One of the best things I've ever done for myself: quit my job.
Stating this not to brag but to make my point: 8 months ago I was clearing north of $140k plus options at a top tech co (plus all the usual perks/full benefits) at age 23. The path was probably open for a management position and easily over 200K per year by age 30.
I hated it. The work was agonizingly mundane. The environment was intellectually letheragic (a tremendous irony given the pedigree of my coworkers). I was pulling long hours to write code that I knew had little real value. And everywhere I looked I saw constraints and barriers to doing something meaningful. Eventually it got to the point where I started having a lot of anxiety and even moodiness and feeings of hopelessness.
I felt like what I was forcing myself to become was suffocating the person I wanted to be, deep down. So I asked myself, honestly, if the money was worth trading off so much of my life. My answer was 'no'. However, I think I might be an outlier in that regard. A lot of other people place a high value on experiences, socializing, buying nice things, etc. There are only three things I can ever remember giving me genuine contentment: building complex things, learning (reading, programming, lectures), and hanging with a handful of very good friends. Turns out working a job was diametrically opposed to my main priorities in life. And the weird thing is I'd known that for a very long time before having a decisive 'epiphany' about it. I'd been running from that truth because it was so contradictory, relative to what society tells us we should do and value. This line of reasoning was essential in clearing the final mental hurdle between myself and the decision to pursue entrepreneurship. I had to reconcile myself with having less in the immediate term and the likelihood of long-run financial consequences in taking a break from working in the industry. I acknowledge that this isn't possible for everyone. Some people have dependents, mortgages, and other obligations. But if you can somehow make the numbers work and don't find the luxuries of a six figure salary as compelling as the opportunities you trade away, then you owe it to yourself to stop and think about it.
As for what happens on the other side: freedom is a beautiful thing. I'm now convinced there's 'one easy trick' to becoming a 10x engineer and that's quitting your job. You learn out of necessity when you have few resources and no fallbacks. It also seems obvious now in hindsight that the surest way to realize your full potential is to work on your own terms building something you care about. I get to see friends more often than I have in years and I'm working with two of my best friends on a startup. I've also been exercising consistently and eating better. But by far the most energizing change in my lifestyle has been my improved sleeping habits. Imagine a world in which you don't have to set an alarm clock and always get enough sleep - that's what you get to do when you work on your own terms. I can't be sure about this but I feel like I might actually be improving in mental acuity as well, which I would attribute to getting more sleep and the compounding effects of expanding my skillset (full stack engineering, PM, marketing). I think the phenomenon of interdisciplinary study leading to improved cognition is fairly well-studued and I'm now realizing that entrepreneurship is at least a good approximation of that. I furthermore spend several hours per day in flow because there are no meetings, emails or other interruptions.
All this adds up to a lifestyle that's so dramatically superior to where I was before that I have absolutely no intention of going back, if I can avoid it. Sorry for the poorly-constructed stream of consciousness. I intend to write a blog post on the subject at some point, but wanted to get this down here in case it helps anyone trying to make a decision. If you're going through burnout and feel like your personal narrative resembles mine, I hope you'll take some time to consider quitting to work on something that gives you purpose and that might have value to others. Regardless, I'll end with the handful of things I needed to keep hearing back when I was burning out: there IS an other side and you WILL get there. It's okay if you have to quit because the safety net for software engineers is incredible and your health is comparatively fragile. By far the most important thing for you to do is let the good people in your life be there to help you get through this.
"I'm now convinced there's 'one easy trick' to becoming a 10x engineer and that's quitting your job. You learn out of necessity when you have few resources and no fallbacks. It also seems obvious now in hindsight that the surest way to realize your full potential is to work on your own terms building something you care about."
I couldn't agree more. I see a lot of engineers in startups that claim to have X years of experience, but when you read their code, it more like 1*X years of experience. They never progressed passed the 1 year point because they were doing the same things again and again. Most of the time it was not the correct way either but because they have repeated the same process so many times, its the only ways they knew and naturally accepted it as is.
The best programmers I have seen are always those that worked on their own project with very limited resources. You are force to learn and do things out of the box this way. It's definitely a slow learning process but for me, just thinking back on how much I have learnt (and be able to utilize my knowledge correctly) in the last year is mind boggling.
