The death of the career hugger

In the tech space right now, I see two distinct tribes forming.

The first tribe are “career huggers.” They are holding on to their roles for dear life—either because they’ve been there forever, or because they are terrified of the market.

The second tribe acts with fearlessness. They try something new. They see what sticks. They keep moving forward.

“The market is bad,” the career huggers tell me. “Stay where you are.”

I respectfully disagree.

In late 2024, the vibe in my division had shifted. The culture, which once felt dynamic and energized me several years earlier, had become paralyzed. You couldn’t find a single person who seemed genuinely happy. When I looked around, I saw brilliant people who had been stuck for 10+ years, 15+ years, clutching onto niche domains, terrified to let go. And the longer the person stayed, the more acerbic things became.

One of my coworkers, let’s call him “S,” was the perfect example of this. An absolute wiz at software engineering and distributed systems.

S was a lovely guy—gregarious, warm, the kind of person who spoke to you like you’d been friends for years. I recall one lunch where he started dishing out life advice immediately. “Don’t buy a house with an HOA,” he warned me. “Worst people I’ve ever had to deal with.”

S had a gift for soft skills. In an environment that was increasingly miserable, his energy was refreshing. He knew everyone in the office; he knew the politics; he had a sixth sense for when a reorg was coming.

But S was also gripped by fear. As a new parent with heavy obligations, he was holding onto his seat for dear life. He saw the ship was taking on water, but he was too afraid to jump.

A few months later, I decided I couldn’t “hug” my career anymore. I gave my two weeks’ notice to take a new role.

Shortly after, I caught S in the hallway.

“Hey S,” I said, pulling him aside. “I want you to hear it from me. I’ve given my notice and I’m leaving.”

“Oh wow,” he said. “Where to?”

“I’m moving to a Developer Advocate role. I’ll be making content, videos, evangelism on PhD stats. No more cloud backend, agentic AI stuff.”

He looked at me, nodded, and laughed. “Makes sense. You’ve got too much energy for this place. You’re not a backend guy. You’re a ‘front of house’ guy.”

It was a small comment, but it stuck with me. I had spent years making high-level engineering contributions optimizing compute which reached all the way to the C-Suite, but I realized that staying in a role that made me miserable just for the sake of “safety” wasn’t safe at all—it was dangerous.

If you are financially able, I encourage you to bet big, and constantly bet on yourself. The changes in the world right now are so profound that playing it safe is actually the riskiest move you can make. In a world where the ground is constantly shifting from under our feet, the most dangerous thing you can do is stand still.