3 Things I'm Unlearning from Big Tech
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For nearly a decade, my identity was defined by a single title: Software Engineer.
It’s an identity I picked up early, starting in a Computer Science lecture hall and carrying it through to the offices of Google and Amazon. In the corporate world, this title is a comfortable box, but it also trapped me.
But as I’ve started working for myself, I’ve realized that the very habits that helped me succeed as an engineer in Big Tech were the ones holding me back being self-empoyed. To move forward, I’ve had to aggressively unlearn the corporate operating system.
Here are the three biggest shifts.
1. The Death of Red Tape
In Big Tech, progress is a social contract. If you want to change a database schema or launch a landing page, you need a design doc reviewed, a security sign-off, and a sync with the infrastructure team. You’re taught to wait for a long row of green lights.
I had to kill the reflex to wait. When you’re on your own, there is virtually nothing to wait on. Every moment spent waiting is likely a self-imposed bottleneck.
Now, I have virtually zero dependencies. There are no more hoops to jump through, but there’s also no one to hide behind. If code needs to be written or a cold DM needs to be sent, there’s nothing impeding my productivity except myself. I’ve moved from a world of navigating red tape to one with permissionless agency.
2. ROI is Everything
At a FAANG company, productivity is often performative. It’s about being in the office, completing tickets in a timely manner, and appearing aligned with quarterly goals a committee set six months ago. You can spend a week on low-value busy work and still meet expectations because you followed the process.
Now, there are no political games to be played; no promotion decisions to navigate, etc. Working for myself all that matters is the return I generate. Because of this, I have to stop equating hours worked with value created. Today, in a few hours I can generate the same value I used to during two weeks at a 9-5 job.
Each day, I have to constantly ask: “Is this the highest leverage thing I can be doing right now?” In Big Tech, the leverage was decided for me. Now, spending 30 minutes on a marketing script might be 100x more valuable than spending five hours refactoring a component. I’ve become obsessed with the ROI of my own energy.
3. Shedding the Identity of “Software Engineer”
My entire adult life has been viewed through the lens of being a “Software Engineer”. It started when I was 18 in a CS lab and culminated in a badge that granted me entry into some of the largest tech companies on earth. Honestly, in some dumb ways, I enjoyed that. People tended to believe you were smart, they assumed you made good money, and mostly thought it was interesting that you worked with computers. In reality; looking for this kind of validation is ridiculous; if you rely on the opinions of others to build you up you’re bound to eventually be disappointed. Loosening that grip of being a software engineer has been stranger than I expected.
As ridiculous as it sounds, I had to survive the ego hit of no longer having a easy way to explain to others what I do on a day-to-day basis. As an engineer at a large tech companies, it’s incredible simple to explain what I’d do; it’s a different story being self employed. It’s felt strange to shed the software engineering identity I’ve carried since college.
It is both scary and freeing to realize that “Software Engineer” was just a starting point, not a destination. On my own, I am a content creator, a marketer, a salesperson, a writer, and a founder (and still a software engineer). I can change anything about my trajectory in an afternoon. I am no longer defined by what a recruiter thinks I’m worth or what my degree says I should be; I’m defined by what I can actually build and sell. Overall, it’s felt good to trade the security of a title for the freedom of a blank canvas.
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