Exit Interview #7: Facing a blank slate in retirement when constraints are all you’ve ever known
Summary
Constraints had long been Rachel Garb’s livelihood. As a designer and middle manager in Big Tech, she reconciled user needs, stakeholder priorities, business goals, time and resource limitations, design standards, organizational considerations, and more — often by influencing without authority. After three decades, Rachel retired in 2023, craving more freedom and control. But once she had it in spades, she didn’t know what she wanted to do with it. She's still figuring it out, but three years in, she’s found new friends outside of tech, is more physically active than ever before, volunteers in her community, travels several times a year, and has completed a few big projects including publishing her first book. Tune in for a conversation about Rachel’s transition into retirement, including how she knew it was time, strategies that helped her move beyond the blank slate, and what she wished she’d known beforehand.
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