Would you give up working for big tech giants to create your own path?

That’s what Kai Yuan Neo did.

In the latest episode of the Ctrl Alt Career podcast, Kai shares why as a Computer Science Master’s student at the prestigious Stanford University

He gave up prestigious opportunities with Silicon Valley favourites like Facebook and Alibaba Group.

And decided to chart his own career journey within the startup world - starting with joining Nuna Inc. in the early days, then throwing himself fully into entrepreneurship with founding his first company.  

He knew he was 
💡 Passionate about creating more access to education for others
💡 Curious about running his own entrepreneurship
💡 Great at teaching people coding and other skills

He experimented with these values and interests.

After founding and failing one startup, eventually he founded Rocket Academy in 2019, an online coding boot camp that helps people become software engineers.

It was the perfect-for-him career.

It brought together his personal mission, his interests, and what he was great at.

In the latest episode of Ctrl Alt Career, Kai shares his journey:

💡 His experience in job searching after graduating from Stanford

💡 Why he chose to pursue entrepreneurship over sexy big tech companies

💡 What it was like during the initial start of Rocket Academy

💡 And many more…!

One of the many things that struck me during our conversation was the importance of self-belief.

So many people would think him crazy not to pursue big tech after interning for them.

But he had a purpose.

And he went for it.

It didn’t come with failures.

But when it took off, the satisfaction was oh-so-sweet.

Intrigued to hear the whole story?

Check out Ctrl Alt Career on Spotify or click the link in the comments!

For the full video version -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PInSRuKGJ4I

Or via Apple podcast -
https://podcasts.apple.com/sg/podcast/42-kai-yuan-neo-from-coding-at-facebook-and-alibaba/id1526042551?i=1000625893990

Would love to hear what you think! 😊