![\"Harvard,](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-133185817,imgsize-276968,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg\" "\\"Representative")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\nFor a decade, she worked. A Harvard degree and an IIT background, stints at Razorpay, Microsoft, Dunzo and Unacademy; she had the kind of r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that recruiters would simply reply to within hours. But a few months ago, she walked away from it all! And this time, she is not rushing back to a full-time job.\u201cI\u2019m not in a hurry to go back,\u201d Charmie Kapoor wrote on X (formerly Twitter) as she reflected on quitting her 9 to 5 job.<\/p>\n Kapoor didn\u2019t quit on a whim. Her decision wasn\u2019t dramatic either. She made a strategic decision to transition. \u201cIt\u2019s been a few months since I left my full-time job. I\u2019ve worked for about a decade, had the savings and privilege, so I told myself that was reason enough. Last time I took a few months off, I knew I\u2019d eventually join a full-time job again. This time it feels different.\u201dAccording to Kapoor, the first change in her life was the absence of a salary message. She spoke about how the money used to be an external validation of sorts. \u201cThe first thing to get used to was not seeing the salary message come in. There\u2019s something very comforting about watching a number show up which indirectly tells you that you\u2019re doing fine.\u201dBut along with that, something else went missing too. The calendar, meetings, commute and everything else. \u201cOn the flip side, not having a calendar is liberating.\u201d<\/p>\n During the first few weeks after quitting, she decided to give herself some time. She would wake up and slowly figure out how to spend the day. But that wasn\u2019t as tough as one would assume. In fact, that\u2019s the time when she actually started living. \u201cI also started trying things I never got to do with a job, just to see. I finished some personal projects that had been sitting around. Helped founder friends with design, for fun more than money. Got curious about design outside screens, in physical spaces. Started working out every single day. Ran a little mango toast delivery in the city. Hosted many friends who stayed with us for months at home. Tried to give more of my time and energy to giving back, in whatever ways I could,\u201d the woman said.<\/p>\n Once Kapoor quit her job, she realised how her job involved a lot more than the actual work she was paid to do. From aligning her mornings with work hours to commuting, attending meetings and doing everything in between, she realised her 9 to 5 job really required more time and energy than that. \u201cWhat surprised me is how much of a job I never noticed I was doing just to get through a job. Commute, meetings, the gap between one thing and the next that you fill without thinking. You don\u2019t feel that structure while you\u2019re in it. And once it\u2019s gone, you start asking questions about things you never used to think twice about,\u201d she said.The whole journey also prompted her to think about how different people find purpose in life. She wondered how one would really live if life hadn\u2019t come with a built-in meaning.\u201cPeople have been answering that for a while now, and it mostly breaks into three camps. Nihilism says there\u2019s no inherent meaning to life, so just keep doing what comes your way. Existentialism says there\u2019s no inherent meaning to life, so build your own and take it seriously. Absurdism says there\u2019s no inherent meaning to life and that\u2019s fine, so just do what you feel like doing today. I\u2019ve spent most of my life as an existentialist without knowing the word for it. Pick a goal, care about it more than is reasonable, try to \u2018win\u2019. That\u2019s probably what made me ambitious in the first place,\u201d Kapoor reflected.She felt herself sliding towards absurdism. \u201cIt\u2019s a strange thing to watch happen to yourself.\u201dNow that she has quit her job, her days look different. She goes for a swim at 2 pm. She has the liberty to work when it feels like it. There is ample time to have long conversations at the dining room table. And finally, she can do things that she is genuinely interested in. \u201cComing back to why I think this time is different, why I\u2019m not in a hurry to go back to a 9-5.\u201dThe woman wrapped up the post by sharing how one of the \u2018hottest startups\u2019 in the world reached out to her. But this time, her response was different. \u201cIt sounded like the perfect thing to do on paper \u2013 a few years ago, I would have wanted that job so badly I\u2019d have talked myself into anything to get it. And yet, it didn\u2019t ignite me the way I expected. On paper, it checked every box, but I was more excited by the possibility of continuing to make things on my own terms,\u201d she said.For now, Kapoor’s off to pickleball at 5pm. Maybe that\u2019s the point. Maybe the real career move is realising that you get to decide what counts.<\/div>\n For a decade, she worked. A Harvard degree and an IIT background, stints at Razorpay, Microsoft, Dunzo and Unacademy; she had the kind of r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that recruiters would simply reply to within hours. But a few months ago, she walked away from it all! And this time, she is not rushing back to a full-time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11610,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11609","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-31"],"magazineBlocksPostFeaturedMedia":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","medium_large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","1536x1536":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","2048x2048":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-small":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-small-tall":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-small-square":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-small-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-medium":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-medium-masonry":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-large":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg","blogsy-wide":"https:\/\/koshalsambada.in\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/she-quit-her-9-to-5-after-a-decade-then-a-top-startup-offered-her-a-job-but-she-said-no.jpg"},"magazineBlocksPostAuthor":{"name":"admin","avatar":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/8709732a479614e7a8aa24d3eb1b239f30dc6d90c61464ed495001e7a469d856?s=96&d=mm&r=g"},"magazineBlocksPostCommentsNumber":"0","magazineBlocksPostExcerpt":"For a decade, she worked. A Harvard degree and an IIT background, stints at Razorpay, Microsoft, Dunzo and Unacademy; she had the kind of r\u00e9sum\u00e9 that recruiters would simply reply to within hours. But a few months ago, she walked away from it all! 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The initial days of not working<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
9 to 5 doesn\u2019t end at 5 pm<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n
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Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"