Andre Kruk starts Tech Wizards in Wellington after leaving IT job for mental health

Andre Kruk said his mental health improved when he started his business.

When Andre Kruk felt his adult life had lost its magic, he decided to change course.

The 28-year-old, who lives in Raumati South, said while he was making good money and comfortable in his IT work, his job was negatively affecting his mental health, and he wanted to get out of that rut.

“It really started to affect my mental health and overall happiness and contentment, and I kind of started to withdraw from life a little bit just because I wasn’t feeling alive.”

He said he realised he needed to rediscover his joy, and that wasn’t going to happen in his current job.

Kruk, who goes by the name Wizard Andre, said he decided to quit his job and go out on his own.

He started up Tech Wizards, offering affordable IT services throughout the Wellington region. It was, he said, a decision he doesn’t regret.

Andre Kruk in his wizard-themed car.

“I could feel my soul was almost like trying to guide me somewhere else - it was like a compass sort of saying, you can go somewhere else. And I was ignoring it for a while and that was making me really unhappy.”

He said taking that leap and leaving his job was scary, but it has worked out well and he “feels this aliveness that I hadn’t felt in a long time”.

Kruk said owning his own business is great because he is able to do his own thing, and he feels like he is helping the community.

“It feels like I’m being valued, and it feels like I’m really helping people, and I kind of see a bigger impact.”

He said a big part of his unhappiness came from feeling less than in a workplace hierarchy and being worried about discipline and meeting quotas.

Kruk said the idea for his business’ theme came from a childhood love of Harry Potter, and how as a child he wanted to grow up to be a wizard.

“I loved magic and Harry Potter, and I love the magic in life and that feeling of curiosity. It felt like I had started to lose that in my recent job where I couldn’t connect with that.”

Now, however, he feels reconnected with his inner wizard, and is living out his childhood dreams, one IT problem at a time.