I Quit My Job as a Data Scientist

Summary

Julia, a data scientist at Spotify, decides to quit her job without another one lined up. Though she loved working there for the first few years, in the past year she has been working long hours on high-priority projects, causing burnout and affecting her mental health. A failed job search made her realize the market wasn't ideal for switching jobs. After taking a month off following her grandfather's passing, Julia has an epiphany that life is long, and she should prioritize her happiness. Despite anxiety about losing her identity and platform, she puts in her two weeks notice, aiming to focus on her mental health, content creation, and eventual job search.

Takeaways

• 😊 Julia has worked at Spotify for almost 5 years, starting as an intern and becoming a full-time data scientist
• 😟 In the past year Julia has been working long hours on high priority projects which caused burnout and affected her mental health
• 🤔 Julia started looking for other jobs a few months ago but did not get any offers she was happy with
• 😢 In November, Julia's grandpa passed away right after layoffs were announced at Spotify, which was an emotionally difficult time
• ✈️ Julia's trip back to China for her grandpa's funeral gave her clarity and perspective about priorities in life
• 👋 Julia has decided to quit her job at Spotify without another offer lined up
• 🎥 Julia will focus on being a full-time content creator for her YouTube channel after quitting
• 📚 Julia plans to dedicate time daily to preparing for job interviews by practicing coding questions
• 🤞 Julia is anxious but excited about this next chapter and finding a new opportunity
• ❤️ Julia expresses gratitude to her viewers for their ongoing support during this transition

Q & A

Why is Julia quitting her job at Spotify?

Julia is quitting because she has been working long, demanding hours on high priority projects but has not seen career progression. This caused her a lot of stress and burnout. She also felt limited upward mobility at the company during the bad economy.

What were some of the negative effects Julia experienced from her demanding workload?

Julia developed insomnia, anxiety, stopped exercising and creating YouTube videos, which is her stress relief outlet. She also had emotional breakdowns and cried frequently.

What happened when Julia tried to find a new job before quitting?

Julia interviewed with one company for 1.5 months and got to the final rounds. However, they decided to go with someone more senior despite Julia's positive reviews. This left her very upset.

How did going to China for a month impact Julia's perspective?

Attending her grandfather's funeral and learning about his long, multi-faceted life made Julia realize life and careers are long. It's important not to get stuck comparing yourself to others.

What is Julia's plan after quitting her job?

Julia plans to take time off to rest and recover. She then plans to dedicate focused time to preparing for job interviews by practicing LeetCode. She will also create more YouTube content.

Why doesn't Julia have another job lined up before quitting?

The job market has been bad. And trying to job search while working her demanding job did not work out. Quitting to focus on finding a new job is her last resort.

What are Julia's concerns and fears about quitting?

Julia is anxious and scared about losing her identity and financial security tied to her prestigious job and career. She worries about letting her YouTube subscribers and supporters down.

Why does Julia acknowledge she is privileged to be able to quit her job?

Julia recognizes that having savings, a financial safety net through YouTube, and work experience to fallback on means she is lucky to be able to take this risk that others cannot.

How can people continue to support Julia during this transition?

People can support Julia by subscribing and following her social media channels, sending sponsorship opportunities, and sticking around to see her share her job searching process.

What tone does Julia convey about her decision to quit?

While anxious and scared, Julia also comes across as resolute in her decision. She has given this serious thought and feels choosing her mental health is the right thing.

Outlines

00:00

😞 Quitting my dream job due to burnout and lack of growth

The speaker did not sleep well because she is quitting her dream job at Spotify where she has worked for almost 5 years. She started as an intern and moved to a full-time role. Over the past year working long hours as the sole data scientist on a high priority project, she experienced burnout, lack of upward mobility, and constant pressure from stakeholders. This led to breakdowns, anxiety and losing joy in aspects of life outside work. After unsuccessful job searching while still working, the recent layoffs and her grandfather's passing all contributed to her decision to quit without another job lined up, in order to focus on her mental health.

