I left my $130K job at Lyft and became a barista. Here's what it taught me.

• Chris Jereza left his well-paid job at Lyft after three months and became a barista. 
• He has explored different paths, including vlogging for BuzzFeed and working as a software engineer. 
• The 25-year-old shared what he's learned along the way with Business Insider.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Chris Jereza, 25, a former software engineer at Lyft. The following has been edited for length and clarity. Business Insider has verified his identity, former employment, and earnings.

I studied computer science at the University of California, Berkeley, but didn't graduate because I got offered a job at Lyft, one of five companies I'd interned with.

Lyft was one of my dream companies to work for. I received a pretty good offer — an annual salary of $130,000 and a $50,000 sign-on bonus — so I decided to go straight into full-time employment.

A common Gen Z mentality is to think that college is a scam and that you need to learn by doing. I actually have no principles against college. If I feel like I need to return, I will; I just haven't had a reason to.

I ended up working at Lyft for about three months but left to get treatment for a severe medical condition. It was pretty life-altering; I got to reflect and start from scratch. I was no longer bound to this continuous career trajectory of being an engineer.

Over the years, I've gotten better at not attaching myself to a storyline I play in my head about how my life is supposed to go. I just want to make sure I'm doing something meaningful and important to me every moment, every month, every year.

I'm grateful for the break

There was actually a gap of several months between leaving Lyft and starting as a barista. During that period, I did some vlogging for BuzzFeed, but I no longer felt like I needed to sprint and get ahead in engineering. I was very grateful that I had enough of a financial buffer from my internships and from working at Lyft.

Most people can't abandon their main career and then work a minimum-wage job, but I knew I had this privilege, so I decided to explore my options.

Leaving Lyft gave me the time to figure out my values, what I care about, and what I want to do with my time. Then I realized that I wanted to do something crafty, and I like coffee, so why not learn how to create latte art? So, I became a barista earning $15.25 an hour.

The coffee shop I worked for was an artisanal café owned by a wholesome older Korean lady who roasted and selected coffee. This motivated me to learn more about coffee, so I explored the difference between where beans came from, brewing methods, and recipes.

In my spare time, I created content as a YouTuber, which allowed me to hone my filming and editing skills and explore other interests.

What I've learned along the way is that I'm a big fan of trying as many different things as possible, figuring out what I like, and then over time converging on something that really suits me, rather than picking something and trying to stick with it.

I still worry about where my career is going

At times, I think I'm constantly starting from scratch and that other people are further into their careers because they just stuck with it. It's natural to worry. But I practice mindfulness, try to cultivate self-awareness and realize that much of this pressure is compared to others and culturally conditioned into me.

But really, it shouldn't matter because, in a practical sense, I'm doing fine, and everything works out every time I take risks.

Another thing that I learned through that experience is that some people are hesitant to take what they consider to be a step down with a job like that because they're worried about being judged. But I didn't even mention my background when I was a barista. No one really cared, and it didn't come up.

Dealing with having a medical condition has taught me that there must be something outside work that determines the quality of my life experience. It made me question what makes me feel like I'm doing well. As a barista, my attention was occupied by something I felt was inherently satisfying — making a beverage for someone, doing something crafty, and slicing an avocado nicely.

It doesn't have to have some crazy purpose for me to enjoy it, and being a barista was really satisfying.

After six months, I left the barista job to work for BuzzFeed, where I helped with social media and blogging before I was laid off when the company cut jobs in 2023. Now I'm working as an engineer at a healthcare tech startup, which I think really suits me.

Do you have a tech career story to share? Contact this reporter at jmann@businessinsider.com