This thread has been unreal! I don't know who these people are who can just leave their jobs and go off to windsurf in Ibiza, but congratulations on how fortunate you are! I think the rest of us have bills to pay that can't be deferred, a need for health insurance, a family that likes food and shelter, and maybe a few months of an emergency fund. I would certainly not use an emergency fund to go "find myself" in Bali.
When it was my time to leave I didn't even have a car to live in. I maintain a complex agenda where I would invite myself a week in advance to sleep on vaguely familiar peoples sofa for 1 night never more than 1x every 14 days per household. The bargain was this: I clean your kitchen, I cook an elaborate meal, I clean the kitchen again, I sleep on your sofa and leave after coffee in the morning. If I had money I would spend it on the meal but usually I had the host pay for it. Some people I barely knew would compensate for it by turning their kitchen into something like a war zone. I joked how welcoming it looked. Others never bothered to cook anything elaborate and welcomed the formula. It was a surprisingly interesting period that lasted something like 8 months. I think I've actually helped a good number of burned out people who just gave up cleaning the house and/or cooking and badly needed a break from it.
I know quite a few close friends, for instance, who are saving up "F You" money to be able to quit their job and do what they want (even short of full FIRE movement folks).
Its not much honestly. Peace of mind and poker plays you can swing towards shity employer are worth it. 6 months to find new SWE job, when I constantly pinged by HR and have generally good relations with previous employers(they would take me if i ping them), is plenty of time
Having been on this journey too, I provide this reassurance for those on the edge of quitting: trust in your superego. Your superego is always there, always watching, always asking: "is this what you should be doing?". When you are working on someone else's project, doing something you don't want to, it is easy to ignore this inner voice, because in a way it is not your own. Procrastination, and stagnation, are natural when your job isn't your dream. But when you're on your own dime, things feel very different.
It is a mistake to extrapolate your tendency to procrastinate from the world of work to that of a free agent: with no immediate constraints it is much easier to recognize and slip out of those peculiar knots of irrational behavior that tend to trap smart people with unsatisfying jobs. But on the other hand, you will be forced to confront the terrifying choice of what to actually want! This is terrifying because, in a way, it is the most important choice you'll ever make.
You're totally exposed and get to see exactly what you're capable of accomplishing. It's like that machine in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy that shows you exactly how insignificant you are in the universe.
What I've encountered: 1. I've never had bigger improvements in my financial outcomes than when I said 'f-it' and pulled the ripcord 2. Doing so dropped my into a stresspit that was grinding me into a red paste, resulting eventually in being Riffed 3. Which let me find a job that, while not great, has good work/life balance and is good for me, at this time, in my walk down my path.
Go into it informed and mindfully and you'll probably be fine, assuming you're in a market that needs you (A french chef in Washington, KS...population 1100, is probably not going to have a sustainable skillset in Washington, KS)
Dad told me 'Never quit on a Friday', but he was also a fan of trusting your skills to support you.
It's similar to the "count to ten" principle, before yelling at someone.
I'd also assume that it may be that having the weekend could put one in the mindset of relaxation and cause procrastination at the start of what could be an intense process that requires drive (depending on individual's circumstances).
Or maybe it's kinda the opposite where if one were to quit on say a Monday instead, there's a good chance that the work week mindset holds, kicks the individual into being productive (maybe more productive than usual out of necessity), and then that weekend would be very much needed to wind down/refresh and reflect on the progress that was made.
Again, just my assumptions, but seem like likely scenarios that could play out
Edit: spelling
If you still want to quit on Monday? Go right ahead...but a lot of times the stuff that seemed insurmountable on Friday, don't look quite so bad with a bit of reflection. Unless they still suck.
This is probably the biggest factor.
How long could you go without a regular paycheck? Personally, I could probably make my savings last a year, but that's only because I have a wife that makes enough to pay most of the bills herself if it came down to that.
But I imagine most people outside the HN bubble don't have that. The majority of Americans can't afford a sudden $1,000 expense. They can't just quit their job out of the blue.
It shouldn't be a detriment for getting rehired, period. If you are qualified for a role and pass an interview bar, there is no reason a potential employer should care about a break you took from working. I treated being asked about this as a yellow flag, as it may indicate the employer thinks you should be living to work.
Knowledge has a half life. If you have taken 6 months off, and have an interesting story, this is not a big deal. (For example, I took 8 months off to live in Istanbul. I had two interviews and two offers when coming back, one of which was completely outside my network.)
However, I had also just taken a month to do a functional course, and had worked half-heartedly on a startup that went nowhere. I had a story.
The longer you take off, the more of a story you will need, even if that's "in the last 3 months, I built a small toy to get myself reacquainted with React and Python" even if this is a Rails omakase shop.
Or, that story may be something completely different. All I care about is "can you hit the ground running?"
But some lessons learned. Manage your money carefully so you're not always in a inflexible spot, and manage your stress levels carefully. Pay attention to what is affecting you and why, and be good/take care of yourself emotionally so you're not always in stress/reactive mode.
- You will have heavy selection bias here (people who did not succeed might be working at a crappier job and unable to comment at this moment)
- You will also have confirmation bias among those who willingly quit (“of course it was the right move”)
- You are asking a very unique set of people with very valuable skills in high demand (you may fall into this category, but worth keeping in mind)
- The last 10 years has been a historic bull market and hard to fail in if you fall into the last category. We don’t know what the future brings (Not knowing what the future holds has been true every year of the last 10 years, especially January 2020. But I bring it up to say past results from others in this thread do not guarantee future performance for you).
All in all, if you are financially stable or have a supportive safety net, it seems like a potentially good risk to take. It also looks like you should have a strong plan to do something (hobby, hike, or work in another capacity). If you don’t, you may just stagnate and waste some of your prime years for growth and development.
But absolutely - if you have support and a plan, you keep the downsides in mind (it will be painful at times, and not roses and butterflies the whole way through), then sure - give it a shot. If you are growing and developing skills in a field you don’t care about, you should definitely change it up.
Reframing it - nearly everyone who goes to grad school full time quits their job (or takes a leave). Quitting to do your own thing, as long as you show employers why you did it in a year or two, shouldn’t be a detriment for getting rehired. That said, hiring managers may question if you’d quit again in a year (depending on your past employment tenure)…