Not a SDE, but I’m actually doing more of that than ever before. 2 years ago, was given the choice to interview for new internal roles or walk away with a severance package after almost two decades in QE and PM for a large, design tools company. Having witnessed the transition from developer-led (“hey, I just invented this cool thing. Let’s give it to users and see if there’s something there?”) to product-led (“hey, let’s keep making our awesome products better for customers!”) to ultimately marketing-led (“hey, McKinsey taught us this method to circle the wagons and protect our brand to the detriment of paying customers!”), I chose to walk away.
I had a bit of cushion, sold some early-purchased crypto and spent most of my savings, to build my skills in launching a startup and writing code. I interviewed with plenty of companies, but felt the same McKinsey cringe from the big FAANG’s, couldn’t believe the skeeviness of the crypto startups, and went pretty far but not far enough with some of the smaller but more interesting companies. My startup got some interest but ultimately, did not hit hard enough to break gravity.
But, it kept me on the radar for some old contacts and when they wanted to explore the areas I had expertise in, reached out. I did some contract work, ultimately building and launching a major new product on their platform which led to getting brought on full time at the beginning of the year.
I love what I’m doing now. I get to play PM and R&D and Developer roles building things now. The things I build directly impact real people and I can experience the results within days, and I have flexibility to decide what I think is important or interesting.