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I left my $195,000 tech job to open a wine bar. I work 12-hour days and don't have health insurance, but I've never been happier.
Nov 9, 2024
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Shanna Nasiri opened With Others, a natural wine bar in Williamsburg, earlier this year. Courtesy of Shanna Nasiri
Shanna Nasiri, 34, decided to leave her tech job when she no longer felt aligned with the work.
Earlier this year, she opened a natural wine bar in Williamsburg called With Others.
Nasiri said her prior tech work served her well as she became a bar owner.
I grew up in the Bay Area near Silicon Valley, and everyone I knew was in some variation of tech. I continued on that trajectory.
My first job was working for the corporate ventures team at Qualcomm. After that, I worked in semiconductors for a few years. Then, I went back to business school and got a job in product marketing for a regulatory technology startup.
I liked aspects of what I was doing. The perks were nice. I had full benefits. And there was the salary. I was making around $200,000 at the time I left, plus a bonus. I also got a lot of stock options.
I was working for startup companies, so I had the chance to be at the ground level, build teams, and craft messaging. I felt like I had an impact.
But I wasn't creatively fulfilled. I didn't like what I was doing. It didn't resonate with who I am. I was kind of embarrassed to tell people I did product marketing for regulatory technology startups. I felt like I was speaking a different language.
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