I am pretty much in the same boat as you were at your job. I wish I could quit straight up but financially it wouldn't be responsible. Been searching for a job since February but my shitty technical interview skills and lack of experience keep getting me rejected. Lol I am literally willing to "code" HTML at this point.
BTW 140k at 23?? Jeez I am the same age as you and I am getting payed just below 100k and I work in SF.
Keep at it and don't give up! My guess is you're trying to interview at better companies that have difficult hiring processes and that's great. You improve at interviewing as you go along. Make sure you study/practice as many hours per day as you can manage.
I got lucky with that comp package since I had been an intern the previous summer and they wanted me back - gave me a lot of room to negotiate.
Stating this not to brag but to make my point: 8 months ago I was clearing north of $140k plus options at a top tech co (plus all the usual perks/full benefits) at age 23. The path was probably open for a management position and easily over 200K per year by age 30.
I hated it. The work was agonizingly mundane. The environment was intellectually letheragic (a tremendous irony given the pedigree of my coworkers). I was pulling long hours to write code that I knew had little real value. And everywhere I looked I saw constraints and barriers to doing something meaningful. Eventually it got to the point where I started having a lot of anxiety and even moodiness and feeings of hopelessness.
I felt like what I was forcing myself to become was suffocating the person I wanted to be, deep down. So I asked myself, honestly, if the money was worth trading off so much of my life. My answer was 'no'. However, I think I might be an outlier in that regard. A lot of other people place a high value on experiences, socializing, buying nice things, etc. There are only three things I can ever remember giving me genuine contentment: building complex things, learning (reading, programming, lectures), and hanging with a handful of very good friends. Turns out working a job was diametrically opposed to my main priorities in life. And the weird thing is I'd known that for a very long time before having a decisive 'epiphany' about it. I'd been running from that truth because it was so contradictory, relative to what society tells us we should do and value. This line of reasoning was essential in clearing the final mental hurdle between myself and the decision to pursue entrepreneurship. I had to reconcile myself with having less in the immediate term and the likelihood of long-run financial consequences in taking a break from working in the industry. I acknowledge that this isn't possible for everyone. Some people have dependents, mortgages, and other obligations. But if you can somehow make the numbers work and don't find the luxuries of a six figure salary as compelling as the opportunities you trade away, then you owe it to yourself to stop and think about it.
As for what happens on the other side: freedom is a beautiful thing. I'm now convinced there's 'one easy trick' to becoming a 10x engineer and that's quitting your job. You learn out of necessity when you have few resources and no fallbacks. It also seems obvious now in hindsight that the surest way to realize your full potential is to work on your own terms building something you care about. I get to see friends more often than I have in years and I'm working with two of my best friends on a startup. I've also been exercising consistently and eating better. But by far the most energizing change in my lifestyle has been my improved sleeping habits. Imagine a world in which you don't have to set an alarm clock and always get enough sleep - that's what you get to do when you work on your own terms. I can't be sure about this but I feel like I might actually be improving in mental acuity as well, which I would attribute to getting more sleep and the compounding effects of expanding my skillset (full stack engineering, PM, marketing). I think the phenomenon of interdisciplinary study leading to improved cognition is fairly well-studued and I'm now realizing that entrepreneurship is at least a good approximation of that. I furthermore spend several hours per day in flow because there are no meetings, emails or other interruptions.
All this adds up to a lifestyle that's so dramatically superior to where I was before that I have absolutely no intention of going back, if I can avoid it. Sorry for the poorly-constructed stream of consciousness. I intend to write a blog post on the subject at some point, but wanted to get this down here in case it helps anyone trying to make a decision. If you're going through burnout and feel like your personal narrative resembles mine, I hope you'll take some time to consider quitting to work on something that gives you purpose and that might have value to others. Regardless, I'll end with the handful of things I needed to keep hearing back when I was burning out: there IS an other side and you WILL get there. It's okay if you have to quit because the safety net for software engineers is incredible and your health is comparatively fragile. By far the most important thing for you to do is let the good people in your life be there to help you get through this.