• Daliana Liu was a data scientist at Amazon and a startup before leaving to start her own business.
• She now works as a coach for data scientists looking to accelerate their careers and brand.
• Liu said she still gets cold DMs from recruiters at Meta and OpenAI because of her online presence.

This as-told-to-essay is based on a conversation with Daliana Liu, a data scientist and career coach. Business Insider has verified Liu's employment with documents. It's been edited for length and clarity.

After finishing my undergraduate math degree at a college in China, I moved to California to get my Master's in Statistics at the University of California, Irvine.

In January 2014, I started working at a startup, before being recruited by Amazon a little over a year later as a business intelligence engineer.

I started at Amazon in Seattle, working on an A/B testing platform for their retail website. I created various statistical analyses and reports and supported product managers.

I trained employees on how to use A/B testing to make better product decisions, eventually starting my own newsletter for Amazon employees to share experiment insights from across teams.

An internal Amazon newsletter was my first content creation

The newsletter was my initial content creation. I learned to create engaging titles and make my writing concise and interesting.

During that time, I began writing on Medium about technical data science. Once, I wrote a viral post about saving money by picking the right month to start renting an apartment. It was exciting to help people make better decisions using data.

I started posting to LinkedIn in 2019. I wanted to share the unfiltered truth about being a data scientist and getting a job at Amazon, after seeing misleading posts about the industry. A couple of my posts blew up, but the majority of my following was organic from posting regularly. I now have nearly 300,000 followers on LinkedIn.

I then started a public newsletter. I've always wanted to be an entrepreneur and thought having public channels would help me find investors in the future.

I moved up the ranks at Amazon and started a podcast

In December 2020, I moved to San Francisco to work for Amazon Web Services as a machine learning engineer. I got promoted to senior data scientist in 2021 and had to work with a lot of external customers.

I read books about communication and influencing stakeholders. I wanted learn good communication for my own leadership within the company, as well as our clients.

In 2021, I launched a podcast interviewing data scientists on their day-to-day work, how they tackle technical problems, and their career journeys.

One of the guests I interviewed invited me to a dinner with his CEO, who offered me a job to work as a data scientist for his startup, Predibase. I quit Amazon in June 2022 to work at the startup.

During the year I worked at Predibase, I continued to experiment with my podcast while also creating a career course for data scientists, teaching them essential communication and influencing skills.

Between 2021 and 2023, when I posted weekly episodes, my podcast had 50,000 subscribers across platforms. My startup job supported me in pursuing a side business, and I started making income from sponsorship and events through the podcast. I started getting sponsorship in March 2023.

I quit Big Tech to start my own business

As much as I loved working in tech, I always wanted to do something of my own. Once I got to the point I had business contracts in place for my podcast, a plan for my course, and some savings, I decided to quit my job and start my own business in September 2023.

Around the time I quit the startup, a VC firm tried to recruit me for a platform community growth role because they like my content and the podcast I built. I didn't take the job because I wanted to focus on my own business.

I now have a career accelerator course teaching data scientists communication skills, how to get promoted, and how to build their brands.

Being a thought leader opens job opportunties

While working for Amazon and the startup, I had recruiters from top companies like Apple and Netflix getting in touch. Even after leaving Big Tech, I still get messages from people at companies like OpenAI and Meta trying to recruit me.

They mention they like my experience in data science which they can see from my LinkedIn. They can also see my Medium blog and my podcast. I was able to get jobs through my podcast and recruiters often reference my content creation when they've reached out.

It's very important in this job market to be a builder, and a great way to demonstrate that is to publish blog posts or create a demo for recruiters to stand out.

I think Big Tech companies value my technical skills and industry thought leadership, which I post about on blogs and LinkedIn. Having a large following makes it easier for these recruiters to find and trust me.

Startups and VC funds seem to value both my technical skills and content creation skills, also that I've built a community.

By publishing my thoughts, I've opened myself up to data science roles, as well as developed transferable skills. If my path as a thought leader doesn't work out, I think it would be easy for me to find a job in data science, marketing, or a community role.

I'm not tempted to return to tech or startups. There's uncertainty as an entrepreneur, but I get to choose my clients and projects. I can take time off and travel. I'm not married or a parent yet, but when that time comes, I want the freedom to be fully present.

• Jay Wallace left his sales job in March 2024 after months of frustration with the contractor role.
• His plan of solo traveling and exploring business ventures didn't work out as he'd hoped.
• Wallace has found the job market tough to navigate, and said he left his role too hastily.

This as-told-to essay is based on a transcribed conversation with 34-year-old Jay Wallace, from England. The following has been edited for length and clarity.

I got excited about the sales world when I landed a recruitment job in 2013.

