After nearly two decades of FAANG, I left to work for a nuclear company, and I love it. Not all of my skills are utilized here, but my brain is growing in new w

After nearly two decades of FAANG, I left to work for a nuclear company, and I love it. Not all of my skills are utilized here, but my brain is growing in new ways. It's thrilling to work with people whose abilities are so different from my own, on problems which I believe to be among the most important I could be working on. One piece of advice is to not over-romanticize such a switch. Every job has its frustrations and irritants and drudgeries. Changing careers does not cure burnout or apathy, if the source of those feelings is inside you. Perhaps consider contract work as a way to get started. At the risk of being over-sentimental, I reflect on something Steve Jobs said, about being fired from Apple: The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter into one of the most creative periods of my life.