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Alex Gorman

What jobs did you leave or are planning to leave in order to become a maker?

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Hi Makers, I've become really interested recently in what makes someone leave a job to pursue a career as a maker. I used to be an Archaeologist (its an unusual change I know). I want to know your stories. What jobs did you give up to pursue your dream? What job are you planning to leave once your Unicorn takes off? Why?
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Vincenthaywood
I used to be head of digital at an agency, but then came across that quote about making other peoples dreams come true. Decided to start the my own consultancy that became my personal Angel fund - As I was paid for the consultant you, the money went back into the various builds and experiments. I’m now slowly transitioning my company to the tools I’m building rather than charging time. Reckon one more year. Past two years have been about balancing the client work with the side gig. Getting there!
Alex Gorman
@vincenthaywood Now that is a business model. How do you balance the two? I would worry I would focus on the interesting side gig and "accidentally" forget about my clients.
Vincenthaywood
@alex_gorman oh that happened. Constantly distracted. Took some time to work it out but think I have it nailed. One thing I did was install rescuetime on my Mac, set goals. For instance 4 hours on side gig, 3 on client work. Rescue time allows you to tag what’s things you do and then measure accordingly. Every now and again I’ll get a notification if I’m doing too little on the goals
Alex Gorman
@vincenthaywood Nice! I've been looking for something like that. I'll give it a try, thanks for the info
Vincenthaywood
@alex_gorman no worries
Chandra Prakash
HR by profession from past 10 yrs. Aspiring entrepreneur. Still afraid to take a leap, but took a small jump and started making No-Code products. Created one. Not launched here yet (probably hesitant). But I'm sure soon I'll feel confident to do so.
Alex Gorman
@cp18101985 I understand being hesitant. I really feel no-code products are the future. The leap can be scary. I'm still building up for mine. Good luck, I'm sure it will be great.
Nick Duncan
I left a senior management position in a well established marketing company in order to pursue my startup 8 years ago. The startup I was running made enough revenue to support my salary and my wife's salary at the time.
Alex Gorman
@nickduncan 8 years and high up in the company. Again another example of taking the risk and succeeding. I see you actually quite a few products out or coming out. Impressive!
Nick Duncan
@alex_gorman Thanks Alex! Plenty more on the horizon until we find that magical one that shows massive potential!
Alex Gorman
@nickduncan WE are chasing the unicorn. We will find it, persistence and passion are key.
David Barneda
Before this adventure I was a freelance illustrator.
Alex Gorman
@barneda Wow this is a drastic change. Do you still use your illustration skills today?
David Barneda
@alex_gorman Art is still part of my life, but the focus has shifted. Enjoying the journey, trying to make a difference with komunity.
Samantha Merlivat
Digital Media analyst and Ad tech consultant. I was working with ad tech platforms and media publishers and moved in a totally different direction. Probably not as big a change as coming from Archeology :)
Alex Gorman
@samanthamerlivat Any change is a big change in my books. If you find yourself doing something brand new and it was your choice to do that makes you impressive. So what direction are you going now?
Samantha Merlivat
@alex_gorman hah, well thank you for saying that. I'm curious what direction you're going into then? I moved to edTech, to help children with learning difficulties. It's a very personal issue to me and I find it very rewarding. At some point it became difficult to be as engaged with my day job as I was with this work, even if I loved my old job :)
Alex Gorman
@samanthamerlivat I imagine there is a link between digital media and education. Getting people interested and keeping their interest through imagery and excitement. Would you agree? Very interesting. The project I'm working on now is in health and predictive modeling. I have another idea which would bring in some of my archaeological background. Heres hoping the first one works out.
Adam Waselnuk
I just left my sweet job at Shopify to take a crack at making my own thing. I wrote an article about my decision making process https://www.adamwaselnuk.com/202...
Alex Gorman
@adam_waselnuk That quite the story. Really good read. The 50 hour week is ridiculous. I left a job last year which had me doing the same sort of hours. I think education through D&D might be the way for. Thanks for the read and sharing your story.
Alex Kashi
I have passed up-on many opportunities as a software engineer in order to pursue my vision, self-funded. I am sure a lot of people can relate to the struggle of trying to stay motivated when potential rewards are far in the future.
Alex Gorman
@alex_kashi Its a tough road. Motivation, especially if you are going solo, can be just out of reach. I use a couple apps (which I found here on PH). Keep up the good fight. It will pay off.
Paul Jones
I am a product manager for now. And frankly speaking I am going to combine it with software engineering for now
Alex Gorman
@pauljones60 Thats great meld the things you know together. Couldn't get a better combination.
Ahmed Elsamadisi
I used to write AI algorithms for Missile Defense (ICBM). Then moved to WeWork to build out data. But I became a maker when I realized that AI is kind of useless when companies struggle to actually get the data they need out. I found all issues to boil down to data modeling so I built: https://www.producthunt.com/post...
Igor Lanko
Reading through comments people are moving from such serious positions I'm starting to feel like I didn't risk anything at all, haha. I used to be a leading Product Designer in a music software company in LA. I left to start my digital studio for startups, but also to finally implement some product ideas I have been thinking of for years. Good luck everyone! Great to be part of such community.
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