I’m sick of the mess of tooling, of the colleagues who code these giant spaghetti messes, I’m tired of standups. I’m tired of the codebase, and I don’t care about what we are building.
But most or all I’m tired of all the minutiae. I just feel like what we are working on, and how we are doing it, is boring as hell. There’s no intellectual stimulation.
Is it time to move jobs, or time to move careers?
What other careers are good for burnt out developers?
I don't switch jobs much, but this is when I do. If I don't care about it, and I'm tired of the org and its practices, and the system is stuck in some way, I have to bounce. I'll just drag myself and the team/project/org down because my paycheck will only buy so much caring from me. We'll all be better off if I'm somewhere more satisfying and they fill my slot with someone who can muster more care.
The system I'm on now is important (to a lot of people, though not everyone) so my frustrations with it (tech debt, lack of proper sustainment over the years, poor project management) are things I can get past because I care enough to also tackle them and help improve all of those issues. If it was an unimportant web app, I'd probably be gone by now with the quality of this system overall.
So what qualities of a system would make you care enough to get past your other frustrations (which will exist on almost any project in almost any org with almost any team, to some extent at least).
I've switched jobs a few times in the past years as a SWE/architect and even did consulting for many years. I can't seem to recapture the enjoyment I had at the beginning (back in the 2000s), it's kinda all the same now. I'm also tired of stand-ups, Groundhog Day "retros" and generally appearing to be interested. I think the whole cloud thing has taken the fun out of coding for me in the last twelve or so years.
Also, if JIRA was a face, I'd fucking punch it.
Thought of teaching maths or computing. I love that shit, but society doesn't value that as it pays so little.
Seriously thinking about becoming a paramedic, maybe a coroner/ME... time is running out though. Getting old.
Edit: Also maybe a govt. IT job. It's less, but maybe the benefits are enough to balance out. Would be cool to fix up some crumby govt. software.
Unfortunately, at least in the US, there are very few other middle-class jobs that someone can get into without a lot of formal education and/or experience. Software dev is (or at least used to be) an extreme outlier in that regard, propelling people up the economic ladder after just a few months of boot camp. I think those days are over, so if you want a comparable quality of life, I think it will take a lot of reskilling and expensive education/credentials (both in time and diplomas) :(
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In the meantime though, I will say this: As a software person, I've found it MUCH nicer to work for smaller to mid-sized companies vs big corporations. The salary isn't as good, but the work itself can be way more meaningful and impactful – everything you do directly impacts the product and customers, vs being a tiny cog in an insignificant wheel. None of the smaller companies I've worked for had the time, patience, or resources for endless Agile crap, for example. The codebases tended to be of mixed quality (sometimes they were homebrewed crap, other times they were OK consultant-written code) but overall, it's very much "not minutiae"... you have way more power over small-biz software like that, and there's a lot of problems to solve since your teams tend to be much smaller and your resources much fewer. All the problems are yours, but you are also empowered to make all the solutions. It's a much more satisfying feeling than "OK, I delivered 14 points this week, hope that shows up on my next review."
I find this is the main culprit behind most career dissatisfaction. Spending 8+ hours a day working to build and support something you don't care about is a recipe for being unhappy.
I've turned down jobs that were more lucrative for jobs that I felt more personally compelled to participate in, because I felt the impact of the work would be more beneficial. On tough days, it's a pretty good motivator to keep my chin up.
If you enjoy software development, then finding a more personally compelling job might be the right call. If you truly don't like the process, outside of your current environment/employer, I'd say life is too short to spend it doing something you don't enjoy.
I don't really have any advice on the matter. I just thought it might be help you locate the kernel of your discontent.
So you might at least consider a different kind of programming - if you can figure out a way to get hired to do that.
Joining a neurodivergent support group has been great; meet some similar minds.
The other thing to consider is just letting this industry break your spirit. Only half joking—what's true is that a lot of the problem you have is in the expectations. If you want an authentic, intellectually satisfying experience where you only work on interesting things and don't have to put up with a bunch of bullshit every day, I agree that you're in the wrong business. But, I don't know where to refer you; I don't know of a job where those things aren't a problem. And the money and benefits of this job are pretty good, and you even get to work inside, out of the rain. So, you could just put in your time and live for the other 16 hours a day when you're not working (more if you can swing it). This is how people have gotten through life for thousands of years.
Why not just find a different seat and see if that improves your mood? Not every place is organized the same way, not every codebase is spaghetti.
I don’t know how deep you are in your career, but I’m at 20+ years and I’ve felt like this at least 4 or 5 times. I’ve never actually switched companies, but I’ve switched job’s within my company 3-8 times spring depending on how you want to measure a job switch.
It is odd that we treat time like it is the most worthless thing when it is the most valuable thing we have.
Buy a 3D printer, start some woodworking/furniture stuff, learn to weld. Dig a pond and breed koi fish.
If it's newer, you might just be burnt out and taking a step away from the stuff you hate for a while may be enough to regain your excitement and motivation.
* Move to a frontend job that is less chaotic. RoR jobs are relatively easy to find and some codebases are quite tidy. Plus, the framework moves slowly and there is little JS.
* Move to a backend job that uses an interesting technology, like Erlang, OCaml or Haskell. These technologies will provide some stimulation due to elegance and novelty.
* Pivot to a job in a different domain. Consider academic, industrial and national laboratories where you can leverage your coding experience.
My job has hard problems, chill people, and I care a lot about that we build.
