I love my job. I just quit my job
Today was my last day working as a Software Engineer Team Lead at Rev.com. It was a great job and I loved every minute of the past 4 years:
- I believed in the company's mission
- The work was challenging
- I was trusted to make decisions on my own
- I was mentored and able to grow within the company
- I mentored others
- I had work/life balance, and enjoyed hanging out with co-workers
- I got paid above the average salary for the market
I still quit. Because I want to tinker with magical internet money. I want to be a part of the growing ecosystem of software developers buidling apps on top of the Ethereum network.
Most folks get interviews and offers before leaving their current job, or have a startup idea they want to pursue. I don’t have another job lined up, and have no concrete plans yet.
Because I'm excited about the possibilities of blockchain/distributed ledger technology. I'm stopping the daily work routine, take some time off, learn, and figure out where and how I could contribute to the space.
Crypto got really exciting and "mainstream" in 2017, mainly because of the price action. The current bear market has rapidly changed that perception. I first heard about Bitcoin at the beginning of 2014, but I was dead broke and couldn't invest any money into it. I was also focused on getting an H1B visa so I could move to Silicon Valley. I stopped paying attention when the Mt. Gox hack happened.
Two years later, while living in San Francisco, I learned about Ethereum in the midst of the DAO hack. I got excited about the promise of smart contracts and intrigued by the online governance process and eventual decision to bail out the investors and the consequent hard-fork.
I started reading everything I could find: white papers that I couldn't understand in their entirety, Nathaniel Popper's book, the Fat Protocols blog post from Joel Monegro at USV, all the Medium Articles from Chris Burniske and Ryan Selkis.
I got obsessed with crypto-twitter. I would constantly talk to anyone about the possibilities of blockchain, so much that it became annoying. At some point it dawned on me: "I spend more time thinking and reading about this blockchain thing than my actual job".
I started learning about solidity. Went to Ethereal NYC to get to know more folks in the space. Spent a day at balance.io in Brooklyn where I met their team, venture capitalists, Ethereum Core developers, and folks like Matt Lockyer and Lane Rettig who took their valuable time to answer my beginner questions and let me know more about NFTs, Composable Tokens, and TCRs.
I got major developer FOMO. And at that point decided to leave the comfiness and warmth of the job I loved, and go head first into the rabbit hole. I put in my notice at the start of the month and have spent the last 4 weeks closing up work and transitioning the team to a new technical lead.
OK, so what's next?
- I'm actively looking to meet more people in the space. Will spend some time in New York, Austin, and San Francisco and try to talk to as many people as possible.
- I'm following Meltem's advice from her article "So you want to work in crypto…"
- I enrolled in Consensys Academy. I'm learning more about solidity and how smart contracts work.
- I'm going to EthBerlin in September to #buidl something with my friend Eduardo Sorribas.
- I've just started applying to startups in the crypto space that I find interesting and are in need of full-stack web developers.
I also want to talk about the experience along the way. I've been in the same industry segment for the past 5–6 years, and this is unknown but exciting territory; so expect more articles about hurdles, tumbles, learnings, and (eventually) success along the way.
Do you have any advice for me? Would love to hear from and meet anyone that wants to talk more about it. Reach me at @amhedh, DMs are open.
