I'm quitting my job at a big tech company to travel. Hustle culture is overrated — I'm taking a year off.

23.08.2024 - 16:57 / insider.com

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation and emails with Nadia Said, a 25-year-old IT project manager at a major tech company where she started working full-time in 2020.

Said has been working from Asia since May but plans to quit in September to go on an adult gap year, also known as a career break . Said did not want to disclose the name of her company for privacy reasons, but her employment has been verified by Business Insider.

The following essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I come from a big family. My parents are both Indian immigrants.

The message that I got when I was younger, seeing my parents go through what they went through, is that a job can provide you that stability you need to pursue your other passions.

When I was in my second year at Temple University, I got the opportunity to work at my company as an intern.

I was juggling working witha full-time student workload in a challenging degree. I graduated in December 2019 andwas able to get a full-time job offer.

I joined in 2020. A few months later, the Great Resignation took place. I saw a lot of my teammates quit, transfer, and move on.

I went from being this fresh grad trying to get as much experience as possible to helping with this increasing workload — with fewer people.

I was consistently handed really challenging projects. It seemed like if I couldn't deliver, there was no one else. Everyone else was stretched thin, and there was no new hiring at this time.

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In late 2022, the company announced it was going to be doing layoffs.

At that time, a lot of companies were starting to announce layoffs — all the big ones, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, everyone.

For someone who went into this field because of the job security, it seemed like, "OK, it's not as secure as I thought." I was talking to a friend who was working at a tech company. She told me, "If they lay me off, it's fine. I'll just take my savings and travel to Asia until I figure out what's next for me."

I was like, "Oh my God, you can do that? You can just decide to take a year off?"

Later that year, I took 10 days off, and I traveled to South Korea.

Coming back from that trip and seeing the impending layoffs, and also being fairly burned out from working five years straight at this really high-tech company, I started to put my plans in motion.

I am preparing to take an adult gap year in September. It took about a year of planning. I wanted to be sure of my decision. I wanted to make sure I had enough in savings. I budgeted $15,000 to spend on the year.

It helped that I wasmoving to Asia. With the currency exchange and everything, it ismore reasonable for me, versus if I took a year off and traveled through Europe or even the States.

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