8 Brutal Truths About Leaving Big Tech in 2024

SYSTEM DESIGN

[explorer]

the 8 "brutal truths" summarized:

1. Rushed exits can be costly: Steve left $250, 000 on the table by not waiting 10 weeks for his stock to vest at Amazon.

2. Overwhelm is a real danger: Despite leaving for more freedom, Steve ended up working more hours and feeling more overwhelmed than in his corporate job.

3. Systems are crucial: Good intentions don't work, mechanisms do. Steve realized he needed better systems and boundaries to manage his time and workload effectively.

4. Continuous learning is essential: Steve fell into the "expert trap" of teaching what he already knew without continuing to learn and grow himself.

5. Chasing metrics can be misleading: Focusing on views and engagement doesn't necessarily equate to meaningful impact.

6. Rest and downtime are productive: Steve struggled with guilt over taking breaks, realizing later that creativity needs space to breathe.

7. Identity shifts are challenging: Steve had difficulty redefining himself after leaving his long-time role at Amazon.

8. Running towards is better than running away: Steve realized he spent the year reacting and escaping rather than building towards a clear vision.

[_andrewpeacock]

This video felt supremely authentic, please don’t lose this in 2025 ❤️. You’re actually a huge inspiration on why I personally continue to create content every week. Thank you for everything you do. I hope you and the family have a very merry Christmas 🎄 ❤

[mchi]

250k is definition of golden handcuffs. To your viewers its a lot of $$ but to your career earnings, its not much.. esp youll need to work another grueling 2+ months, then after "just" another few months until more money. never ends, golden handcuffs.

[jaredsmith]

A big part of the gap you noticed in our industry is just due to the math of growth: if it takes 5-10 years to mint a true senior engineer and 10-20 years to mint a true principal engineer and the number of SWEs grows 50% each year (numbers completely made up but close enough for this level of analysis) then lack of technical leadership/mentoring is going to continue to be an issue. Thanks for trying to make it better. Your take toward the end there really resonated with me: I always try to be the kind of mentor to people I wish I'd had when I was coming up.

[HantaoCui]

Your day to day life sounds like my academic life style. Saying yes to almost everything, started many, and completed none… both have lots of freedom and can easily get lost. Thank you for the great video.

[CloudSecurityGuy]

Incredibly brave and transparent of you to share this .. good luck to you on the next amazing step of your journey !

[mkyle]

Hi Steve, you seem like a really bright and metered person. Everyone learns cyclically and revisits patterns in order to grow. Kudos for being able to call it out and help others learn. Your experience is humble and helpful. Direct feedback is empirical, however there are likely many silent viewers that find this content useful. When it stops being consistently fun, something needs a shift. I've been here as well and keep a steady mental affirmation "Remember why you started..."

[diehardvn]

From a Vietnamese fellow in Tech, thank you for sharing your experience and wisdom. There is a Việt proverb that failures are the mother of success. How true that is would vary from person to person. But seeing how you talked about mistakes and faced them head on, your chance of finding success is on the high side. When I need to rest my mind, playing my favorite sport (badminton) works really well for me.

[ikotsus]

There is a catch 22 at play here. People not burning out at their job are the most qualified to teach others for example through YT. But they are less likely to do so because they do not need to cultivate an exit plan. People burning out at work are more likely to want to grow an audience on YT so they can escape, but are they the ones you want to listen to? This has happened with teachers also. One was setting the bar so high I was thinking how do you keep this up? Of course he quit in order to "help other teachers succeed". His audience dropped of soon after...

[adam_cha]

such an insightful video! thank you. keep up the great work man. you're doing a really great job with the value of the content in these videos!

[mikeyangelo_]

Your channel is a gem, Steve. Keep going and never stop inspiring other engineers!

[HugoCardozaAguirre]

Gracias for keeping it humble! Very valuable lessons from the mistake and common pitfalls we keep going

[karthiksubramanian]

Great video Steve. Love how you're being vulnerable with your audience. Glad that this video isn't just abt work stuff. Yes we should try to grow our careers but there's more to life than your job and you are in control of your identity.

One big lesson in college was that any major life step, you can rebrand yourself to who you want to be. Your identity isnt 100% set in stone

[gouravkhanijoe]

Wow, this video is a goldmine for anyone (like me) thinking to escape.

[tedm]

Steve, thanks again for such a great channel. I’m so glad I found you on here, it’s been great to learn from your experiences as I grow as a software engineer.

[supermarkethobo]

i like your authenticity and self awareness

[jhors]

Happy new year Steve! I appreciate your excellent content and channel.

[ankurchauhan]

Thank you Steve. You finally get the point that not everything great has to get tied back to Amazon. Jeez, I used to fast-forward almost every video which goes off at the "at Amazon one time ...."

[ElevateCode]

Like the person you mentioned in the video I've rewatched your videos a lot. The storytelling ones in particular are really helping me with behavioral questions. I write the answers out and then go over your video to make sure I hit the points in a good way. The content in the world is largely made by people much less experienced than you-- hearing how to talk to other professionals from someone at your level is the kind of gold that's normally behind closed doors only. Thank you for being open about things you wished you had done differently too, I've been there. Moved too fast, missed out on certain things. You live, you learn, you move on. But it's nice to hear even after all your experience everyone can make mistakes sometimes. It's a good reminder that failure is just part of the road to success. I'm both super proud of you and super thankful for all of the resources you've made. The way you've condensed your experience for us all will no doubt help me for the rest of my career and life. Thanks Steve and Happy Holidays!

[litowsean]

All the points are spot on! I wish I watched this before I left my last job...