Ask HN: Should I quit without a new job lined up?

Because recession is looming over us, I recommend looking while keeping your job. Since you are a junior dev, companies that lay off folks or go into a hiring freeze typically want to hire senior devs.

You can start by brushing up your resume and working on side projects that bring you joy while keeping your skills up to date, practicing interviewing and, more importantly, taking care of your mental health.

Then you can start listing down companies you are interested in going for and interviewing at companies that you like less first and interviewing at companies you like more so you can learn from the former and apply in the latter.

This is anecdotal, so take it with a shovel of salt. I was in a very similar position. I decided to quit my job before having another.

My main reason was I wanted to find something that will keep me happy for a long time. I felt it was less likely for me to find that while doing my current job. I had savings to keep me afloat, but planned to find a new job asap.

Long story short, it paid off. I think having full days to find it helped me a lot. I ended up joining a startup as the first dev and that would've only happened if I had the time to fly up to the founder and spend a few days with him understanding the business and more importantly the person I would have to work with.

It sounds to me you've already written off your current place. I would say commit to finding a new place and think hard about what you want then articulate it well to others.

Best of luck and stay positive.

Generally, never quit before having a new job accepted. Sticking out awful scenarios is a thing, unfortunately. Hiring managers/committees can discard applicants just for having job lapses. (Not saying they should just that it’s a danger.)

One thing that finally did it for me in a similarly awful situation was I took an immediate two week vacation. I spent that time resting (for 1-2 days) and applying for work. That included doing a drastic rewrite of my resume and how I presented myself to positions. Write detailed cover letters after finding out what places needed to see in them. It took time but I started in a new job in about 4 months.

This is really excellent advice. As someone who just did a career transition quitting my old job without a new one lined up, I can say that there's no guarantee (and even more-so in this economy) that you will get a new job any time soon. If energy for applying to new jobs is your problem (which I can definitely relate to) tackle that head on.

One note is that, unless it's your dream job, I wouldn't waste your time on cover letters. It's a numbers game so try and get as many applications out as you can and don't be afraid to just mindlessly send out resumes.

For programming it’s probably more important to practice leetcode and the interview prep. But that’s stuff to take some time research. Depends on what makes sense for OP.

Also, banks are just awful towards their tech workers as banks consider tech a cost center. (Which is ridiculous, but still a reality.)

Oh 100% a hugely valuable use of time would be to hammer at leetcode questions. It's annoying and not useful for your real life, but if you can do those questions in your sleep you can ace most technical interviews.

Absolutely do not do that. You are too early in your career and have too few funds. Once you are unemployed, you will experience fear and panic unlike what you've known. The US is a tough place and this is how many people end up on the street. With the economic situation becoming more precarious, it is almost certain that you will be forced to accept even worse conditions than what you have now. At least with your current job, you can negotiate from a far stronger position.

In short: you are risking either 1) running out of money and accepting a worse job or 2) running out of money, not finding a job, being an unemployed aging adult who lives with his parents, and being rejected by recruiters for an increasingly large gap in your resume.

Look, I get it, work sucks. But the alternative, for those without sufficient funds, is far, far worse.

My advice - apply to new jobs like your life depends on it. Find new pleasures in your life; bring new fun and interesting snacks to your work place; listen to new music while you work; change the color of your IDE; just, overall, find a new perspective and tough it out for a bit longer.

No.

Apply like crazy.

Take off mental health sick days. Heck, complain to HR and get more.

Apply even more. Get out, but safely.

Take heart. Some people do that their whole career.

Before straight up quiting, I'd suggest you make an attempt to renegotiate your current circumstances. First, figure out what you need to make it worth it. More money? Less hours? No on-call? More learning? Make a list. Then, schedule a 1:1 with your manager and respectfully layout your request. Don't get too specific on the why. Simply that for you to do your best work, and for your best personal health, you need to adjust the working expectations going forward. Ask them for their support affecting the change. If they say no, you can still quit. And if they say yes, then congrats you've just managed upwards successfully. Even if you fail, its a great skill to build and practice that will serve you in many roles to come. Good luck.

I have quit twice without having anything to go to, however, I already had about 12 years of experience in various roles. The first time, I was pretty dumb about it, and it could have ended badly. I was unemployed for a about a year and that was mainly due to not being motivated to get back into IT (was totally burnt out - similar situation to yours).

I definitely didn't plan the financials properly the first time, even though I thought I was covered.

The second time I did it was 2 years ago roughly, but I had more of a solid idea of what type of job I wanted (more specifically, did not want - this is personal, and down to you. Remember, you are also interviewing them).

