Harvard, IIT graduate reflects on quitting 9-to-5 job after a decade, says 'I'm not in a hurry to go back'

The woman reflected on the freedom of having no fixed schedule and why she is no longer in a hurry to return to a conventional job.

A Harvard and IIT graduate who has worked with companies including Razorpay, Microsoft, Dunzo and Unacademy has opened up about her decision to quit her 9-to-5 job after nearly a decade of working.

Charmie Kapoor is a Harvard and IIT graduate who has previously worked at companies including Razorpay and Microsoft. (X/@charmiekapoor)

In a post on X, Charmie Kapoor reflected on life after leaving her full-time role, the freedom of having no fixed schedule and why she is no longer in a hurry to return to a conventional job. "Thoughts on leaving a 9-5 job as someone who always found a lot of meaning in work," she wrote at the beginning of the post.

Kapoor shared that it has been a few months since she left her full-time job. "I've worked for about a decade, had the savings and privilege, so told myself that was reason enough," she wrote.

"Last time I took a few months off, I knew I'd eventually join a full-time job again. This time it feels different," she added.

Life after quitting a 9-to-5 job

Kapoor said that one of the first things she had to get used to was no longer receiving a salary notification every month. She described the regular salary credit as something comforting, as seeing the number appear indirectly reassured her that she was doing fine.

At the same time, she also said that not having a calendar is "liberating". "I spent the first few weeks waking up and figuring out on the go how I wanted to spend my time. I also started trying things I never got to do with a job, just to see," she shared.

Kapoor said that she finished some "personal projects" that had been pending, helped founder friends with design, explored design beyond screens and started working out every day. She also ran a small mango toast delivery venture in the city, hosted several friends who stayed with her for months and tried to devote more time and energy to giving back.

"What surprised me is how much of a job I never noticed I was doing just to get through a job," Kapoor wrote.

She said that commuting, meetings and the gaps between different tasks were all parts of a routine that people often do not notice while they are in it. You don't feel that structure while you're in it. And once it's gone, you start asking questions about things you never used to think twice about," she wrote.

Further, Kapoor shared that the break also prompted her to think about how people find purpose in life. She wrote about three philosophical approaches - nihilism, existentialism and absurdism. According to Kapoor, nihilism suggests that life has no inherent meaning, existentialism involves creating one's own meaning and taking it seriously, while absurdism accepts that life has no inherent meaning and focuses on simply living in the present.

Kapoor said that she had spent most of her life as an "existentialist without knowing the word for it". She described herself as someone who would pick a goal, care about it deeply and try to "win". "That's probably what made me ambitious in the first place," she wrote.

However, Kapoor said that she could now feel herself "sliding toward absurdism", describing it as a strange thing to watch happen to herself. She said she now goes swimming at 2 pm, works when she actually feels like working, has long conversations with friends over breakfast and builds things simply because she wants to see them exist. She is also learning to create design content and publish it online.

Kapoor said that her decision to stay away from a conventional job was tested when one of the "hottest startups in the world" reached out to her about her work. She travelled, met the team and found that the opportunity appeared to be the perfect job on paper. A few years ago, she said, she would have wanted such an opportunity badly enough to convince herself to take it. "And yet, it didn't ignite me the way I expected," Kapoor wrote.

She said that even though the opportunity appeared to tick every box, she more excited by the possibility of continuing to create things on her own terms. She wondered whether she was simply avoiding structure or whether something inside her had genuinely changed.

"I'm at this newfound balance between existentialism giving me happiness and absurdism giving me peace. I still don't know how much of one I'll have to give up to keep the other," she wrote.

She ended her post by saying she was heading to her 5 pm pickleball game.

Social media reactions

Reacting to her post, one user wrote, "This feels so good to read. I don't know why but it is so relatable in the sense of the kind of life I want to get to. Thank you for this write up. Looking forward to your next write up on your journey."

"Very relatable Charmie. I myself travelled the arc from existentialism to nihilism to absurdism last few years. Not sure which camp I belong to completely (maybe I'll lean towards absurdism only). But I have realised it's okay if not all is figured out," commented another.

"Can relate to it. Been on similar journey. Once you find your freedom, you give structure to your own life and it's very difficult to get back to old life. You give structure to your own life on your own terms and not dictated by society or corp. Strange feeling but good feeling," wrote a third user.