I quit my job in 2021

I am not here to tell you my story about why I quit my job in 2021 (in the middle of May 2021). But more to share on what I’ve learned since I quit and how this changes my perspective on my future retirement days.

The media has been talking a great deal about the great resignations, about the new freedom many people have found during COVID-19 work from home. But I think it is not so important about why people quit, but what they learn about their life after they quit. What they do with the new free time before moving on to the next phase of their employment and how they are facing the new job challenges. Making a decision to quit the current job is never a simple one. Chief among the considerations is of course the loss of income and what to do with the free time. For me, fortunately, I have some savings and being in my mid-fifties, I am thinking the free time might be a good way to try out what I could do when I truly retire.

Obviously, I would be on the lookout for my next role. And having made it through several career changes (after redundant terminations and resignations), I knew how the days would be like and I am well prepared to work on the necessary tasks to look for my next job (like updating my resume, applying for jobs in various social network platforms, looking up new job roles in certain companies, preparing for job interviews, etc.). As the months pile up, these activities became easier as resume and job application letters can easily be reused. Even interview preparations become easier after a few Zoom interview calls.

Unfortunately, the job search market is mirroring the trends of COVID-19 infection cases. When the cases are high, the new roles are less, and the result of most job applications is negative. When the cases are low, then interviews may be scheduled. I should count myself as the lucky ones during this COVID-19 resignation climate as my profession is considered to be the really hot one (as I previously worked for a major cloud company), so job opportunities should be abundant. In any case, it still takes me about 6 months to finally get a confirmed job offer. I am starting my new job next week.

Now let’s focus on what I have done during this jobless period. As an IT professional and a mid-fifties boomer, my first thoughts were to take some e-learning courses, have fun with my hobbies, and spend more time with my family members (wife and sons primarily). Although I would like to be as happy as I could to do all these things, deep in my subconscious and conscious mind, there is still this thugging in my brain on the drain on my savings and how long I can last. I started to cut down some expenses and postpone any key purchases. This helped to soften the stress a little but it is always in the background. So, I decided to put more attention to what I’ll do with my free time.

I started with my camera. Always have been shooting my kids with an SLR camera but I thought it would be even better if I go for nature walks with my wife in COVID times. I get to do some exercise, take in the fresh air, enjoy companionship with my wife, and shoot some pictures to publish on my Facebook. My son also has a great interest in birds, so he could also join us on some of the walks. So, it was good to spend those times, but after some walks (about 7 or 8 times for me), I started to get a little bored. We did the walks as a weekly activity (on a weekday to avoid the crowds), and the walk itself feels good, but the satisfaction seems to reduce after some repetitions. I thought may be just the walk itself is not enough to fill my emptiness (of time?) and so I added other activities. (Note: Nevertheless, I still did about 6months of walks, once each week. You could be my Facebook friend if you like to view the photos. Look me up in Facebook.)

I used to play harmonica when I was young ( starting at 10 years old till my twenties). But stopped playing when I started working. My level was good enough to play as a soloist with piano accompaniment and that was something I enjoyed a lot in my younger days (had a good pianist friend that accompanies me). I thought it would be good to enjoy this hobby again. So since I could not have someone to accompany me, I’ve bought an application software to help. Dorico can playback music scores with life-like notes and I thought of doing a recording of my own performances. I started practising hard on my techniques and bought a suitable microphone that can be used for recording with my Mac. So, it was fun and good, but still, there is a sense of emptiness after I’ve done my test recording. Is this really what I would like to do when I retire from work?

Maybe I need to do more activities. I started writing articles on medium.com, I played more tennis, I played Call of Duty on my PlayStation (check out my earlier article here https://jangthye.medium.com/why-play-computer-games-from-a-boomer-perspective-6b960b0531c7), I visited the library to read my favourite magazine The Economist regularly, and so on. I imagined that I could do all these activities as a regular schedule for my retirement days. But I still feel an emptiness.

So I did some soul searching. Why am I not happy with doing the stuff I have enjoyed in the past and now have the time to spend on them? It took me a while to realize. The stuff that I enjoyed is still fun to me, but its impact is transient. True happiness comes from creating or leaving a longer-term lasting impact. I realized this when I was reviewing my 16-year old son’s school report card. He made it, the minimum cut-over score that let him stay in the same school. And I feel true happiness for him and myself as we started this year with worries about how he could make it with his average scores. I have spent many hours coaching him on how to beat the school system (of examinations and tests), and what he should focus on to prepare for his own life in the future, especially the academic streaming in the next year that will narrow his choices for a chosen profession.

And my Facebook photos have also left some impact among my friends. They also started sharing pictures of their visits to nature parks (in similar style as the photo above, with my wife walking ahead on a track or trail in the centre of the picture), and in particular, some of the photos are similar to mine (such as taking a picture of signboards in the route they took in their walk).

Even my wife has also taken a liking for photography, and she also frequently share on her Facebook some of the photos she took on her phone. Of course, I was also influenced by some friends who frequently shared pictures of birds they took and I also started taking them too:

I have realized my perspective of what is meaningful to me has changed during this period of no work in COVID-19. Happiness is not about doing the things you like by yourself. The impact to others especially your loved ones will give you a lasting satisfaction. And when I was searching for my new job, I have decided to focus on roles that allows me to offer lasting contribution (and not sales quota and other similar form of annual or quarterly performance measurements). And what will I do for my retirement? I don’t think it will be just the stuffs I like for myself. Thanks for reading my article and I hope this would inspire you to think about your future retirement plans.