TikToker who retired as an engineer at age 30 warns: Co-workers ‘are not your friends or family’

June 8, 2022

A former software engineer has warned TikTok users that the people they work with are “not your friends” and “not your family.”

Frank Niu, who worked with big-name companies like Netflix for a decade, answered a follower’s question on TikTok last week about whether being slow to trust others is helpful or harmful when developing relationships with co-workers.

“The people you work with are not your friends,” said Niu, who retired from his software engineering career at the age of 30. “You shouldn’t blindly go trusting others and telling them information that you don’t need to, especially if that information could hurt you down the road.”

Niu also said they should remember that “when you gossip with a coworker… they’re also gossiping with others about you.”

“The people that you work with are not your family,” Niu continued. “You can’t go blindly trusting them. Most people put on some sort of work persona that’s not who they actually are. Keep in mind that at the end of the day, everyone is looking out for themselves.”

Right after graduating from university, Niu started working for IBM in 2014, where he earned a salary of $74,000 and received a signing bonus of $5,000, he told Business Insider. He then worked for Dwolla in San Francisco before being hired at Credit Karma in 2016. Niu finally worked for Netflix as a senior site reliability engineer before his early retirement.

“These days I make videos on TikTok where I give advice on working in tech and making money,” Niu said. “My account started off as a competition between me and my wife; she challenged me to get more followers than her. Now I have over 500,000 followers and over 1 billion views on the platform.”

Niu admitted that he does not earn from being a content creator on TikTok since he “didn’t believe in the product or companies” and does not “need the money right now.” He also hosts a podcast, “Frankly Speaking,” where he talks about his experiences with life, tech, finance and everything in between.

Featured Image via Frank Niu

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