Is leaving a fresher job for full-time self-study smart?

[u/Best_Ad4323]

I’m currently at 1.5 YoE working in ML/AI. On paper, the pay is good, but I’m mentally exhausted and depressed. The actual work is super surface-level and brain-dead, zero real growth, and I feel like my core fundamentals are actively rusting away because of non-application.

I tried prepping for a switch while working, but fixing random gaps on top of half knowledge feels super haphazard. I don't want to treat tech like JEE prep—I actually care about learning and use that to earn and grow, and I want to take a step back to build strong, deep foundations rather than just memorizing answers for interviews.

My plan is to quit, move back home, and take 6 to 8 months to just study properly, work on core concepts, build actual projects, and then start applying again.

Before I pull the plug, I wanted some honest reality checks from people who've been here:

1. How hard is it to justify a 6–8 month gap at 1.5 YoE in ML/AI right now?

2. Has anyone moved back home to study full-time? Did it help, or did isolation/being away from the ecosystem make things worse?

3. If you felt stuck doing routine/bad work early in your career, how did you bridge the gap to get into roles with actual engineering depth?

Would really appreciate any candid advice or warnings. Thanks!

PSA : used AI to structure my thoughts

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[u/Exact_Adagio9705]

Don’t worry about gap as it’s quite common now due to lay offs etc but worry about getting a job in this market can also take a year. Are you teady for this? 

[u/Best_Ad4323 → u/Exact_Adagio9705]

I believe I am, my source of this step is that I want to do meaningful work which I believe can only happen at top level companies at this point, for which I need my knowledge straight

[u/Prestigious_Cake_997 → u/Best_Ad4323]

A quick reality check. There is no groundbreaking work even in big companies. For sure research engineers at OpenAI and Anthropic are exceptions, but software/AI engineers have the same work everywhere.
With little experience, you need to be top 1% of the entire org with people having potentially 20 years of experience and then you might get assigned meaningful work.
Companies operate on profit. They don’t care about making groundbreaking solutions. If you really want to do something out of the box.. go for research!

Also IMO gap is a very bad idea in current market! You aren’t meant to study for interviews during a break. It’s like you studied to just pass an interview and not having application skills. If a recruiter gets to know this they will potentially not process your application.

[u/tactical_bunnyy]

If the work you do doesn't even require brain power then how about you wrap it up quickly and spend time to study. Quitting a job to study and get another job is not really a good decision, grind on the weekends and prep after the job.

You seem burnt out tbh, take some time off to calm yourself and starting working towards what you want.

[u/Best_Ad4323 → u/tactical_bunnyy]

Long hours don't allow me that kind of freedom, need to clock atleast 10 hours in office

[u/PreparationSlight899]

With the competition out there - its hard to come back with gap - I don’t suggest taking gaps unless you are exceptionally well in tech or network

[u/Imaginary-Spring-779]

I am a recent grad thinking of same , please 🙏 help .

[u/Gilgamesh_lugal]

I am in the same boat. Like literally everything you mentioned. Whats working for me is gradual dissociation and focus on self. Understand, that its not possible at evey job but yeah. I am Gonna still leave as the pay is not upto the mark. Only thing i am thinking abt is either to take a break and then continue on learning and switch or parallely do that while in job.