I’ve been thinking about writing a blog for a while. I’ve kept diaries for most of my adult life, and I’ve realised that sharing some of those reflections publicly could be useful too.
There are topics where I genuinely want a second opinion. I considered writing about them on Reddit, but I’d like to try this instead.
What do I want from my career?
At the end of 2024 I decided to leave my fully remote job at Qonto and join GetYourGuide. The main reason was a big salary jump, a 39% gross increase. I really liked my job at Qonto, but the offer made me stop and think seriously.
Now that I’m 9 months into the new job, I’m still not sure whether it was the right decision for me. It’s true that I make more money, but I also feel like I gave up some things that mattered to my lifestyle.
At Qonto, I traveled to Paris every three months for a few days. For some people that would be a downside, but for me it was a highlight. I loved catching an Air France flight from Berlin to Charles de Gaulle on a random Wednesday and spending a few days in France. Walking around the beautiful office in Pigalle, then ending the day with a glass of wine in Belleville. I’ve always been passionate about languages, and I had started learning French. Not as fast as I wanted, but I was getting there. And then, just as that routine started to feel normal, I decided to change it.
Everything moved quickly. One day I opened LinkedIn, saw a job posting from GetYourGuide, and after a few weeks (and seven interviews) I had an offer with a salary bump that felt hard to replicate where I was.
Today I’m saving more money, but my lifestyle hasn’t changed much. I’m still living in Berlin, and I’m happy here, but I travel less and I’ve lost the built-in motivation that came from those regular trips and the French I was learning alongside them.
I assumed that earning more would mean I could simply “buy back” that part of my life. Technically I can still visit Paris and I can still learn French, but without a reason baked into my routine, it’s harder to sustain.
I’ve thought about what it would have looked like to stay at Qonto, and I’ve talked about it with a few former colleagues. At the same time, I’m trying to be honest with myself: nostalgia plays a role, and the trade-offs are more complex than just money vs. culture.
Engineering challenges
More importantly, when I ask myself what kind of job I want long-term, I still don’t have a clear answer.
I’ve been working as an Android developer for a while, starting in September 2019 with my first internship in Shanghai. I still enjoy building things, but I’ve noticed that pure Android work doesn’t excite me as much as it used to.
I’ve also had the chance to do a bit of backend development. I don’t understand every detail yet, but I like what it does to my perspective. It forces me to think in systems, not just screens.
So what kind of career do I want? Sometimes I look at colleagues who are five years older than me. Many are senior engineers, some are staff, and the biggest difference I notice is not a completely different job, but stronger judgment, more leverage, and more consistency. That’s encouraging, but it also raises a question for me: what do I personally want to grow into?
So what are my own goals for the future?
Financially, I still want to hit my goals. But I also want a clearer feeling of progress than “shipping a small change in the corner of an app.”
There are roles I’d like to explore, such as Forward Deployed Engineer and Solutions Engineer. From what I understand so far, they involve less day-to-day feature coding and more interaction with clients and stakeholders. I still need to dig deeper, but over a 5 to 10 year horizon I can imagine enjoying that mix of relationships, occasional travel, and problem-solving.
I don’t mean that as a criticism of Android development or product work. There’s a lot of craft in it, and I’ve learned a ton from it. I’m just noticing that, for me, it may no longer be the only direction worth pursuing. I’d rather choose the next step based on long-term fit, not just another salary increase.
What about building a startup?
When I was studying engineering at university, I thought that would be my path. I’ve read about entrepreneurship for years. I have a lot of respect for founders, not because they’re “better,” but because starting something from scratch takes an unusual mix of courage, endurance, and clarity.
The upside is obvious: the chance to build something meaningful, the personal growth, and potentially a big financial outcome. But I’m also starting to be more honest about the other side: I’m not sure I currently have the courage to go all in.
For a long time I assumed that my twenties were for experimenting, and that by 30 I’d be sure what I wanted. Now I’m 29, and I can see that some insecurities haven’t disappeared. If anything, they’ve evolved.
I don’t know whether that will change in 2026, but I want to keep the door open. I’d like to believe that I can get more deliberate about it instead of waiting for a “magic moment” of motivation.
The scariest part is financial. The idea of losing a stable salary is intimidating. How do you live through the first months, or years, of entrepreneurship? I can rely on savings, and Germany has a safety net, but the real question is whether I’m willing to take the risk, not whether the math works on paper.
What amount of savings would make me feel ready? And is it really about savings, or are there other things holding me back?
Hopefully writing about it will help me uncover a few of those stones.