Why I Left My High Paying Engineering Job In Corporate America For Bitcoin

This is an opinion editorial by Eric Podwojski, an account manager at Bitcoin Magazine.

Intro

December 2019 — I was sitting in my manager’s office getting ready to have a discussion about a possible promotion, year-end bonus and salary raise. At the time, I was almost two years out of college in my first high paying job out of school. I was working as a civil engineer designing gas pipelines outside of Washington, D.C.

My manager at the time was a well respected professional engineer with more than 15 years of experience. He slipped me a torn piece of yellow paper at the beginning of the meeting that stated “8.2% + $500 + Sr. Design Engineer.” That was my reward for almost two years of hard work and dedication at this engineering firm. I wanted to scream in his face but decided to calmly explain how a typical promotion salary raise is 10-20%, inflation runs at least 2% per year and the bonus is appreciated but not significant. His response was “meh,” and I left that meeting realizing this system I played into my whole life was designed to keep me down. I was ready to change that.