bugsliker

I work at a company that rhymes with "frugal". I've done really well here and gotten promoted to senior SWE. My work has tons of impact. My team is a pretty healthy environment compared to the rest of the company, all things considered.

But now I'm struggling to find motivation to do my work. I have absolutely no interest in leading a team, but senior members in my org keep trying to groom me into a TL. I like being an IC and building what I'm told to build; I have no idea how to decide what it is we should be building and don't want to deal with customer demands.

What I feel like I'd really rather do is quit and join a team working on something low stakes. Somewhere where I can put the minimum effort and still impress. I think this would be better for my mental health.

But it's a hard pill to give up the FAANG compensation. Also being stuck in a NIH company has atrophied my "real world" tech stack knowledge, so it's harder to market myself (especially now that the job market is saturated with laid off SWEs).

Any advice for jumping ship from FAANG?