Jay Gengelbach, software engineer, on why he quit his high paying job: “I was earning a total of around $700,000”
A former Google and Verily engineer explains why leaving a sizeable pay package finally made him happier.
He spent nearly two decades inside Alphabet companies, starting at Google in 2006 and later moving to Verily. For years, the perks were abundant and the compensation soared, eventually reaching roughly $700,000 in total pay. Yet as he cycled through roles, he noticed a pattern: after about four years, the work stopped stimulating him. This is the story of 41-year-old Jay Gengelbach, a Boulder-raised engineer now living in Canada, as told by Business Insider.
Once he moved into management, Gengelbach found himself cut off from the casual camaraderie he’d always relied on, reduced to a figure colleagues treated as a networking opportunity rather than a peer.
Why prestige and pay stopped feeling worth it
The combination of pandemic stress, layoffs across Big Tech, and a growing isolation pushed him toward a crossroads. He considered returning to Google but sensed a cultural shift after the 2023 cuts. The choice became stark: stay unhappy for the sake of pay, or figure out what he actually wanted. With support from his wife and therapist – and enough savings for a one-year buffer – he walked away in mid-2024.
He sought an individual contributor role where he could build again, not manage, and wanted to join a company aligned with impactful work. After a brief stop in insurance, he joined Vercel in early 2025, a move that also let him relocate his family to Canada. Smaller-company pace, hands-on engineering, and mission-driven infrastructure work have revived the challenge he’d been missing.
Leaving Big Tech reshaped his life
He trimmed back the lifestyle inflated by years of high pay and downsized after leaving the United States. And though Vercel’s rising valuation has eased the financial trade-off, he says the true reward has been rediscovering meaningful work. For Gengelbach, breaking the golden handcuffs proved that fulfillment – not a $700,000 paycheck – mattered most.
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