i'm quitting Microsoft (ft. the great resignation)

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PIRATE KING | Software Engineer | Entertainment | Tech Life | Industry Mentor | Career Advice | SWE Consultation
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Welcome to PIRATE KING. I'm a Software Engineer at Microsoft, an ex-Software Engineer at Amazon and ebay. Apart from my full-time job, I also provide career advice and mentorship to prospective Software Engineers. Here, we talk about tips and tricks on how to land a successful career in tech. Make sure to hit that subscribe button!

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Music by Yeri

PIRATE KING
Software Engineer + Content Creator + Entertainer + Industry Mentor in TECH

❗️ All opinions are my own and not my employer's.

[Warpgatez]

Mismanaged on-call systems in a work center will easily become the biggest issue for retention.

[alanmarcero]

if you ask yourself "am i still learning?" and the answer is no, gotta move on. good call.

[kyleMcBurnett]

This is the first "why I quit video" I don't hate. In fact, I can relate. But I think I have a long way to go at Microsoft before I stop getting better. Good luck in your next endeavor!

[EricProgramming]

It was very nice to work with you Daniel! Sorry to hear that

[MrNsaysHi]

Microsoft Interview answer that got you the job: "...In the future I want to be better than who I'm today".

Leaving Microsoft because that's no longer true!

You're very honest with yourself man 👍🏻

[AlienaCai]

Whatever you do next, I'm proud of your decision! I'm a UX designer working at eBay in Bellevue and I also run a Youtube channel part time. I hope we can collaborate one day 😄 Please spend some time taking care of yourself 🙌 Excited for your next video!

[michaeldu]

I can totally relate to you dude. Best luck with everything!

[zerodefcts]

Growth, enjoying your work, and having work/life boundaries are all super-important ... well done!

[wdecay]

My path in IT was similar to yours. Amazon, then Microsoft and then... graduate school. Having spent many years in IT, I realized that software engineering is the ultimate blue-collar job of the 21st century. I know many would disagree with me. But those who are thinking how to build their future careers, ponder upon this at least for a bit and reevaluate your goals if they have anything to do with software engineering or any conventional IT.

[kbos]

I wish you luck on your journey and very excited to see your next step!

[Gammelsmxlf]

Since I didn't see this addressed elsewhere in the comments I'll ask: How does stressful/bad on-call management not factor into your assessment of work life balance? I would consider ANY on-call duty a detriment, even if it was managed well.

[Agent]

5 years ago, I've quitted a senior position for a slightly lower salary one but 200% less stress. Best decision I've made. No more overtime. Great life-work balance. I can even spend more time on other hobbies.

[consumerelitist]

I've been trying to get into Microsoft for quite some time. Happy to hear that you are in a good enough place to leave. By the way, I showed a clip of you laying on your couch looking up at your monitor and giving your daily standup in our daily standup. People were going nutzo. Thanks for sharing your account and perspective of leaving Microsoft.

[keiwaiou]

Wow I remember when you and like 10k or 5k subs, congratulations on your success!!

[QuantumImperfections]

THIS. I left my analytics job last week to everyone's surprise. Great pay and benefits, great bosses and great coworkers. But I hadn't learned a single thing in two years; despite all of my attempts to add new features etc to my applications / analytics. I'd had plenty saved and decided to take some time off for myself + learn some new skills while looking very casually for the next job. Week 1 and while I'm still not used to being so free I'm definitely happier.

[Guopher]

This video is super relatable considering just a couple of months ago I went from one tech company to another. All the points you made really resonated with me. Can't wait to hear about your new endeavors!

[thedevguild]

One door closes and another open! Hope you have better endeavor elsewhere! Will continue to stay tuned to where you going!

[a_drunk_carry]

As a tech recruiter for SF Bay Area startups this warms my heart. I appreciate your transparency, and a lot of what you say is what I try to convey to some of the young SWE/MLEs that I talk to one the phone every day for interviews. We've had multiple people refuse our offers/end the interviewing process because they took more money at Oracle/Microsoft/FAANG/etc. A lot of them end of being on the bottom of the totem pole on a giant team and do heads down coding for the majority of the work. and don't have a lasting impact at the company.

We can't compete with the comp ranges of these giant companies, but I always try to emphasize what kind of career/personal growth they're looking for 1-3 yrs down the line, and what balance of money to personal happiness are they looking for.

[gxsc]

TL;DR: Some years into your career, you will be responsible for "having enough to learn" for your organization. For a lot of people, "constantly jumping ship" becomes the comfort zone.

If your goal is work-life-balance and not career building, you can stop reading since the below content is not relevant. I think work-life-balance is a much better choice than career building if you have that choice.

After watching both of your quitting videos, I want to note that while "not having much to learn" seems reasonable in early career, it does become people's bottleneck in mid-career (10 years in). The reason is that one qualification of a more senior developer is their ability to create positive opportunities in any stagnate or otherwise dysfunctional organization. This is the same reason that very senior folks often recommend people to "jump ship for something exciting" but try not to "quit because of frustration". That "frustration" or "boredom" is often the challenge to resolve when you get to that point. There are exceptions to that - such as when the challenge becomes overwhelming and you can't develop the skills to solve it in a couple of years - drinking from a fire-hose. But being cognizant of not letting "not having much to learn" become an excuse is quite important and useful in most scenarios.

On a similar note, "only telling your manager once" (I think you mentioned it in the other video) may be useful in some places. It is absolutely not the case in North American companies. For three reasons: (1) the return of investment for a manager to resolve your problem needs to be obviously high - you need to nudge regularly, and state the consequences. (2) managers are people, and require help to change as well - you need to learn the skills to manage upward. (3) Companies/Managers in North America tend to be more resilient in talking about hard topics, at least that is the expectation. Therefore, they expect you to bring up important topics more often, rather than only once. Otherwise it is considered a fleeting thought.

Because of Peter Principle, which unfortunately also exists in FAANG despite of their best efforts, most managers are not going to be good at management. They are also not going to be good at most other things - that is just the nature of humans. A senior developer needs to be able to deal with that. They won't be able to give you what you want...mostly because they don't know how. You need to work with them, similar to how you would work with a product manager to come up with a great product, to really come up with a great organization and career plan.

So while these videos are fun, and you will hear a lot of people resonating with your decision process, beware that most people will also end up facing that career bottleneck somewhere down the line.

[tech_and_sundry]

I'm surprised to hear you say that about Microsoft. Traditionally, it's been known to be one of the chillest big tech companies out there. Did you think of switching teams before quitting?