Quitting Whilst Ahead. Erm. Or Not.
Are you sitting comfortably? This is a bit of a long one (oo-er) but it's a rewarding story, I promise.

Picture, if you will, dear reader, the scene.

Edmund having worked his way through the various illnesses that threatened to make him Scotlands' very own version of John Nash (look it up if you don't know already) has managed to get his cap and gown, much to his surprise.

He slowly crawls up the slippery corporate slope having left academia behind and soon finds himself working for an organisation who were once called H*l***x, now Head Office based in Edinburgh following a merger with B*nk of Sc*tl*nd.

It's all very exciting, getting to do some research whilst at the same time riding on the coat tails of some very important bankers and getting my name on the project as a lead contributor. W00t, as I believe they say in these parts.

Until I realise what it entails. Two-and-a-half years of working 11 - 12 hours days, six-and-a-half days a week. One prolonged period of having six weeks in the office and not going home at all during that time, even having my laundry collected from the office, done and returned to me there.

The project was delivered approximately on time (around nine months start to finish) and within the budget set.

Having done it and thinking "Phew! I can get on with my life now, kick back and chill briefly", we got another project of a similar size dumped on us - this time for a completely different type of bank with which no-one had any experience whatsoever. Joy of joys.

After the aforementioned two and a bit years of this I was so close to burning myself out that I could smell the smoke (how's that for a mixed metaphor?) and decided that I was going to take some time off.

July 22nd 2002 I walk into my (newly-appointed-above-me) bosses office and tell him I'm taking the next month off, starting August 1st and ending August 31st 2002. I haven't taken any more than one weeks leave in total (and that was to attend a conference) since starting in 2000 to which he replied "No you're not, you're going to sit and do ... (list of meaningless tasks)".

This was too much, even for my little brain and accordingly I walked back to my desk a little deflated, packed up my stuff in my laptop bag (own laptop that I did a lot of the calculation on because they were too stingy to buy some properly wicked software) said "bye" to colleagues, walked into bosses office with my ID badge in my hand and *may* have indicated to him (it's all a bit of a blur now, tbh) that he f*ck right off.

Drove home to my estranged partner on the other side of the central belt of Scotland and picked up a couple of pairs of jeans, a few shirts, jumpers and shoes.

Got back in car and drove like the wind to Heathrow airport where I boarded a plane to the rest of my life.

That was six years ago and despite a few ups and downs (many downs, not so many ups) and some sizeable medications - moi, venlaflaxine? bring the noise! - on balance I feel a bit better now than I did then.

I work for myself and now, when I'm putting in a twelve hour day on a clients site I'm getting paid a shed-load more than those guys were paying me.

Yes it's a pain in the butt to be doing the tax and NI and corporation tax and the like but sod it, that's what I've got an accountant for.

I travel a lot (something I've always enjoyed) and in fact I'm writing this in a clients office in Hong Kong at this very moment, before returning to the UK Saturday for ten days of climbing (stop the presses - "Edmund takes holiday shocker") before flying back out here to keep doing it.

So, to the payoff - am I happy? Well, I feel a lot more relaxed now and my earnings have gone through the roof (i.e., quadrupled since 2002)but I know that there's always the elephant in the room; one day someone won't want what I'm selling. I'm more balanced. My personal life is still a sh!t, but that's only to be expected; who ever expected geeks to be happy?
(Eds Meds Mathskillz=1,Socialskillz=0, Mon 26 May 2008, 3:26, 3 replies)

sorry
It wasnt as rewarding as you made it out to be... but i didnt quit reading it.
(Bluffboy South Africa! World Champions!!!, Mon 26 May 2008, 6:38, closed)

That's the recruitment trap
Many big firms use their size and prestige to do just what happened to you:

Step 1: Do the milkround and hire the brightest yet naive minds from the latest round of graduates.
Step 2: Pay them a relatively good salary for a graduate, so they think they're on to a winner.
Step 3: Work them into the ground. Long days, high pressure projects.
Step 4: As soon as possible, get them away from home. Teams in a strange city, staying in hotels, will tend to clump together as well as having little to do until 8pm except work. It's not like they want to get home early to mow the lawn, is it?
Step 5: The ones that survive are usually pretty tough, or very clever and able to find their own space. It doesn't matter that a huge number will leave after a few years - there's plenty more to replace them each year. These tough ones believe the only way to the top is to be like them and give up any pretence of a life outside the company. And so it goes on....
(clopinettes, Mon 26 May 2008, 10:30, closed)

Ouch
My housemate is on venlafaxine, you have to do quite a lot to get there... Well done for getting past it, the housemate finally quit medical school and she is much happier too. And geeks can be happy, don't give up on a social life just yet!
(Petite chien is going to do science to it, Mon 26 May 2008, 20:27, closed)