I worked as a software engineer for Google from 2014 to 2018. On February 1st, I quit my job and formed my own single-person software company.

That was four months ago, so I thought I’d share an update on how things are going.

What’s it like not having a job?

That’s the most common question people ask. What’s it like?

For the first few days, I kept thinking, “Woohoo! I’m free!” It was like starting a long-awaited vacation and knowing that it could potentially last forever.

The response to yesterday’s post about leaving Google has been unexpected and overwhelming.

It was extremely gratifying to hear that my story resonated with so many people. Hundreds of readers from a variety of industries all across the globe have written me to tell me how they related to my experience. I’ve never written anything before that’s generated such a strong a response.

At the same time, it’s unfortunate to hear how widespread this problem is. I hope that further conversation about the topic drives companies to improve their promotion systems so that fewer employees get caught in these career traps.

For the past four years, I’ve worked as a software developer at Google. On February 1st, I quit. It was because they refused to buy me a Christmas present.

Well, I guess it’s a little more complicated than that.

The first two years

Two years in, I loved Google.

When the annual employee survey asked me whether I expected to be at Google in five years, it was a no-brainer.

I had just completed a passionate blog post.

Too passionate, maybe, as I had written over 8,000 words. That’s 1000x longer than the average Buzzfeed article. Worse, it was a giant wall of text with nary a visual element to break it up aside from some screenshots and a few tables. Ooh, exciting tables!

In early October, I launched a new website, KetoHub, a recipe aggregator for keto meals. Each month, I’ve evaluated the site’s progress to decide how it’s doing and what areas need improvement.

I’m doing my evaluation of December publicly. Here’s what was good, bad, and learnable about KetoHub last month.

Improvements in December

New logo

The most visible change is that KetoHub now has a logo. Behold!