Why I Quit My Well-Paid Job to become a Full-Time Freelancer?

Life has a funny way of surprising you. When I was hired by my previous company, I never knew I would be writing this article. I was formerly working as sales agent for a paint company and trying my best to somehow get out of it.

I would spend nights surfing through the internet, trying to figure out, who would hire a guy with multiple backs in his graduation and a still pending college degree.

Far away from the lush gardens of prestigious IITs and NITs, I graduated (well, eventually) with a degree in Mechanical Engineering (which has no practical value), from one of many highway facing tier-3 engineering colleges of India.

So you'd know why I was elated when I was hired as a #writer for an ed-tech startup. And thus, my 3-year journey at the company began. I would sign in at 9 in the morning, write articles, take feedback from editors, make changes, listen to music all day long, hang out with awesome people through out the day, and check out with a smile at 7 in the evening.

Everything was perfect. When I looked for knowledge, I was trained by the best of the industry. When I looked for growth, I was entrusted with a kickass team and given liberty to experiment on the product. When I looked for money, I was decently compensated. And to top it all of, the company had a tradition of making annual trips.

Man, it was crazy. Until, it was not. but we'll come to that later.

Days, months and a year passed. The cycle of checking in, writing, editing, and meeting awesome people continued. The circle of learning, growth, and money kept rolling too. I slowly moved on from being a writer to editor to training fellow writers to managing freelancers to eventually being a Manager.

I was not writing anymore, but working on the product pages, making sure Google gives them the respect they deserve. Working on tools like Analytics, Webmasters, Trends, Moz SEO, Majestic was part of my daily #job now. I would be lying if I said that wasn't interesting to me. I enjoyed every bit of it too. To even think that even one tiny edit could draw a million more visitors on the page blew my mind every day.

I worked hard because i enjoyed it. I think they (the big people) saw that too. I was soon rewarded with the role of Product Manager for a new vertical the company was planning to start. Till that point, I had a basic idea, of what Product manager does and what does the job entails. I had a immense respect for the position and role. And I literally lost my shit the night I was told that my name was under consideration. I have no idea what made them think of me.

For a guy who started his career as a paint salesman, Product Manager was FUCKING MONSTROUS HUGE to him.

Towards the end of my second year term at the #company, I had already started my work as Product Manager. I would research the prospective leaders in the market, study their business, their website, submit reports, discuss plans, delegate work and catch smoke breaks with a carbuff who was crazy for content, product and everything hip-hop. His story was also similar to mine, including the grad performance and career trajectory from intern to product head.

The learnings from the Product role was huge too. Within 6 months into the role, I now knew most about what goes behind building a website. I was particularly intrigued by Product Road-mapping, VBA, Python, Data Analysis, and ML. The team had grown from two of us to massive 30-people big. And we were all hustling 24/7- and it is not even hyperbole. We were literally on the website 24/7.

By the eighth month, we had launched our website on 2nd October 2018 at around 3o'clock in the morning. Excited, Tired and confused, I went to bed that night.

I wanted to take an off the next day, but obviously I couldn't.

Days and months passed by, we struggled to draw visitors to the page, but we were just starting out so it was okay. The smoke breaks had a gone a little silent too by now. The awesome faces that I saw on the first day at work, well most them were gone too.

I constantly kept feeling tired. I didn't know what caused it. The scrum meetings had lost their charm. I slept late now. I went to work late. I spent my entire days on the backend thinking what the fuck am I looking at. After the day concluded, I would spend hours meeting with stakeholders staring at the world outside the glass walls.

On some nights I would even attend calls and mails as late as 2 in the night. I was now constantly tired, hollow, and literally empty. I didn't think I had anything else left to give, or any energy left to learn anything new from the company.

So, after a discussing it with a friend on my way back home during a workday, and a follow up discussion with my smoke buddy in the morning after, I pushed in my papers. I didn't know what I was going to go, I had no plans of how was I going to survive, and literally no idea of what my life would be after that.

And trust me when I say this, Never have I felt that relieved in my life as I felt in those months serving my notice period at the company. I was sad that I was going to leave the place that had made me who I am. But I was also relieved that I would be able to breathe now. And if maybe, things worked well, smile too.

I tried applying to other companies but soon figured out that every company, even the best ones will make you cringe someday. So I did what most of the us during the times of distress- I packed my bags, booked a ticket and ran back home. What I did after I came back home, well that is a story for some other time.