No thanks, I quit

When do you know it’s time to give up on something?

I quit a six-figure/year job one time.

After working there for just 5 days.

The idea came to be on that Friday. I concluded I had made a huge mistake. I had to quit this job.

I took the weekend to sleep on it. Was I being too impulsive? Could I give this a chance? Would I regret this later?

By Monday I was 100% sure, so I emailed the news to my manager.

My manager called me right away. 😅

Obviously he didn’t take it too well at first, but he’s ultimately a good sport about it. He was just sad that he couldn’t make things work.

The recruiter who got me the interviews also called. He tried to change my mind many times. He said I’d tarnish my reputation forever if I did this, which I didn’t appreciate. But he eventually accepted my decision and we said goodbye.

I felt bad for them. But I felt like this was a personal decision, and I was confident in it.

So why did I do it?

I can’t say for sure.

It’s a combination of little things. I can maybe point to their policy on remote work, the large tech debt, the type of problems they were solving, the culture misfit, the traveling, the anxiety I randomly felt that first week, the fear of missing out a better path, etc. But in the end it was a decision based on intuition.

Ultimately I had to trust myself.

I know it’s time to give up on something when my intuition screams at me about it. If you know me, you know I don’t believe in sticking things out in case they get better. I’m driven to take action. It’s the same reason why I quit a show after only watching the pilot, or a game after a few hours. If I’m not into things, what’s the point?

Sometimes I’ll give up stuff too early, I accept that risk. But it’s a worthy tradeoff. The alternative is to do things I hate right now.

No thanks, I quit. 👋