We do have boring work and spaghetti code in places but to be honest, I unload all of that onto junior devs.
In companies there is often a lack of leadership, organization, communication, honesty, and skill. I became a software developer because I like building things in Rails, so that's what I am focusing on.
For you, I would highlight that there are other languages/frameworks out there which might help with your tooling woes - but everything else is the state of the industry.
I'm sure you are capable of switching careers and skillsets more successfully than I was, but for me, metaphorically speaking, after peering over the hedge, I came to be content with the color of the grass on my own side.
Split the difference and try a new stack/specialty.
I remember being burnt out and tired of all the shit and I decided to try a new stack/language and development got fun again. Then, I was able to get to company that also treated folks better. It didn't happen over night, but it really made me happier and in the long run I ended up making a lot more money.
If you can hang on for a while longer, try transitioning to a backend stack, to data engineering, to data science, to something else. Maybe even just doing full stack with a different framework at a better company.
Slightly longer reaction: find out what the actual problem is, get more context (you got any dependants?), are you in a position to trial-and-error? Is the job the problem or is it multiperson work that is the issue?
Repair and remain (2022) - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41226039 - 6 days ago (250 comments)
I focus on crypto most of the time, and sometimes robotics, AI or developer tooling. I mostly talk to startups about their tech and do due diligence to make sure they know what they're doing.
I read a lot of whitepapers and go to technical discussions at conferences to know where the industry is going to see where we should be investing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bxZuzDKoI0
"Pushing through friction" by Dan Na.
As in, I cannot care about the low value management BS that is eating my precious time on this planet.
Before you will make any significant changes in your life I highly recommend to take long vacations. It depends how severe the burn out is. Maybe you need 2 weeks, maybe 1 month, maybe 2 months will help.
Only you can answer that.
There's a ton of questions here we can't answer for you. Some places you might start:
1. Start living frugally. Most people "live up to their income". This creates the impression that you're trapped, because you have to keep making the same amount of money or more. But this isn't the case. If you're making an average fullstack developer salary you can live on a fraction of your income. That can give you a lot of options such as "take a job that pays less" or "take some unpaid time off" or in the long run simply "retire early".
2. In a similar vein, eliminate debt and any other obligatory monthly expenses you can. This especially includes housing expenses--if you can downsize to own a home outright, do that. Not having regular expenses means you don't need regular income.
3. Share your feelings with any relevant stakeholders in your life: your spouse if you're married, your kids. Any solutions you look for are going to have to include them so it makes sense to start collaborating with them on those solutions. Hint: Your boss isn't one of these people, even if they legitimately are your friend.
4. Talk to a therapist. Just as it's valuable to have input from stakeholders in your life, it's valuable to have input from outsiders who have no stake in what you do and can look at this more objectively. Additionally, if you're like me, you spent a lot of time learning about computers and science and math and other academic pursuits, and never spent any time intentionally learning emotional skills. In the same way you might seek a class organized by a teacher to learn a new programming language, you can seek out someone to learn emotional skills.
5. Try new things. Things outside your career and outside of your comfort zone. Things that are the opposite of what you're doing that you don't like--things that are unprofitable, physical, or outdoors. I think part of the problem with a lot of software folks is that they get stuck doing what they don't want because they never figure out what they do want. It may be that you don't know what you want to do because you haven't tried it yet.
I think pretty fundamentally, a lot of us got into this career because we thought it would make us happy. At this point, I simply don't believe happiness comes from a job for most people. Some people enjoy what they do for a living, but fundamentally it's the thing they're doing, not the fact that it's their job, that brings them happiness.
For me what the last few years have looked like is: stopping drinking, getting medicated for ADHD in a way that's geared toward making my life better not making me more productive (meaning, non-stimulant), diving deep into rock climbing which gets me physically active and outdoors, moving into a van (which is paid off) to remove all housing expenses, and doing fullstack development freelance so I have ample chances to take unpaid time off. I make less money, but I make more than I need. I'm working on some esoteric programming projects that have gotten me back to the things I liked about programming in the first place. I don't feel like I'm where I want to be, but at this point that feels hopeful, like I have goals I'm making progress toward.
Your answer probably doesn't look like mine, but don't be afraid to dream of something equally as outlandish-sounding if it sounds appealing; the reasons you feel like you can't do something may be less critical than you think.
Or medicine. More bureaucracy, but perhaps more intrinsically rewarding.
If you've already got significant savings, you can either use the runway to launch your own startup or even just buy an already profitable business that makes enough money to pay for your living expenses.
I'm not sure I'd suggest switching to a different job if you hate all of the bullshit around corporate programming because you'll probably hate all of the bullshit around whatever other job you pivot into as well. If you own the company, you can choose to just not do all of that agile/waterfall/scrum/whatever bullshit and to build whatever you want built assuming you can make enough revenue or investor funding from it to make it financially viable.
[0]: If you truly hate your job and/or insist on looking anyway, I'd recommend looking until you burn out on job interviews and dealing with the rampant spam and fake jobs polluting the job boards. If you get an offer worth accepting before that, that means you've won the lottery. If you don't, stop your search until the market improves or you feel like trying it again. My own experience being forced into a job search in this market against my will[1] has strengthened my own resolve to get the hell out of employment so that I don't ever have to deal with job interviews ever again.
[1]: Specifically, I was laid off from a great job that I was very happy at where there was very minimal corporate bullshit to worry about because their client cancelled a project that I was supposed to be working on. The company didn't have anything else for me to do.
Why not hardware?