Leaving a Job I Loved

This post tells the story of how I landed on my first experience as a product designer at a startup back in 2011 and why I left.

The company was Peixe Urbano, and I saw it grow from 200 to 1,000+ employees, acquisitions, failures, new products, and crafted every kind of pixel from emails to mobile apps, but after two and half years, I decided that it was time to move on.

Let's Get Back to 2011

It all started when I decided to reply to a question on Quora, where someone asked who were the best designers in the area. Long story short, I interviewed and got the job as the second designer on the team.

Another interesting fact about this opportunity is that the founder had decided to hire some American friends to join and build the product team. Needless to say that my English skills were pretty bad at the time, but thanks to Google Translator and the patience of people in the team, I embraced this opportunity. I was able to quickly ramp up with the basics, becoming more confident over time.

The Opportunity

Even after growing to 1000+ employees, the product design team supported it all with only three people, which meant that we had to be scrappy sometimes or had to work many extra hours (sometimes both).

Another fact that made it unique was that because Peixe had expanded to other South American countries, by 2012, we had a pretty diverse product team between Brazilians, Argentinians, Chileans, Colombians, and Americans. I had never traveled out of Brazil at that point in my life, so it was just a great way of experiencing other cultures and knowing the differences that drive people.

Getting Out of My Comfort Zone

My experience at Peixe was life-changing, and it opened many doors and new ways of thinking about my career. After two and half years, I felt like the company had a stable and scalable product design team, and It felt like my contributions to the company were accomplished.

It was also about getting out of my comfort zone. Back then, I had decided that my next career step would be pursuing getting a job in another country and hopefully live there for 2-4 years. I also started to get comfortable speaking English, so it felt like it was time to invest in this new path.

Afterword

Quitting a job you love is not easy. Getting a visa and move to another country is even more challenging. There's anxiety, fear of failure, logistics, frustration, but these are all things that will pass, or you'll handle, sooner than you think, once you make the first step.

It is also important to acknowledge that I'm privileged to have had this kind of opportunity and could afford to take on risks.