Should I quit? Does it make sense to be ambitious?

Dec 29, 2021 23 Comments

~£150k TC, 6YoE @ Bloomberg London.

I like my job, it is very relaxed and most days I only have to work 4-5hrs per day. Some days are very busy, some days I don't have much to do at all and I can chill or play around with personal projects. No on-call schedule. Haven't gone in the office for more than a year due to COVID. Work/life balance is great.

I believe that I am a good engineer. My strengths revolve around software architecture and abstraction rather than algorithms. I despise LeetCode and spending time studying it sounds extremely dreadful -- I do not enjoy puzzles for the sake of it.

I have studied LC to pass the Bloomberg interview in the past and I never needed to remember any algorithm off the top of my head. If I need to, I can calmly research the best approach on the internet, and solve a problem efficiently. I do not believe that LC makes you a good engineer. I have worked with and interviewed myself people with strong algorithmic skills that wrote absolutely unmaintainable code.

I see three paths in my future:

1. Stay with Bloomberg, keep enjoying the work/life balance, but have a relatively low TC. Buying a nice house or raising a family in London seems almost impossible with this TC.

2. LC and GTFO. I really don't want to LC. It seems like a pointless waste of time. I believe I can get good results (nothing spectacular) if I grind, but I have no motivation to. I would then have to interview with multiple companies, negotiate, and maybe I'll get a good offer. The amount of (pointless) effort and uncertainty really puts me off. If I force myself and pull it off, I could get something like £250k TC in London.

3. Interview with a smaller full-remote company, sacrifice some TC, but live in a cheap place. This would be the opposite of "ambition". Basically say "fuck it" and stop caring about TC. Work and travel, live in a cheap place with nice weather, etc.

Am I being stupid by staying at Bloomberg? I feel like I'm having an internal mental crisis right now.

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TOP 23 Comments
  • Apple
    ncnk55

    Go to company page Apple

    ncnk55
    100k/year increase for a little bit of LC sounds pretty good to me.
    Dec 29, 2021 1
    • Assuming the new company has the same wlb, friendly people, supportive managers, and interesting projects. 80h/week in a toxic environment is not worth the extra 100k.
      Dec 29, 2021
  • Funny that I am in a very similar position (both experience, WLB and TC) only that I did LC and have secured an offer for £250k+. Confused as hell.
    Dec 29, 2021 3
    • It’s a FAANG - difficulty was on medium-to-hard scale, majority medium I’d say.
      My concern at Bloomberg is not only TC but career-wise I feel like stuck to be honest. I’m not that ambitious normally but thinking a change might be good..
      Dec 29, 2021
    • Google
      hKcO53

      Go to company page Google

      hKcO53
      What's the breakdown for the 250k in LON?
      Jan 1
  • Google
    qLhH85

    Go to company page Google

    qLhH85
    Do what you want to do.
    Dec 29, 2021 0
  • Spotify
    p=1.00

    Go to company page Spotify

    p=1.00
    I've had similar thoughts -- upon deep introspection I was made aware that that's just me being lazy in preparing for interviews.

    1/2 vs 3 is a fair question, but 1 vs 2 is an artefact of being lazy.

    The WLB, friendliness, manager -- to a good extent that was my brain making up excuses why I shouldn't LC and interview. Cooked up things to make me feel less guilty. Cozy comfort and laziness were the culprits for me.
    Dec 29, 2021 0
  • Would you stay if bbg paid you 250k?
    Dec 29, 2021 4
    • That is a good point. I want to retire early and have financial freedom. I will have to run some calculations to see how early I can retire with a given TC and go from there.
      Dec 29, 2021
    • While I'm not sure how things work in the UK, I don't think companies can ask you what you currently make. So you shouldn't be able to use your current salary to negotiate. Or, they wouldn't be able to verify anyway. So you could claim to make 250k right now and use that to negotiate, but they might/would likely say no. Actually making 250k wouldn't change that. So there is a limit, it's on what others are willing to pay for your skills /what the market rate is. It's not what you currently make though
      Dec 30, 2021