The Cathartic Journey of Leaving My First Full-Time Job
On December 1, 2020 I left Gusto after over 4 years of employment. It was my first job out of university. My first job residing in a city faraway from home. My first job with significant consequences.
The Itch
My desire to leave had been building for months. I joined Gusto as a 22 year old fetus and had matured greatly since starting. I felt funny about the fact that I’d spent almost half of my twenties working for the same company. How much of my identity was tied to working there? Who was I without Gusto? The existential millennial questions kept pouring in.
I’ll forever be grateful that I happened upon being hired by one of Y Combinator’s most successful companies. I learned how to work in a system serving hundreds of thousands of customers. I learned how to collaborate cross-functionally for large feature launches. I learned what the terms “strike price” and “exercising” meant. I learned how to handle responsibility in the “real world”
After 4 years of being professionally raised by Gusto, I was feeling pulled to start a new chapter.
The Search
I had seen plenty of people leave Gusto. The average tenure was on par with that of the tech industry (2–3 years). Since employees moving on happened frequently…
