Why I Quit Netflix

This is really the story of the first time I quit Netflix. Yes I really did officially quit Netflix. I fully 100% did it. It was a very hard decision. But in the end, A man named Papa Jeff Wagner brought me back into netflix and I am still happily employed there.

Become a backend engineer. Its my favorite site

This is also the best way to support me is to support yourself becoming a better backend engineer.

### Twitch
Everything is built live on twitch

### Editor

### Links

#vim #programming #softwareengineering

[ThePrimeagen]

I must not have made it clear enough, but Papa Jeff Wagner brought me back into Netflix after I left. I am still at Netflix, just in case there's any questions. But I certainly did quit, but it's good to be here.

[daniyalmujtaba]

"I took down the production a few times" actual true definition of fun job for dev

[TomNook.]

It's surprising to hear even a big company like Netflix are letting staff become so overburdened. Even my small company realises that you can't put too much on 1 person or team. Hire more people, cut features or lengthen deadlines.

[DavidWoodMusic]

I really appreciate this.
I'm on the verge of putting in my two weeks at my current position and this brought some great insight.

[ghsinfosec]

I've realized over the years that being open and honest in situations like that can really turn things around. Though painful, they are certainly growth opportunities both professionally and individually. Great story!

[jupyterk]

That was some real good piece of advice that I had thought similarly of multiple times the last year but did not had the perfect wording/condition to try to put out there. Thanks for putting it out there 👍

[jackmonkeyca]

Something definitely changed for me when I went through a little burnout in a previous team and it's maybe because i saw it happening in parallel with someone else. I realised that the people I work with are humans and for the most part care about me a lot more than the company I work for to whom i'm mostly just a number or statistic. That's perhaps a bit pessimistic but I always need to remind people to look after themselves because the company isn't gonna do it for you.

[metacrng]

I think this kind of advice is priceless for all the junior engineers out there. Thank you Prime for sharing your experience!

[runny]

I truly sympathies. I too went through something very similar, but my boss didn't want to know. He was such a crap, back stabbing, scheming idiot that I left. I was so motived that I started my own business in an unrelated field. I can now work on what I want, when i want. I now code, not for a job or a boss, but for pure pleasure - it is the ultimate gift for which I'm eternally thankful.

[ryanleemartin]

Really appreciate the honest reflection of professional failures and struggles for everyone to see and learn from. You're a damn good egg, sir. Also, "I took down production a few times and it was fun" I can only assume will be a forthcoming "Storytime with Prime" video.

[Hedshodd]

A couple of years ago, I was in a situation where I got the chance to affect change, and took it, and it wasn't even for my team. We have this C++ project (that I'm not part of) that was stuck at using C++98, because the project lead refused to upgrade for "compatability reasons". Everyone who knows C++ knows that this is a dog water tier argument, because unrelenting backwards compat is the bane of C++ nowadays.

Now, they ran into so many problems that would have been so incredibly easy to solve with modern C++. One example, where I also helped someone on the project out, was that they needed to be able to remove arguments from an array, and it needed to be done as efficiently as possible, because it was a super tight bottle neck, so him and me implemented the erase-remove idiom by hand, since we didn't have modern STL to help us.

Now, my coworkers aren't 'computer scientists' or otherwise 'profesionally learned programmers / software enginneers'. They're scientists, and they just want to get the work done. When I learned of the situation of that team, for weeks I spoke up for and to them, encouraged them to push their project lead to at least upgrade to C++14, told them why that would be a good decision... and they did it. It was still quite the battle, apparently, and I don't know if they even used any of my arguments, but they did it.

[pelom]

At a similar crossroads right now. All these tech courses, videos, articles, docs etc... None of them teach or cover the people side about being in the industry. So am grateful for some perspective here, and have really taken something away from this. Thanks

[ColinDdd]

this SERIOUSLY is a great video mr. primeagen. i feel like i got so many parallels to your earlier career, e.g. doing open source, invest tons of personal time to try to make cool stuff happen, but also have a non coding manager and really hate it sometimes...really good tips and it takes serious work to learn and internalize those emotional lessons

[pedrohakia]

This is gold, Thank you so much Michael por having the strengh of telling us how you feel, and how we could improve as well in our own jobs. God Bless you my friend!

[Muaahaa]

I had one of the most skilled members of my team confide in me that they were in a situation where they were serious unhappy in their role and actively in talks with another company. I pretty much pivoted my plans for the next couple weeks to meet with them regularly to see if there was something we could do to change the dynamic in our department or create a new role that would excite him. I was not his boss and couldn't make any executive calls, but out of our discussions came some ideas that he did eventually take to his manager, who was very eager to make it work.

I believe that if we didn't have all of those discussions he wouldn't have brought anything up with his boss besides giving notice.

[riskitall]

Just came across your channel today bro 👍🏻 I myself had a decade of experience under my belt and still felt like I struggled. Here 2 years later I’m still struggling BUT I’m able to build huge projects like a social media. I love your take on programming and I now have to consume all your content. Your awesome dude 👍🏻

[BrendonOtto]

Been going through some of this at my job and spending time with the people on my team having the hard, sometimes uncomfortable conversations is the thing that turns it around for everyone. As tech focused individuals most take solace in the tech side but the people side can be really rewarding too :)

[TehKarmalizer]

I just recently quit for another company after years of bringing up the same issues with no resolution. I should have quit a long time ago. It's important to recognize your own shortcomings, but it's also important to recognize when you need some kind of change for yourself.

[markvaldez]

Very interesting perspective! As someone who just started their career, I don't feel like I completely understand but when you mentioned the two options that made a lot of sense. That advice to see if you can fix the situation before leaving is great for other things in life too (sport teams, relationships, etc).

[Rakesh]

I walked away from being a high school teacher because I did not know how to ask for help from my supervisors. I let those toxic feelings swell until I snapped. If I could do it over, I would have spoken to the principal and told him where, how I was struggling. It was a great lesson to lean into the support systems intrinsic to healthy hierarchical relationships.