. I'm not a good culture fit for a startup full of single 22-33 year olds.

Oh, and the reason that most of my interviews were at start ups is that bigger companies tend to weed people out who don't have Computer Science degrees or relevant experience (which your IT work should count as).

As I couldn't do much about #2, I focused on #1 and that was where freelancing really benefited me. Companies are much more willing to take a risk on a freelancer as getting rid of one has almost zero downside. But doing 20-40 hours of freelance work for a company is a much better way to prove your competence to them than a 2-4 hour interview/coding session, and that is what finally happened for me.

So, based on my own experience, I would definitely suggest freelancing as soon as possible and going through the trouble of (1) picking a business name, (2) getting a custom URL, (3) creating your own business website, and (4) getting business cards made (go for non-glossy stock so people can write on them).

On the technical side, if you are thinking of web programming, I have 3 suggestions for you: javascript, javascript, and javascript.

It may change in a year or two, but right now javascript seems to be where all the demand is. Node.js on the server side with Angular or React on the client side.

Some type of database experience is also really valuable. You should have at least a basic working knowledge of MySQL, PostgreSQL, or MongoDB.

You do probably need at least one more language though if you want to do more than front end work.

Python is probably the next most marketable language. I love Ruby, but there doesn't seem to be as much demand for it. PHP/Wordpress is not as cool, but there is plenty of demand for it.

On the personal side, I tried to keep myself structured and focused. For me, the time when my wife was at work and my son was at school was always "work" time. Aside from taking care of some household chores (shopping/cleaning), I would focus those hours on studying, job hunting, networking, and portfolio building.

Most weeknights I would also put in another 1-3 hours after my son went to bed.

Sometimes I took "off" for the weekends, but I frequently would put in 2-6 hours a day on Saturday/Sunday with studying/job hunting.

My wife and I quit our last jobs with the intent of packing up the car and driving to LA, bumming on the beach, and "figuring it out."

Before we got to LA (indeed, the day I quit, I had my first conversation with my new boss-to-be), I had a job in Vegas (hired by a 2p2er lol). Accepted the job, booked a flight to Europe for 3 days later, traveled for a month, came back and moved to Vegas.

It's very, very liberating to quit with nothing lined up, and I'll have no problem doing it again if I stop enjoying what I'm doing (though now I have a kid, so the decisions are made a little differently).

I think that's great, job's particularly big jobs can definitely have a massive impact on your psychology and ability to think clearly if you're in a tough spot. That said, if this is something you'd consider you need to plan and save long before.

Spending all of your available cash on a job gap is a bad idea, so you really have to balance the ease of returning to a job, demand for your skills in the new area, etc.. Changing industries + leaving without a job lined up and <1 year living expenses will probably never be a good idea.

I'm a little late on the update but, about 3 months ago, took part in my first successful exit as ~10% equity owner in a startup.

I certainly feel I was a bit lucky, but it was one of those things where all of my previous experience, contacts in the industry, and my pedigree as someone who gets **** done came to a head.

I'm not minted yet, but the money from this, along with the salary I'm getting from our new company is going to set me up very well for my next venture. The experience alone of the whole process from start to finish of an actual winner (I have two failed startups under my belt prior to this) was invaluable and I have no doubt I can duplicate the success.

Don't let your dreams be dreams.

Thanks for the update, and congratulations!

Would love to hear more of the story if you can / are willing to share.

meh. the time off only works against you if you let it. probably gonna pass at the moment on telling the story of my last 6 months or so, but never once did doubt/stress/'bro wtf are you doing?' questions from friends and family make me wish I hadn't made the choices I did.

I'm probably more of a unique case (this was 95% extenuating circumstances, 5% "ahh **** it") but me personally, I needed a change and didn't give much of a **** about anything else.

that said, I have no kids, very affordable bills, no debt and am only responsible for myself and my dog. obv that's going to make being carefree much, much more easy.

Congrats Who

How much do you have saved up, OP?

Same field or new field?