#38 - I Quit My Job

What happened

This is definitely a “me” post. I want to keep a trace of what I was thinking about during this period.

Byebye startup life

Until last week, I had a very couch job, managing a small team of data scientists (and one machine-learning engineer) in a fintech startup. On a typical week, I would probably put in 5-10 hours of actual work.

Just like this guy 😂:

Mind you, the team was performing really well and everyone in the company was happy with us. We did after all deploy a highly successful commercial AI-based product that customers were very happy about.

In the beginning (a few years ago) I was working real hard. All the time. But I didn’t have any equity.

That’s right, I was working in a startup, just for the salary. Why? Well, other than because of being a naive dummy, it was also because I was a believer. I believed in the purpose of the company, I believed in the long game, and I believed that I would ultimately be given my fair share.

I have to give them (the founders) credit: they played their cards very well and close to the chest. I was seduced allright!

And so like every other dummy walking the Earth, I only realized what happened after the movie ended, i.e. after the founders got their exit, and I got squadoosh. Well technically, I got a little tap on the back ($-wise) but compared to the value that I created and also compared to what I would have gotten had I negociated for myself, it was laughably small.

So there’s that. Perheaps more importantly, I was also starting to get bored with the projects at the startup (data-wise) and doubtful about the runway of the company. I just couldn’t figure out what else we could do beyond our current projects.

Looking forward

I did try to apply here and there in the past few weeks, unsuccessfully. And then a recruiter from a big (really big) Nasdaq-listed company reached out. I decided to play along and do the (6!) interviews, not expecting anything out of it, mostly because of the caliber of the company, but also because it was for a technical role (whereas I’ve been managing/scratching-my-ass for some time now).

But somehow I did well on the interviews, and they offered me the job!!

Needless to say accepted it. Of course, I didn’t negociate anything. Hopefully someday I’ll learn how to do that. Still, financially speaking, the offer is very attractive, especially compared to what I see out there for someone with my skills/experience.

But what made the decision even easier is the following:

1. the variety of challenges this company has to offer

2. it sounds like they are very well structured when it comes to rewarding above-average performance (bonus, stock refresh, team mobility)

3. the name of the company itself; everyone knows it

Head out of ass

I have a month off in between jobs and I find myself having negative thoughts about what happened in the startup and how I allowed myself to be taken advantage of.

I hate being in this mindset and I need to snap out of it and move forward.

Hence why I decided to write this. It’s time I focus on what matters and do well by family.

May the power of Li Lu and Charlie Munger be with me! One day, my time will come.