I left a 6 figure software engineering job because it was ruining my mental health — here’s how I knew it was time to quit – News Nation USA
Debbie Ly quit their six-figure job at Rimeto to become a consultant to find work-life balance.
She said that her former position deteriorated her mental health and made her feel like she worked three jobs.
Her advice is to focus on yourself while taking actions that will better you personally.
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- Debbie Ly quit their six-figure job at Rimeto to become a consultant to find work-life balance.
- She said that her former position deteriorated her mental health and made her feel like she worked three jobs.
- Her advice is to focus on yourself while taking actions that will better you personally.
This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with 27-year-old software engineer Debbie Ly, who quit their six-figure job at Rimeto to become a consultant. It has been edited for length and clarity.
Two years ago, I left my six-figure salary as a full-time software engineer at Rimeto and started working for myself. While the expectations of a traditional tech job left me feeling undervalued and overworked, now I’ve found a balance of work and life which has made me happier and more fulfilled than ever before.
People will tell you how great it is to work in tech, and in many ways it is. The money, perks, and setting of the Bay Area is undoubtedly a great deal. But my time as a software engineer broke down something far more important to me than money: my mental health.
The expectations and culture of the tech world deteriorated my mental well-being over the course of several years. Many times, it felt like I was working three jobs rather than one—I was writing code, acting as a hiring manager, and throwing myself into DEI efforts at the companies I worked for. The latter two roles cost me an extraordinary amount of emotional labor, partially because I was one of the only femme and POC engineers at any of the companies, and it often felt like people looked to me to constantly be the one to speak up and voice inclusion-related concerns. However, it still felt as though the technical component of the job was more valued than the other parts of my work, partially because it was more easily quantifiable than the emotionally taxing time and energy put into hiring and DEI efforts.
And even when I was doing well at two of those three jobs, my managers would point out my deficiencies in the third. Overall, it felt like the expectations were entirely unachievable, and the experience left me drained. I felt like I was putting so much of myself in, and no matter what I did it wouldn’t be enough. It reinforced patterns of negative self-talk and my tendency to be hard on myself, and made it that much harder to show myself compassion.
