Resignation Letter - May 2020

Dear Manager,


I hereby tender my resignation for OrgX effective on 17th May 2020.

It has been my great pleasure to serve in OrgX for a year. Since day 1, I realized that OrgX is different from other companies. This is a product-focused organization that values engineering, rather than trying to please Wall Street at all cost every quarter. There is great camaraderie and belief that we will continue to lead the industry.

However, when I look back at my own contribution to OrgX and to the tech industry at the whole, I realize that I have failed to make any positive contributions. Whilst I am a valued team member and perform well according to our KPI, I have not been able to make any significant contribution to increase our effectiveness and productivity by pushing the boundary of what is possible.

In short, I have become a cog in the wheel treating symptoms rather than using my ability to think and solve problems faced both by OrgX and others in my industry.

To carry on means I am settling. That I am in Day Two. I am no longer the highly motivated engineer who wants to create the best products for the world, I no longer care about taking away friction in my colleagues' day-to-day work. I no longer dare to crest the next wave and clamber the next mountain, and would rather cross my arms and look back in satisfaction.

A Ship in Harbor Is Safe, But that Is Not What Ships Are Built For.

I sincerely hope that whomever is replacing my role will have the vision and drive to bring OrgX to greater heights.


Best regards,
Lee Hanxue

I write this resignation letter not because I plan to quit from my current organization in one year's time. Neither am I writing this letter to get some negotiating leverage. I write it because a couple of years ago, I realized that life is finite. Anything broken can be fixed, but time wasted cannot be regained. I have never heard of anyone on their death bed regretting not doubling their net worth. But I have always heard of regrets of not taking the shot, giving up their childhood or lifelong dreams, not being kinder, not spending more time with their loved ones.

I do not want to work just to pay bills, or to keep up with the Jones-es. There are many options in life to pay bills, to feed the family and so on. And I do not want to squander the limited time I have to please my bosses and wait for my monthly paychecks.

Even if I fail, I would have the satisfaction of putting all my heart and soul to solve problems in my industry, and make the world just that little bit better.

These do not need to be novel creations but could be as mundane as:

• shortening the product life-cycle by 30%
• implementing a continuous delivery pipeline for AI inferencing solutions
• preventing certain types of failures from occurring
• creating a higher level of abstraction for engineering teams, resulting in >10% increase in productivity
• implementing AI inferencing framework at hardware level (e.g. Tensorflow on FPGA)
• implementing TFX
• higher AI workflow utilization (e.g. slurm)

I had the opportunity to work in one of the best company in the world. My regret was not about quitting my job, but not quitting early because as good as the company was overall, business changes means there are no longer opportunities for me to push the boundary of technology to increase more business value. I do not wish to repeat the same mistake twice.