I'm Quitting My Job At A Big Tech Company To Travel. Hustle Culture Is Overrated — I'm Taking A Year Off.

A project manager at a big tech firm is putting her burgeoning career on hold to focus on her mental health.

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• Nadia Said is a 25-year-old IT project manager at a Fortune 100 tech company.
• She grew up believing a job provides financial security but is risking it to take an adult gap year.
• Said saved $15,000 for the year and plans to travel in Asia, where her money will go the furthest.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation and emails with Nadia Said, a 25-year-old IT project manager at a major tech company where she started working full-time in 2020.

Said has been working from Asia since May but plans to quit in September to go on an adult gap year, also known as a career break. Said did not want to disclose the name of her company for privacy reasons, but her employment has been verified by Business Insider.

The following essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I come from a big family. My parents are both Indian immigrants.

The message that I got when I was younger, seeing my parents go through what they went through, is that a job can provide you that stability you need to pursue your other passions.

When I was in my second year at Temple University, I got the opportunity to work at my company as an intern.

Nadia Said, 25, is putting her burgeoning career in tech to focus on her mental health and passion for travel.

Hannah Vy Nguyen

I was juggling working with a full-time student workload in a challenging degree. I graduated in December 2019 and was able to get a full-time job offer.

My workload kept piling up in an industry that wasn't as stable as I thought

I joined in 2020. A few months later, the Great Resignation took place. I saw a lot of my teammates quit, transfer, and move on.

I went from being this fresh grad trying to get as much experience as possible to helping with this increasing workload — with fewer people.

I was consistently handed really challenging projects. It seemed like if I couldn't deliver, there was no one else. Everyone else was stretched thin, and there was no new hiring at this time.

In late 2022, the company announced it was going to be doing layoffs.

A swath of tech giants like Google and Microsoft have slashed jobs in 2024, as they did the previous year.

ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images

At that time, a lot of companies were starting to announce layoffs — all the big ones, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, everyone.

For someone who went into this field because of the job security, it seemed like, "OK, it's not as secure as I thought." I was talking to a friend who was working at a tech company. She told me, "If they lay me off, it's fine. I'll just take my savings and travel to Asia until I figure out what's next for me."

I was like, "Oh my God, you can do that? You can just decide to take a year off?"

I've budgeted $15,000 for my year off in Asia

Later that year, I took 10 days off, and I traveled to South Korea.

Coming back from that trip and seeing the impending layoffs, and also being fairly burned out from working five years straight at this really high-tech company, I started to put my plans in motion.

I am preparing to take an adult gap year in September. It took about a year of planning. I wanted to be sure of my decision. I wanted to make sure I had enough in savings. I budgeted $15,000 to spend on the year.

It helped that I was moving to Asia. With the currency exchange and everything, it is more reasonable for me, versus if I took a year off and traveled through Europe or even the States.

I would love to spend time in India and reconnect with my culture.

Working so far away in the States, I haven't been able to visit since I was a kid. It's really exciting for me that I might be able to spend months there.

As part of her adult gap year, Said wants to travel to India and reconnect with parts of her culture.

Courtesy of Nadia Said

I want to spend the time developing a good health routine for myself.

I also want to spend some time upskilling — tech is moving so fast that I need to try to keep up as much as possible. I also want to spend time on simple things, like reading books and meeting new people.

I also want to preserve my mental health.

I know that if I keep going in the long run, it's not going to be healthy for me. I definitely have a fair bit of anxiety going to work.

I know I'm taking a risk, but I'm putting myself first

My parents are confused by the idea. That wasn't something they could ever think of.

My mom mentioned the FIRE movement to me. She said, "Why don't you continue to work for the next 10, 20, 30 years, and you can just retire early, and then you won't have to work again?"

But for me, there's so much uncertainty. Your plan to keep working could just be stopped by a layoff.

Going through the pandemic really taught me and a lot of my peers that the future is not really promised.

There's a rejection of hustle culture. What's the point of giving so much loyalty? We definitely know that no job is going to be loyal to us.

I'm definitely taking a step back in my career. I've built up all this clout over time with this employer. If I continued to work at the pace I did, I would have another big promotion in two years.

My big fear is that when I come back, I'm going to be ready to get a job and there won't be one available for me.

But I truly believe that taking a break will make me a better employee.

I will return with more knowledge and experience that's needed to do the job.