I spent years in sales roles, both as a self-employed sales contractor and as a company employee. I really enjoyed talking with people and making sales that directly correlated to my earnings.

I started a new job as a self-employed sales contractor in June 2023, but quickly became frustrated with the role. As a contractor, I'd tell the company my available hours and they would share sales leads with me. I'd make sales and get commission for products installed.

I felt I had too much freedom and not enough clarity. Because I couldn't tell whether I was succeeding, I felt like I was failing.

After three to four months of frustration, I decided to leave the job in March 2024.

I didn't really know what to do next. I'd always wanted to go solo traveling and I also had a loose plan in mind for new business ventures in content creation and coaching.

But chasing freedom didn't turn out the way I'd hoped. I've since struggled to navigate the job market and find work that I can do to support myself while building up my business and YouTube Channel. I realize I left my job too hastily.

Spending time abroad didn't go to plan

I'd considered leaving sales before in 2020 because I no longer felt challenged. But COVID felt like a bad time to be moving careers.

When I left my job in 2024, I planned to spend a few months in Southeast Asia, mostly living off my savings and passive income from an investment property I partnered with my father on in 2020.

I hoped the lower cost of living in Thailand could help dramatically reduce my bills while I worked on my business idea.

The loose plan was to put more time into the YouTube channel I'd been running for a few years and also facilitate some kind of coaching business.

Thailand wasn't as I'd expected. It was nice for about two days, and then I sat there thinking, "What am I doing?" It was lonely — I'd left my family and my girlfriend behind to travel.

I wasn't in the right headspace to run a business, so I ended up coming home after a few weeks.

Back in the UK, the job market has been tough

I went through a period of real darkness. My last sales role knocked my confidence, I'd failed to find freedom in Thailand, and then felt like I'd failed my relationship when I came back.

I wasn't mentally in a good place, so I wasn't making a concerted effort to grow my YouTube channel.

I still had savings because I'd come home earlier than expected, but I didn't want to go back into sales. I enjoyed manual work before my sales career, so I started applying for trade jobs.

The market was more difficult to navigate than I expected. When I was younger, I moved easily from job to job. I don't know if it was my age — I was in my 30s, trying to do trade work — or the current economy, but I applied for hundreds of jobs and only heard back from a handful.

By the end of 2024, my savings were coming to an end and I needed more income than my property was providing. I found a job at the Royal Mail post service in late 2024.

Previously I was trying to find a new career, I'm now focusing on paying my bills so I have space to grow my channel on the side.

I'm working five days a week through an agency as a postman. I make less than I did in sales, and feel like I have to work weekends because it pays more.

I'm in a much better place than when I went traveling. I was putting a lot of pressure on myself to be successful. Now, I've learned to take that pressure off and enjoy exploring different avenues.

I'd consider going back into sales, but I've realized how important community is to me. As an contractor, you spend a lot of time on the road or alone.

I was too rash when I decided to quit my job

With hindsight, I was too hasty quitting my last sales position. I should've tried to get some clarity from the company, so I felt happier in the role.

Being self-employed, I had enough money and time to build my coaching business and channel alongside working. I could have waited until my business income matched my sales income and then slowly transitioned.

Before leaving sales, I saw so many people making content on social media about quitting their jobs, saying it would all work out. Lots of creators were encouraging people to go full-time on YouTube and pointing to their own courses on how to make that happen. I didn't know their backstory, like how they financially supported themselves.

It made me think quitting and starting a business would be easier than I found it.

If you're committed to leaving your job, there's nothing stopping you from working on your CV and or applying for interviews while employed. If you're starting a business, work on it in the evenings and on weekends.

In my experience, the stress of not having money far outweighs the stress of being in a job you don't like.

I want to warn others to really consider what they're doing before they commit to quitting their job. There's a lot of online content out there that can make you believe the grass is greener on the other side, but it isn't always true.

Do you have a story to share about quitting your job? Contact this reporter at [email protected]

• Evan King worked for Meta for five years before quitting to start his own business.
• King said startup life was more difficult than expected and three lies slowed down his success.
• One of the lies is that good marketing is necessary for a new product to take off.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Evan King, 30, a startup cofounder in Los Angeles. It's been edited for length and clarity.

I got hired at Meta in 2017 as a software engineer on the integrity team. I loved my job and had no intentions of ever leaving, but I quit in 2022

When a product I made for fun with a Meta coworker unexpectedly gained traction, I left behind my six-figure compensation to go all in on our idea. It was a huge risk and a deeply humbling experience.

Startup life was much harder than I expected it to be. After we sold our first product in February 2023, we tossed around dozens of other ideas before finding new success. Launching my first startup was deeply humbling, but it was an experience I wouldn't trade for anything because I've learned how to move on to better ideas sooner and so much more.

