2 months ago, I turned down a guaranteed return to Google to attempt a hard pivot. Last week, every interview process in my pipeline fell through. Here's what I'm doing about it.

Google was the safe move: I was thriving there before I quit to write BCtCI, and I could have joined some genuinely interesting teams (like one that manages exabytes of cloud storage).

But I'm fixated on something else. To me, the most interesting work is happening in AI startups pushing the limits of agentic engineering, and I want to be part of that.

The challenge with this pivot is that I have neither startup experience nor previous AI roles.

I had a few companies in the pipeline, so I stopped talking to new ones. But then all of these fell through, and it's like I'm back at square one.

After reflecting on where to go from here, I'm doubling down.

Here's what I'll change.

1. I'm going to take system design prep seriously and start doing mocks. I'm glad I built Isomux, as it opened the right doors for me, but I was so absorbed in it that I half-assed my prep.

2. I'll get someone to coach me through how to position myself for this pivot (DMs open 👀). I believe all the necessary pieces are there, with projects like the Wall Game showing depth in AI, but I'm not conveying them properly.

3. I'll focus on what I really want. When I started my search, the algo pushed my post and I got 30+ DMs with leads. I was so happy, but I didn't know which ones to pursue. It took time to figure out exactly what I want: a top AI startup/neolab working on either "Agents for X" or agentic tooling.

4. Finally, I'm settling down. I've been nomading because I anticipated having to move once I found a job, but job searching from coffee shops and interviewing from hotels with questionable wifi, all while building Isomux, is not sustainable.

I'll keep sharing my progress - connect if you want to see me pull this off. I'm just getting started!