My story is not (I don’t think) a particularly unique one. Click-baity title aside, I think that most of us have at some point in our life been in a situation where we were miserable. Some of us are in that situation right now.
— — That was me less than a year ago — —
Without going into the specifics, here is a synopsis of where I found myself three months ago:
- Working for a Fortune 500’s top 10 by-revenue company
- Making 6 figures
- Paying off credit cards and buying myself nice things
And alsoooo…
- Dreading waking up every day that I had to go to work
- Giving myself pep-talks in the parking lot before setting foot in my workplace
- Living with anxiety that my professional license was in jeopardy
- Working within a culture where employees are treated as if they’re disposable
The list goes on and on, but the point of this article is not to throw myself a pity party. I simply want to make the point that I found out the hard way that money (beyond a certain point, obviously) is not the key to happiness. We’ve all heard it and we’ve all ignored it at least once.
Here is how I reached this conclusion:
*** TIME TRAVEL BACKWARDS ***
Like most teenagers in the United States, I graduated high school, went off to college, and decided what I wanted to do with my life when I knew little-to-nothing about myself.
I picked a major where I thought I would be able to help people, and get paid very well to do it. I had a blast during my six years of university. I made countless friends, learned a handful of life lessons, and managed to keep my grades up throughout. At this point it sounds like a true success story.
Towards the end of my college career I decided that I would go on to do post-graduate training and subsequently take over the world as a patient-care rockstar. I applied for multiple residencies in my last six-months before graduation and when I got the results in March…… I wasn’t placed anywhere.
Without delving into the self-flagellation that ensued, it suffices to say that I was disappointed in myself. I felt like I had wasted six years of education and tens of thousands of dollars. Flailing to have something to do after graduation, I accepted a job offer at a company where I knew I would not be happy.
I told myself the money would be worth it.
I gave up on myself and sold out.
*** TIME TRAVEL FORWARD ***
Post-graduation, I moved to a new state and began my new job.
It didn’t take long before I found myself in the rut that I described at the beginning of this article. Every day that I worked was filled with anxiety and every day I was off was filled with dread for the next workday.
So, four months out of school I quit my job with no prospective job leads while living in a saturated market, with a significant amount of debt, and no idea what I was going to do next.
I had no safety net, but I could feel it in my bones that I had made the right decision.
As I’m writing this my savings are dwindling. I eat the same lunch and dinner everyday throughout the week. I regularly leave home at 8am and return over twelve hours later. I don’t know when or from where my next paycheck will come. I am in more debt than when I graduated college. I’m doing something completely unrelated to my college degree.
I could not be happier.
Let me explain.
After a brief stint of looking for a new job, I quickly realized that I was fighting an uphill battle that I was not even sure I wanted to be fighting. There were too few jobs, too many applicants, and I was seriously lacking in enthusiasm for the few available positions. I decided to take a step back and consider all of my options.
The following are some vocations I considered:
- Bartender — I enjoy meeting people, I enjoy creating things, I could possibly make sweet tips.
- Store Manager at Aldi — I grocery shop at Aldi almost exclusively, I would get to drive an Audi, I would be working for a company that is innovating constantly.
- Starving Musician — I love making music, I love performing, but I am not good enough at either to make an above-starving wage.
As I continued trying to piece together what my next move would be I realized I was missing an obvious, practical idea.
At this point I had been teaching myself about software programming as a hobby for a few months and I really enjoyed the process. Something about the interaction between human ideas and computer logic scratched an itch for problem-solving that I hadn’t scratched in the same way since high school calculus.
Feeding off the energy that came with leaving the old job behind (and the support provided by my extremely supportive and loving girlfriend), I decided to take a headfirst plunge into the world of web development. I calculated how long my savings would last on a shoestring budget, I canceled all my monthly subscriptions (minus my internet), and I submitted an application to a 12-week immersive web-development program at DevMountain.
“You must be crazy.”
“What a waste of an education.”
“How irresponsible.”
These were common reactions to my decision, and though they aren’t entirely without their merit, I wouldn’t dare go back. I am a few weeks from finishing the program, I have no guarantee of a job afterwards, and I am putting in more hours than I did when I had a job, still I know that I made the right decision.
I wake up every morning excited to learn, build things, and solve problems. I get to exercise my creative and analytical sides on a daily basis. I get to learn tons of new things everyday. I get to be a part of an industry where hard work is rewarded and those that pave the way are constantly reaching back to pull others forward.
By no means would this have been the right decision for everybody, but it was undoubtedly the right decision for me.
Since starting the bootcamp I realized that I was not alone in my dissatisfaction with where I was in life and that I was not the only one willing to take a risk to change that. I am learning alongside people who come from all walks of life but decided that it was time to take their future into their own hands. From a distance it would seem that many of us were “successful” in our previous careers but it just goes to show that success is a relative term and only you can define it for yourself.
I am writing this article for two reasons. The first, and more selfish one, being that writing is very cathartic for me. The second reason is that I hope that by sharing my story somebody will get the courage to take that first step towards taking control of their life. I am not saying that everybody should quit their job and join a coding bootcamp, but I think that at the very least it is important to take stock of your situation and look for areas where you can make changes, particularly if you are not happy with where you are.
I believe in you and hope that you are successful in whatever you choose to do!
Edit 05-25-2020:
Since writing this post, I have gone through the following jobs:
- Mentor at the bootcamp mentioned above, left when the contract ended
- Worked at a startup that ran out of money, left because there was no money
- Worked as a contractor building an MVP for a company, left to pursue the next opportunity
- Worked as a contractor at a more established company, was unexpectedly laid off with my colleagues
- Am currently happily developing software as a Technical Lead at a medium-sized startup.
I still love my job and the people I work with, and would make this decision a million times over.