05:00

😔 Reflecting on privilege, identity and the difficulty of letting go

The speaker acknowledges her privileged position to be able to quit her job to find more fulfillment. She struggles with letting go of being defined by prestigious job titles and recognition she gets publicly for working at a top tech company. Traveling abroad for her grandpa's funeral and learning about his multifaceted life made her realize life and careers are long, not short. This gave her clarity to take the risk of leaving her job for herself and her mental health, even without another job lined up yet.

10:01

😊 Planning to focus energy on content creation and the job search

Going forward, the speaker plans to put significant time into preparing for job interviews, while being patient with the difficult market. She also considers herself a full-time content creator and plans to increase her activity on social platforms during unemployment. She is grateful for the support of her audience and asks them to follow her across platforms as she vlogs about her job search experience in this next chapter.

Keywords

💡Data Scientist

The video focuses on Julia's career as a Data Scientist at Spotify, a large technology company. This is her professional identity and role. She has worked hard to attain this position, which was her dream job in college. However, after years of demanding work schedules, lack of upward mobility, and mental health impacts, she decides to quit without another job lined up, letting go of a key part of her identity.

💡Mental Health

Julia mentions struggling with anxiety, stress, burnout, and insomnia due to an extremely demanding project at work requiring long hours. This mental health impact is a major reason she decides to quit her job.

💡Privileged

Julia acknowledges her privileged position to be able to quit her job and take a risk without another one lined up. This is due to having savings, a safety net, and an internet platform that can provide some financial support.

💡Identity

A key theme is Julia struggling to let go of her professional identity and prestigious job, which has also helped grow her online platform. But her grandpa's funeral helps give perspective on life's many stages and identities.

💡Career Progression

Julia notes feeling her career was stagnant at Spotify without much upward mobility. Despite high-impact work, she felt she had to fight very hard just to get tiny promotions.

💡Job Searching

Julia tries job searching while working long hours, but struggles getting through the tough market. She decides to quit without another offer lined up partly due to the difficult job search.

💡Layoffs

Julia mentions a tough week where Spotify had layoff announcements soon after her grandpa passed away. This contributes to her decision to take a long vacation.

💡Full-time Content Creator

Julia says she will focus on becoming a full-time content creator on platforms like YouTube during her unemployment, continuing to provide for her audience.

💡Mental Break / Unemployment

Julia emphasizes needing an extended mental break and time off of work to focus on herself and her mental health after burning out.

💡Self-care

The overall theme is Julia deciding to quit her job to take better care of herself and her needs rather than relentless career advancement at detriment to mental health.

Highlights

I'm putting in my two weeks notice at my job at Spotify after almost 5 years

For the past year I've been working 10-14 hour days on the highest priority project with constant pressure from stakeholders

The demanding workload caused anxiety, insomnia, and prevented me from doing things I love like making YouTube videos

There was little career progression despite the effort I was putting in

In the same week I got layoff announcements at work, my grandfather passed away

Attending my grandfather's funeral gave me perspective - life and careers are long, no need to constantly compare myself to others

It's difficult to let go of my identity as a Spotify data scientist and YouTube creator, but I need to take risks for my mental health

I acknowledge my privilege in being able to quit without another job lined up to chase fulfillment

This was my last resort after trying to salvage things at work and job searching while working

Next steps are to practice coding interviews, take my time with the job search, and enjoy this break

I'll also double down on creating YouTube content full-time until I find a new job

Please subscribe and follow me on other platforms for more job search updates

This is an end of an era leaving Spotify, but I hope viewers stick with me through this transition

I'm anxious but also excited for this new chapter focused on my mental health

Thank you for all the support, it means so much!