The stress of responsibility was so much higher than at Meta

When I left Meta, I realized I had only developed precision on a narrow subset of tasks and that my breadth of knowledge was basically nonexistent. Growing the startup was much harder than I expected, and I got pretty down on myself.

Every problem ultimately landed on my shoulders, and that weight took some getting used to. I remember bringing my laptop to a friend's birthday party, which is something I always did in case of emergency. I later found myself sprinting home on a Saturday to fix an issue when our primary database went down.

Our product became fairly well known in the Web3 space, but we weren't seeing the financial payoff, so we sold it in February 2023. It wasn't the life-changing exit that we were after, but it did give us cash to fund our future ideas.

After selling our first startup, we were completely directionless

We went back to the drawing board and started using a system for developing new startup ideas. We'd spend one day developing a new idea and decide if we had enough information and conviction to spend two days on it. Then it would grow from there.

We used this process through dozens of ideas, and most of them were quick nos. A few made it past a couple of months, and we even built some pretty impressive technology that we sold.

After several months of trial and error, we took a step back to reevaluate. We were innovating in spaces where we didn't have any expertise, like construction and trucking. We decided it was time to dive into something we know well — Big Tech interview prep.

Three misconceptions kept us from moving on to better ideas sooner

Our current startup is a hub for automated AI mock interviews and Big Tech interview preparation resources. We launched it technically in May 2023, and it's been growing since then.

After coming up with dozens of failed ideas, I realized there were three lies I kept telling myself that kept us from moving on to better ideas sooner: "We just need better marketing," "The product just needs more time to take off," and "A little success means we should keep developing."

I used to feel like we had good products, we just needed better marketing. But when you have a good product, even in its simplest form, people will want to use it. I've also learned the importance of counterbalancing my excitement about a product with realism about its success.

I miss parts of Meta, but wouldn't go back anytime soon

I used to come home from a day of working alongside friends and interacting with different people at Meta and just be able to sit on my couch and relax, feeling intellectually and socially stimulated. Now, I finish a day of work from home and I feel like I need to see a friend or do something else to feel satisfied.

I'd consider going back to Big Tech, but not anytime soon.

If you left Big Tech and would like to share your story, please email the editor, Manseen Logan, at [email protected].

• I started working remotely in 2017 to combine international travel with my career.
• My parents thought that decision was reckless and unstable.
• But my mom has just decided to quit her job so she has more flexibility like me.

When I started working remotely in 2017 with the hopes of advancing in my career while traveling, my parents thought I was throwing away a successful life for no reason. To them, success meant the stability of a job that required staying in one place, working traditional hours, and showing up in person.

By the time I graduated from college, I was chasing what I thought was the ideal career: a finance job in Washington, DC. I was 22, working hard, and on track to achieve everything I'd been told would make me happy. But after almost a year of back-to-back office days, needless happy hours, and a long bus commute, I burned out completely.

One morning, as I was on my way to work, I fainted, and waking up surrounded by strangers, I realized how unsustainable my life had become. Many things went through my head, but the thought that I was losing my health and I was so far from living my dream of traveling the world made me question everything I was working for.

Burnout made me realize I had to do things differently

I knew something had to change. I wanted to travel, but I also wanted to keep advancing in my career, so I started to look for postgraduate studies that would allow me to do both. A few months later, I was accepted into a program in Auckland, New Zealand. But instead of moving across the world and looking for a new job, I decided to continue doing the job I was doing in DC remotely.

Convincing my employer was not easy. Remote work wasn't popular back then, and I had to negotiate extensively and justify my productivity, but after months of paperwork and back-and-forth discussions, they finally agreed.

When I broke the news to my parents, they were shocked. My dad thought I was being reckless and putting at risk something that I didn't have to, and my mom couldn't understand why I'd leave a stable job for an uncertain opportunity halfway across the world. Still, I knew I had to go.

In late 2017, I moved to New Zealand, where I studied and worked remotely for over two years, visiting places like Zimbabwe, Colombia, and the Netherlands. I learned to balance work and life in a way that felt fulfilling.

Everything changed during the pandemic

My parents relied heavily on in-person interactions to manage their accounting business. Meeting clients face-to-face and maintaining a personal connection built trust and kept their business running.

Like so many others, they were forced to adapt when the pandemic hit in 2020. Suddenly, remote tools like video calls and cloud-based software became necessities. While the shift wasn't easy at first, it proved to them that it was possible to be productive, maintain relationships, and do their work entirely online.

However, when things started returning to "normal" in 2022, my parents returned to seeing clients in person. My mom, in particular, started feeling the burden of her old routine. Her client list included people scattered across different areas, and she often had to spend long hours in traffic, juggling an inflexible schedule that rarely worked in her favor. The constant back-and-forth of driving to meet clients left her exhausted.

