I quit my job

⚠️ Edit: This post now lives at https://joelabreo227.me/ ⚠️

Today marks 10 days since I quit my job at rtCamp.

rtCamp literally handpicked me straight out college, and gave me a flying start to my career. They provided me with the trust, support and tools that I needed to steady myself and stand on my own feet, instead of being just another engineering graduate™.

I am grateful to all the people I have met over the past couple of years, including everyone from the global WordPress community.

And speaking of WordPress, I think the single greatest thing that rtCamp gave me is an appreciation for writing. (Fact: I started this blog as part of my onboarding at rtCamp.)

I could honestly write several thousand words about all the things I’ve learnt and observed, but I’m only going to limit myself to things at the top of my head for now.

The Lessons

Over the past couple of years, I’ve–

• Learnt to love blogging, writing and person-to-person communication. I believe this is where my future is 🌌
• Got an inside view of what it takes to build and market brands without using the dark arts™ ⚫️
• Figured out that sales is all about starting conversations and building relationships 🤝
• Fallen in love with emoji 😍
• Started learning how to take (and give) good, constructive feedback 🐵
• Seen the value of people, and the importance of treating people well in an organisation 👸
• Seen the value diversity and inclusivity 🌏

Found at a railway station in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

The Experiences

Namaskaram #WCKochi 🙏 Come grab a badge 😬 pic.twitter.com/0wIMMVeW5j

— rtCamp (@rtCamp) February 19, 2017

As part of the marketing team, I was blessed with the opportunity to travel to almost all of the 10+ WordCamps in and around India on rtCamp $$$. I got to travel and experience the culture in so many cities, that would have otherwise been hard to do. This cultural education was one of the best parts of my job.

I also got the opportunity to volunteer, speak at and organise several WordPress and other FOSS events. This experience has helped me become comfortable attending conferences and interacting with people.

. @summon_joel on #WordPress – the ecosystem, the career opportunities, at the #fossmeet #coep#LIBREnotGRATIS #MUKTnotMUFT pic.twitter.com/Fvo4Oiln4n

— Vivek Jain (@svivekjain) April 8, 2018

This being my first full time job, I experienced the effects of imbalanced work-life balance (to be clear, this had more to do with my inefficiencies planning my schedule than any of rtCamp’s polices.) I now feel much better equipped to mange my time.

The people

And finally, this rollercoaster ride would not be the same without these people yelling along with me.

Rahul, Vivek & Nitun have been amazing teachers, team leaders, co-workers and friends. They exemplify the easy-to-talk-to, hard-working and flat-heirarchical nature that rtCamp stands for.

I would like to shout out to–

• Smita– who is the artist behind rt3’s amazing decals and fun to work with,
• Shashwat– who I’ve spent hours chilling with and talking things over,
• Sanket, Chandra, Mriyam– whose l33t skillz helped me wrap my head around hard technical topics,
• Sandeep– who has a serious alternate career path as a chef,
• Radhe– who I can best describe as Buddha with a Apple Magic keyboard and
• Daniel– whose perspective and blog inspires me to be better

I also want to appreciate Aditya, Saurabh (who actually conducted my job interview!) and Ganesh for being people I can talk to and trust.

Road trip with @actual_saurabh @_iSheeba @_hive_mind @MovingPixel #wcnashik pic.twitter.com/xs0nEa9RvG

— Aditya Kane (@AdityaKane) November 4, 2017

(☝️ I’ve since changed my Twitter handle btw)

What now?

Life when I was working at rtCamp was great. I’m sure that several years from now, I’ll be looking back with happiness and pride. Great work, generous compensation, lots of room for growth and people who supported me.

But some time last year, I realised that I was in a unique position of being able to take some time off and do some soul searching without the burden of having to support a family, earn a living or take care of a loved one.

So that’s what I am going to do. Search, contemplate and adventure ✨

For now, I’m packing my bags and flying off for a break. See you on the other side. 🛫

Title image: One of the guiding principles at rtCamp – “Can you do it better?”