Transcripts

good morning I didn't sleep that well

last night because I am quitting my job

[Music]

today

[Music]

I am so nervous right

now oh my God my heart is beating out of

my

[Music]

chest hey hey good morning how are you

doing I'm good how are you um busy yeah

[Music]

morning cool well I think this is our

Dev convo is there anything like work

related that you'd like to talk about

first or cool so

um I have some news for you okay I'm

putting in my two weeks you are okay

yeah like what's

that uh I think I'm just going to take a

break uh kind of take my time I don't

really have anything lined up as of

right now well I did a lot of thinking

over the break um and I just felt like

this would be a good move for me in the

long

term

okay

surprise to be honest I've been holding

off on making this video because I just

don't know what to say but I've decided

to speak to you all as as if I were

speaking to my friends in real life and

have this be a conversation from the

heart versus something more

scripted so let's start from the

beginning as many of you all know I'm a

data scientist at Spotify I've been here

for 4 and a half years almost 5 years

and I started as an intern and then I

converted to a full-time employee

getting this position at this company

has been a dream it was my dream job all

throughout College and it felt so

surreal to be in this privileged

position where I get to say that I did

the thing and for the first I would say

3 years it was an amazing experience

probably the best corporate experience I

could ever ask for I think for me where

things started to shift was the past

year year and a

halfish I'm going to keep this portion

short because there's a lot of nuances

that just happen dayto day and I can

remember all of them but I also don't

want to and the purpose of this video is

to not talk poorly about my experience

there because the majority of my

experience at Spotify has been nothing

short of amazing but obviously there are

reasons as to why I decided to leave and

to leave without a job lined up for the

past year and some change I've been

working on the highest party project in

my org as the sole data scientist for

the majority of it and I was working

like 10 to 14 hour days give and take

for months on end and I'm sure there are

folks out there who work more demanding

jobs but that was just not the

expectation that I had of my role and I

do think the Tipping Point for me was

just the constant pressure from certain

stakeholders like I said this wasn't

just for a week or two it was for months

and at a certain point I started to

develop insomnia this entire situation

at work made me so anxious that I

couldn't sleep I didn't exercise I

didn't really do anything except for

work and a big side effect from a

demanding 9o5 is you getting pulled away

from your real life so at one point I

had to like stop creating videos and

this is the primary way where I kind of

release my stress something that I love

to do and this was taken away from me in

September I posted one video in October

I posted two videos and and then I had

this one video that I pushed out with a

really cryptic like title because I was

just kind of really fed up but I

couldn't really tell you all explicitly

what was happening so I kind of just

vented all of my anger and put it into

this one video and then when I did push

myself to post videos I realized that I

just didn't have time to do anything

else in my life which is not really

healthy I was really burnt out at that

time and I failed to recognize it I

think it took my therapist to tell me

that it took my manager to kind of say

it sounds like you're burnt out and I'm

like oh really and then I think the

final push was like these constant

breakdowns for no reason where I'd just

be like crying cuz I'm so stressed

another Factor was that the economy is

really bad so there wasn't a lot of

upward Mobility or movement I think I

had to really make an extremely strong

case and even on top of working these

insane hours even on top of of working

on a very high impact high visibility

project I think my career progression

wasn't very clear here it was extremely

stagnant I felt like I was putting in so

much work and I wasn't really moving

anywhere those were just all signals for

me to take a step back and say hey Julia

like maybe you should re-evaluate your

current

situation and seek other

opportunities so I decided to start job

searching around around October the

market was pretty bad back then but I

think it's kind of forced right now so I

just shot my shot I got around like 5 HR

calls three of them amounted to a role

that I was interested in and they were

also equally interested in me and then

it took a month and a half for me to get

to final rounds with one of the

companies and at the end of the day they

called me and said that I was a great

candidate only positive reviews but they

decided to go with someone more senior

with more years of experience I was just

so out of love with the thing that I was

doing I just wanted to escape with the

first opportunity that I got so I was

really really upset like I remember

calling my sister on the phone and just

balling my eyes

