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Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

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Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#1

Post by OulaX »

I've spent most of my teenage years tinkering around with programming, afterwards I spent 4 years pursuing my CS degree.

I worked as a tutor for 2 years, and a software engineer for 2 years.

Now, I got a job in a field that's not related to software engineering, let alone computer science, getting this job instead of a software engineering one has a lot of reasons and is not worth getting into to be honest.

Recently, I started to feel bad, really bad, because I was feeling like I've been slowly drifting away from software engineering, and all of the hard work I've made and the time I spent learning it is going to waste.

I want to start working on a side project but I no idea comes to mind!

Any tips to cope with this, what would of you done if you were in my place?

Re: Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#2

Post by bag_boy »

Why is it going to waste? Why do you need to build something right away?

I have meant plenty of folks with software engineering backgrounds who do other work.

If you’re not feeling passionate about software engineering at the moment, why force it? I suggest taking a break.

If you want to do a side project, let it come more naturally.

Re: Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#3

Post by OulaX »

bag_boy wrote: post #2

Why is it going to waste? Why do you need to build something right away? I have meant plenty of folks with software engineering backgrounds who do other work. If you’re not feeling passionate about software engineering at the moment, why force it? I suggest taking a break. If you want to do a side project, let it come more naturally.

That sounds hopeful, thanks!

Re: Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#6

Post by laveur »

I've been a software engineer for nearly 20 years now, and you know what I do when I hav the time? I blow glass. Honestly I enjoyed writing code much more when I was a teen and in college in my free time, but now that I do it 40 hours a week I need something else. Sure I have some programming projects I do outside of work. But they are needed for something else I help run. Besides now that I'm nearly 40, I have a house and family to look after. I barely have time to take care of those with my full time job.

Re: Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#7

Post by codingdave »

Education improves your capabilities even if you don't work directly on what you studied. I have a degree in Fine Arts. I spent many years as a coder, then moved into product leadership. My Art degree has helped every step of the way, as it taught me a creative process, how to look at the structure and details of how things are created, how to understand people based on what they create, and other such things that sound wishy-washy but did have a positive impact on how I approach software development.

So I would expect your CS education to likewise offer value in non-CS industries. You may have to put some thought into exactly what you learned other than the face-value bullets points in the curriculum, and then focus on how you can apply them to your new industry. But you don't need to feel that the work and time was wasted.

Re: Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#8

Post by austin-cheney »

Depending upon which technology they trained in most junior developers focus entirely on either how to write code or how to put classes together. The problem is that they are only focused on how to write code, not how to write applications. If you are practicing how to write applications then how to write the code is implicitly practiced.

If you have done this kind of work long enough you get burnt out on people constantly pushing bad suggestions based on trends to compensate for personal insecurity where those suggestions are unnecessarily complex. This results in hostility towards simplicity in favor of immediacy and comfort with great risk not visible until later when it can no longer be ignored.

Re: Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#9

Post by facialwipe »

Just think about how much better off you are than just about everyone you interact with in your daily life.

Then think about the objective fact that you’re unfathomably better off than just about everyone you’ll never interact with.

This is how I frame my world.

Re: Ask HN: Slowly Losing Interest in Software Engineering, should I be worried?

#10

Post by rasfuranku »

This is something normal that could happen in your career. Happened to me twice, first was young and broke, but somehow I managed to leave my hometown and went backpacking for six months, and I paid for the trip with the only skill I had and was also hating, programming, and ended up doing freelance through my whole trip, and helped me get back in track. The second time was two years ago, was burned out after a failed entrepreneurial attempt and with an impostor syndrome, took one sabbatical year, did a business boot camp, studied a lot, from the very basic, got another job, and got promoted to engineering manager one month ago. Just take your time to rest and educate yourself. Look at things from other perspectives and keep moving forward.
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