What am I missing? I get work is first and foremost an exchange of labour for money, and not supposed to be fun. But aren't there more options I missed so far? I enjoy web scraping a lot and have used it to solve a bunch of real world problems my (ex) girlfriend or I had. I could conceivably work as a freelancer and have done so in the past as a psychology student but I really want to work on something as part of a team. I recently came across the "developer relations" role, i.e. representing the company at conferences and online, recording demos, writing technical blog posts etc.. it seems perfect for me (I prefer working with people), but I would assume they are looking for people who have a few years of experience already so they know what they're talking about?
EDIT: plus some of the most insufferable people I've met in my life were in undergrad CS classes or colleagues in SWE gigs
Modern tech doesn't solve problems that mean anything. After we made calculators, excel, 3d modeling, phones etc - the world wonder was complete. Now we're just trying to add all sorts of ways to get money from people for things they dont need, rent seeking a solution looking for a problem. It's all a about massive amounts of money, not actually solving a problem.
The most useful tech startup will be one that ends tech startups, and begins startups in the foundations of society. Agriculture, social culture, education, construction, governance, etc.
But, let's be honest, we like the money, and as much as we can complain about where it comes from and it's incentives, it's also why we're here.
I felt the exact same way. The truth is most jobs are CRUD or CRUD-like. Not just in tech, but in most professions. How many doctors see the exact same cases day in and day out? How many lawyers fill out routine legal forms? The truth is most professionals are not doing anything challenging or ground breaking and they are well overqualified. If you want fulfillment from your work then I recommend you start your own small business because it will challenge you in more ways than software engineering alone will. Either that or do what most of the population does and have 2.5 kids and a house with a white picket fence. It might come off as cliché, but life is what you make of it.
Better a challenge than living in corporate drudgery.
It’s ultimately up to the individual. OP can always quit mainstream society and join a monastery. I know someone who did just that.
All I can say is, if you go into a field you don't like, it will take a mental toll. My suggestion is to try applying to developer relations roles; they may want someone with more experience, but that doesn't mean that's all they'll accept. It's worth at least putting in applications to make yourself an option, and if they say no, then you're no worse off than you started.
In my journey, I'm currently trying to learn Unity as my "foot in the door" skill for applications (all my previous game dev experience has been with pure JS and Game Maker Studio, which no game dev company seems to be looking for), but I'll be applying before I really have experience with Unity anyway just to put my name on hiring managers' lists.
Good luck, friend; may we both find a fulfilling way to pay for the food we need to survive! :)
I'm probably biased by my own experience, but if you've only worked in fintech... please give tech a second chance! I worked at one of the most famous fintech companies in the world for my first few years in industry, and I absolutely understand how it can burn you out and disillusion you. But I assure you that switching to a medium-size tech company that builds open source products for developers really refreshed my perspective on tech.
I've been coding for 20 years now, since I was 12. I first got into programming for creative reasons, and every bit of coding I've done for myself in those 20 years has been game development or game related. It's why I got into programming, it's why I continued programming, it's why I got my degree in computer science. The only reason I didn't go for a game dev degree was because I'm not great at visual art and I assumed I'd fail the degree requirements over that. I just happened to choose the wrong game engine and language to learn all those years ago.
So I understand there will be crunch in game dev, but I'm fine with crunch as long as I can be creative during it. Coding to other people's uncreative specs is not worth the stress; coding to something I have creative input on would be.
The real creativity happens in indie game development and smaller studios, not the "churn the latest AAA game using starry eyed low paid 20 year olds" mills.
If you want to have creativity, either find a cushy and easy boring job and make the game of your dreams on the side, or find some small indie studio working on stuff that interests you.
Of course, if your mind's made up, you'll just have to realize this for yourself, through first-hand experience.
There’s a difference in the work being dull and the work environment being dull. I’ve had some of the best working times of my life building simple apps with a small team.
> I enjoy web scraping a lot and have used it to solve a bunch of real world problems
Web scraping is an extremely dull topic for me, but I would readily work on it again if I needed to. Good chance I’d end up enjoying it, since no doubt there are new techniques and challenges to overcome since last time.
What I think you’re missing is how dynamic and interesting even those entry level positions can be, and how quickly you may move up in position and salary. It sounds as if you like working with people, technical writing, leadership, and coding. That’s a very robust starting point.
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The specifics vary from person to person, but the first 5-10 years of your career tends to be the "find what you don't want to do for the rest of your life" phase. It's actually a good thing to realize that you don't want to do X; you have a strong data point (or several) of what you know to avoid for future jobs.
You know you like working with people (so you can tailor the job search towards in-office jobs). You like solving real-world problems (sometimes companies where tech is a single department vs the whole shebang are better for this -- tech-only companies tend to be a little navel-gazey about their own use but that's from an outsider, take with a massive grain of salt :>).
Apply to many different places. See if you can get contracting gigs if your life circumstances allow for it to "taste" different companies and get more data points. I wish you the best of luck.
You haven’t actually worked in tech though, right?
I would recommend getting a job in the field and at least trying it before you declare it dull and pointless. Personally I wasn’t crazy about a bunch of people that majored in comp sci either, but I’ve made a ton of friends through my career and worked on interesting and challenging problems and get paid pretty well to do it.
Maybe also consider going to therapy or talking to someone, it seems like you might just be depressed over your breakup, which is perfectly reasonable.
I have always picked jobs doing something I've enjoyed. I've had times where I got a bit sick of it, but most of my 20+ years of work have been getting paid to tinker with things I enjoy tinkering with.
Work doesn't have to suck. Keep looking. Find a job that interests you and find the fun in it. Keep your eyes open and switch when something better comes along.
Never switch jobs solely for more money. As long as you can pay the bills, work conditions and happiness are more important.
40+ years in electronics, from TV tx systems, RF systems, computer repair (pre-PC), electrical work, and mechanics as a bench tech, test engineer, mfg engineer, NPI engineer. Occasionally pushing bits in to board processors and PCs. Hacking h/w and s/w in odd ways. Later doing configuration control and change orders for tech companies working with tier 1 international factories. Worked with marketing, artists, IT, product mangers, purchasing, fabricators, contractors and spent ~ 4-8 years in meetings..Saw the rise of dilbert from spot on humorous, to disturbingly predictive, to not funny anymore as my job looked like it. Retired a few years ago, consulting a bit, enjoying playing with arduinos and at-tiny85s, and volunteering.