When Alyson Isaacs joined Meta in 2022, she solely had about $200 in her financial savings account. A six-figure wage supplied an opportunity to rebuild her funds, however her final objective lay outside Big Tech.
After faculty, Isaacs “fully drained” her financial savings on a startup she’d co-founded, and located herself grappling along with her subsequent profession transfer. After weighing her choices, she determined to observe the recommendation of a mentor: go to “startup rehab” — in different phrases, take a full-time job.
“You may at all times get a job at a Huge Tech firm,'” mentioned Isaacs, who’s 28 and lives in San Francisco.
About 4 months later, she landed a product supervisor role at Meta within the firm’s Quest for Enterprise digital actuality division. However her entrepreneurial itch by no means left, and he or she ultimately started mapping out the very best path again into the startup world.
“There are methods you will be entrepreneurial,” she mentioned of working at Huge Tech, “nevertheless it’s very a lot not the identical.”
Over the previous 12 months, I’ve interviewed greater than a dozen employees who, like Isaacs, selected to quit their jobs at main employers — in some instances with out one other position lined up. Whereas some ultimately landed at one other giant firm, others stepped away from the company world completely — becoming a member of a smaller enterprise, launching their very own enterprise, pursuing a career pivot, or specializing in personal priorities like parenting.
They’ve grow to be outliers in an financial system the place workers are quitting at one of many lowest rates up to now decade — a development pushed by a hiring slowdown that is left some clinging to their jobs with few interesting options. Those that have referred to as it quits informed me they did so for a mixture of causes: considerations about job safety, shifts in workplace culture, entrepreneurial ambitions, or a want for extra significant work. In brief, they wished better long-term company over their careers.
Isaacs shared how she determined to take the leap again into entrepreneurship — and supplied recommendation for others going through an identical profession crossroads.
Making ready for a return to entrepreneurship
After leaving her post-college startup, Isaacs took a month to reset. She then spent two months interviewing at smaller firms to fine-tune her résumé and sharpen her interview expertise. Finally, she utilized for a job at Meta and landed the job. She moved from the Berkeley space to San Francisco and began in Could 2022 — a few 12 months after commencement.
Whereas Isaacs did not have agency plans to return to entrepreneurship, she knew that if she ever went down that path once more, she’d should be financially ready for all times with no regular paycheck. So she began dwelling properly beneath her means, together with dwelling in a cheaper space, going to a primary gymnasium, cooking at house, and avoiding purchasing sprees.
“I saved so exhausting as a result of I knew that this wasn’t going to be the tip sport for me, and I wished to begin my very own factor once more ultimately,” she mentioned.
Isaacs additionally ready for a possible return to entrepreneurship by spending about 5 hours every week angel investing, which concerned scouting and backing startups. After a few 12 months of saving, she started making a number of investments, every underneath $10,000. She mentioned the expertise helped her construct a community in San Francisco’s startup scene and spot gaps different entrepreneurs may exploit — insights that helped form her personal enterprise concepts.
The ultimate section of Isaacs’ preparation was absorbing the whole lot she may from her time at Meta, together with transitioning to a product supervisor place at Instagram — one of Meta’s subsidiaries — in 2024. She mentioned the roles gave her data and expertise that entrepreneurship alone could not present.
“Conventional entrepreneurship was simply flying by the sting of my seat and seeing what labored,” she mentioned. “However I wanted that degree of experience to go farther in my profession.”
The query was when to make the leap and depart Meta. Isaacs mentioned the dying of her father in 2024 weighed closely on her thought course of.
“That basically triggered this thought in my mind of, ‘Is being a product supervisor at a Huge Tech firm what I need to do for the remainder of my life?'” she mentioned. “And the reply was resoundingly no — I wished to do one thing by myself and show myself.”
By mid-2025, Isaacs discovered herself pondering increasingly more a few startup concept within the client AI area — and struggling to deal with her job at Meta. On July 1, she resigned; the following day, she started working full-time on her startup, which she described as an “agentic AI resolution for private wellness.” The corporate is at present in stealth, which means the crew is not publicly sharing full particulars whereas the product remains to be in growth. She mentioned she and her two co-founders are testing the product with customers and plan to open a pre-seed funding spherical within the spring.
Learn extra about individuals who’ve discovered themselves at a company crossroads
Recommendation for others weighing massive profession strikes
Isaacs mentioned she is aware of many individuals would possibly hesitate to surrender a Huge Tech job. However she believes some underestimate their probabilities of discovering a brand new position or constructing one thing themselves — and find yourself caught in jobs they do not get pleasure from.
“It is sort of like courting,” she mentioned, including that in the event you anticipate a nasty courting pool, “you are going to keep together with your unhealthy ex.”
Isaacs mentioned she wasn’t frightened about resigning from Meta, partly as a result of she’s a “tremendous optimist” about her profession. If her startup does not work out, she’s assured in her backup plan — the identical one she relied on after her post-college startup alternative fell by.
“Leaving Meta wasn’t scary for me as a result of I used to be like, ‘I can at all times get one other job in Huge Tech,'” she mentioned.
Isaacs has a number of items of recommendation for different aspiring entrepreneurs. She recommends connecting with as many individuals as potential who’re related to the enterprise you need to pursue — and in search of methods to assist them, whether or not by angel investing, advising, or providing assist.
“You sort of create this flywheel of individuals serving to you in the event you assist different individuals first,” she mentioned.
Moreover, even when your finish objective is to construct a enterprise, Isaacs mentioned having expertise at a big-name firm can provide you priceless credibility as an entrepreneur.
“I wanted to be plain as a founder, and having a big-box title model in your résumé provides you that undeniability,” she mentioned.
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