If you have already decided to move (and I think you should based on your description, the last job I walked from seriously changed me in a negative way), then you might consider to slow down where you are, you have nothing to lose, they are clearly not treating you correctly, so I wouldn't feel bad about about half-arsing it. Take sometime to plan your next steps (research roles you want/ do interviews), note what you don't like about the current job and would not want in the next one. Be open minded about all opportunities, even if you think you might not like them (I honestly didn't expect to like my current role at $bigCorp, but its been the best job I have had so far, and this is purely down to my boss and the rest of the small team I work with. This made me realize that I might have possibly found a nice team within that place, but was not open to that, as I had already made my mind up). Again, being open to anything new even if you are not sure is likely going to be positive, as the change of environment and new people will give you a different outlook, which will help, and again, if you don't like it, you can always change. The old school thinking of having to many changes on your CV is dead, no corp has any loyalty to there staff and as such don't deserve it in turn. I of course am speaking generally.

I wish you the best of luck, try to stay positive. And if (like me), you like the herb from time to time, think about knocking it on the head until you get yourself sorted, this was a must for me.

I have a few remarks:

1. Why are you calling yourself a junior engineer? It's one thing to call yourself that at your first job, but once you've had that role for even just a year, you shouldn't call yourself a junior anymore. Just my opinion. Doesn't even matter if your current title is junior. If it is, I'd just leave the "junior" part out on your resume.

2. You're learning a valuable lesson. Probably wasn't the best idea to accept any job for the same pay you're currently making. Any job you're offered should offer at least something meaningful over your existing pay. When they don't, it's usually a bad bargain.

3. Whether you should quit now depends on many things, but it mainly depends on whether you can mentally put up with it for much longer. If you're losing your sanity or dying slowly inside, you have to consider whether it's better to live with your parents. It might actually be better to live with your parents depending on how much the job sucks. You should also consider that right now we're not in a bull market for tech jobs. They're there, but I probably wouldn't have quit my job with no new one lined up last time if the job market was how it currently is.

4. If you can put up with your job for another ~6 months, a viable option is to mentally check out of your current job. Do just enough work so you don't get fired (if you care), coast on that paycheck, take lots of PTO and sick days, and interview at other companies. Work only as many hours as you feel like you can. If you feel like you have to be there 10 - 12 hours, surf Reddit or stare off into space for those remaining hours. Better yet, fill out job applications during those hours.

5. In future interviews, don't hesitate to bring up that you're "not learning anything from this role since the language is proprietary, [you're] coming home having gotten nothing concrete done." It's an excellent reason for quitting that employers are unlikely to verify and if they try they'll find out you're right. Don't make that the only reason, but it's something worth bringing up.

As much as your current situation is terrible, I would never quit without a new position lined up. I've seen a number of people do it and it set them back years - they struggled to find a new job and as their desperation increased, they were forced to accept a lower position with lower wages.

If you interview for a new position while still employed, you are in a position of strength (as much as I hate to put it in those terms). If you interview while unemployed, you're likely to NEED the job and potential employers know that - this will inevitably affect your bargaining position.

How many months you can live without income? Homelessness is also stressful.

My lease ends in July, I can afford to pay it off savings until then. After that I can move in with my parents and help them out around the house/property for reduced rent until I get a new job.

Considering your situation it sounds like you can do what you want. Having a new job lined up before quitting is more of a concern for people living paycheck to paycheck. Spend that time with your family. Not many have this luxury.

Your current employer's way of doing business is to use you until there's nothing left to use and then move on to the next young mindbody.

Having done something similar to what you've done a few times before, I say consider finding a way to move in with your parents sooner rather than later if that's your backup plan anyway. If you can get out of the lease early then you'll give yourself way more wiggle room in terms of how long it will take you to get a job and what opportunities you'll have in the mean time. You're talking ~9 months of rent, which isn't a trivial amount of money no matter where you live.

Depends on the risk you're willing to take. If you have some savings, no liabilities, it might seem like a little change of scenery is what you need. Someplace cheap if you can't afford it, a change in routines to start looking at the career question from a new perspective. Since you've had experience, finding a job shouldn't be too hard and conventional wisdom would say to line up a job first, but sometimes it's also about the unconventional moves in life.

Start applying for jobs and not doing the work at your current workplace. Don't quit, continue being paid while doing the bare minimum and looking for another job.

Stretch it as far as you can, take some time off before you call it quits. Worse comes to worst, at least you'll have a place to return to. Second, when looking for work it looks spectacularly better if you're currently employed and looking to leave the place.

There’s that saying, “a healthy man wants a thousand things, a sick man only one.”

I burnt out so badly I was on short term disability for 3 months. If your health is declining, it’s not worth staying.

Get “COVID”.

Use that time to polish your LinkedIn and move your cv around.