out so that was the end of November and

then the week after we got the layoff

announcements have another Vlog for that

that was a really really tough week

because the same week my grandpa passed

so I was like okay I'm going away for a

month this is not ideal I wish I had a

job lined up and I can just quit and

take this vacation relaxed and happy but

that's not the case so I'm just going to

go on vacation kind of think through

things and come back with a game plan

this past trip to China was just so eye

openening to me because obviously I

experience the pain of losing someone

that's very very close to me for the

first time in my life but also when I

attended my Grandpa's funeral General I

was able to meet a lot of different

people from different walks of his life

and I got to learn so much about his

life not only through the Beautiful

Eulogy that my dad gave but also through

talking to his friends and every single

person kind of met him at a different

stage and they were like your grandpa

was doing this when I met him your

grandpa was like this when I met him and

I think it helped me realize that

although I feel like life is short

because life has been moving by so fast

life is actually really long and your

career is also really long warranted

that not everyone's going to live until

they're 89 but you know when you live in

New York City where everyone is just

hustling all the time you're stuck in

this bubble where one you're always

comparing yourself to other people and

two you're comparing yourself to

yourself and just racing against time

but for what right like why so it truly

is like removing yourself from your

environment gives you this Clarity that

you probably didn't have before I think

the hardest thing for me is letting go

of my identity I am Julia I'm a data

scientist working at Spotify and I'm a

YouTuber and I live in New York City and

on the internet my life looks so perfect

like it's so difficult for me to lose

all of that you know and obviously I've

grown my subscriber base on YouTube

due to the fact that I work as a data

scientist at one of the top tech

companies out there and it's really hard

to let that go but through the funeral

experience I've realized that my grandpa

lived so many different identities

throughout his

life I did a lot of thinking during my

time abroad and I just decided that when

I come back to the States I'm going to

put in my two weeks and I'm just going

to take a risk for

myself I've worked really hard to get to

where I am today to get this position at

this company that I could have only ever

dreamed of and at the same time I want

to acknowledge how privileged I am

privileged to get the experience to work

at such a big tech company to have it on

my resume to have a couple years of

experience under my belt privileged to

have a savings account for a rainy day

privileged to have this platform that

could be used to serve as financial

support when I need it not everyone can

just quit their job without another job

lined up because they're chasing

fulfillment and happiness because

fulfillment is a privilege and happiness

unfortunately is also a privilege so

yeah that's basically it obviously this

is not ideal ideally I would have a job

lined up before quitting my current job

but that's just not the case I feel like

I've put my best foot forward at work to

try to salvage things I feel like I

tried my best job searching while

working a demanding job and that just

didn't really work out for me so this is

definitely my last option trust me I've

thought through this so much but I am

making this decision for myself for my

mental health and I'm really really

anxious and scared but I'm also really

excited so you might be thinking what's

next what's next is I'm sitting my ass

down every day for a couple hours and

turning out those leak code questions

I'm definitely going to start job

interviewing as soon as I can I'm going

to take my time with the job search even

if I wanted to frontload job

interviewing and all of those things I

don't think I can because the market is

just really bad so um I'm going to take

my time with you know the job search I'm

going to give myself some Grace and I'm

going to enjoy this period of

unemployment but I'm also going to work

really hard to get that next opportunity

for myself technically I don't think

that's true I'm not an employed I think

I'm going to be a full-time content

creator until I find my next opportunity

I'm going to job search and then I'm

going to pump out content I'll probably

try to post more on all of my different

social media channels so subscribe cribe

follow me on Instagram and Tik Tok

please and if you have any sponsorship

leads definitely send them my way I know

a lot of y'all subbed to me because I

work in Tech so I'm excited to share

with you all like my job searching

process probably in Vlog form still in

the upcoming weeks to months so stay

tuned for that yeah this is definitely

an end of an error and I hope that you

all can stay and support me throughout

this time once again I'm really really

grateful for you and your support cannot

say this enough thank you so much for

watching and I will catch you in the

next one

bye