My mom has decided to go remote for good

This year, everything came to a head. I had my daughter — my mom's first granddaughter — and she traveled to the Netherlands to visit us. That trip changed her perspective completely. Spending time with her granddaughter made her realize just how much she valued family time and how the rigidity of her in-person work schedule was holding her back.

When she returned home, she boldly decided to quit her in-person job and transitioned entirely to remote work.

It wasn't an easy process; at first, she had to work through negotiating with some of her clients and find others who would already accept this way of working. But she pushed through, building a remote practice that allowed her to spend more time with her family and even travel with my daughter and me.

• It's looking like job market conditions will improve in 2025.
• Employees who are feeling burned out and dissatisfied may decide to "revenge quit."
• Bosses can prepare by focusing on empathy and meaningful communication.

With a job market heating up and employee resentment boiling over, "revenge quitting" looks to be on the horizon for 2025.

Edel Holliday-Quinn, a business psychologist, told Business Insider that some workers feel burned out and undervalued in part due to increased workloads and a back-and-forth about hybrid working.

In 2025, she said, many people are therefore thinking: "New year, new job."

"The job market is starting to loosen up, and for those who have been simmering with frustration, this might be the year they finally quit—not just quietly, but loudly," Holliday-Quinn said.

"Revenge quitting," she said, is where employees leave not just to move on "but to make a point."

Burnout and toxicity

Employment analysts previously told BI that the Great Detachment is plaguing workplaces and is one of the biggest challenges leaders face.

Partner that with the fact it might be easier to switch jobs next year, and employers could soon realize their best talent is jumping ship.

"If we as HR leaders don't act now, we do run the risk that a lot of those employees will just decide the opportunities are not there for them in the current company," Ciara Harrington, the Chief People Officer of the corporate training platform Skillsoft, told BI.

"Once the market opens up and they start getting the calls again, you could see an increase in your attrition," she said. "If any other employer wants this person, they're probably somebody you want to retain as well."

According to workplace experts, employees across all industries are increasingly engaging in "productivity theater" and performative busyness to get through their workday, and the workforce as a whole is disengaged.

They're struggling in other ways, too. For the ninth year in a row, the employee benefits platform Businessolver surveyed 20,000 employees, HR professionals, and CEOs across six industries on the state of workplace empathy. The report found that 42% of all respondents and 52% of CEOs reported working in a toxic environment.

In 2023, people were "rage applying" for jobs, angrily scrolling through job ads when they were fed up. Revenge quitting is similar, with the added vengeance of moving on to something better.

Stretched too thin

Beth Hood, the founder and CEO of the leadership and management training platform Verosa, told BI that employee dissatisfaction "rarely stems from a single event."

"It's often a gradual erosion of 'intrinsic motivators' such as connection, meaning, and safety," Hood said. "When these motivators are left unmet, resentment and detachment can grow, eventually leading to employees walking away, often in frustration or as a way of reclaiming control."

Holliday-Quinn, who has worked in senior roles at Citi and PwC, said employees have reported being stretched thin, due to cuts and heavier workloads, made worse by the attack on middle managers.

"Dissatisfaction has been quietly brewing," Holliday-Quinn said, with a period of layoffs and RTO mandates.

"This disconnect between leadership and the workforce isn't just a communication issue," she said. "It's a retention crisis waiting to happen."

Generational dynamics are also at play, with Gen Zers being skeptical about climbing the corporate ladder for little payoff. Younger workers are "less willing to tolerate outdated workplace cultures or rigid hierarchies," said Holliday-Quinn.

"Companies that don't adapt to these expectations will struggle to retain the next wave of talent," she said.

How to prepare

Harrington told BI that company leaders need to be trained to have crucial conversations with their direct reports because "most team members leave a manager, not a company."

The Businessolver report found that while 55% of CEOs believe they lead with empathy at work, only 28% of employees actually agreed.

Harrington said listening goes a long way, as does filtering down information from above effectively.

"I'm a really big believer in investing in leaders really is investing in the company as a whole," she said. "Because if they're doing their job, they're going to be working on the individual team member engagement, retention, and motivation."

Harrington said if an employee has been treated with empathy and felt heard in their current role, they're more likely to help with the transition or stay longer to meet deadlines during their notice period rather than being checked out and unhelpful.

"You're much more likely to get that really helpful and good transition," Harrington said. "Which will help massively with business continuity.

For others, though, "revenge quitting" could impact them greatly.

"2025 is shaping up to be a wake-up call for employers," Holliday-Quinn said. "Those who have relied on control over connection or ignored the mounting dissatisfaction within their teams are about to face the consequences."