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I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

jamesrainbows.medium.com

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Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#21

Post by mg »

The headline caught my eye because I love software development. And I thought "Yay, let's see what better thing they found". Then I stumbled at the given reasons:

    splitting up frontend and backend development,
    loading a dependency for every problem at hand,
    microservices and the explosion of frontend frameworks
It is not as if you have to do that.

I write a lot of software and I do the full stack, have zero dependencies, don't use microservices or frameworks.

I enjoy doing it and getting happy emails from users every day.

My suggestion if you love coding: Create your own world which is exactly as you like it.

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#22

Post by johncessna »

I think he's setting up some false choices here. Also, when I look at the interests list, 'Tech evangelism' was the first thing I thought of, not kitchen helper.

I'll also argue that after 10 years as a software engineer, if you're still just putting buttons on a page or waiting for next feature to show up on your queue, you're doing it wrong. Software engineering contains a large range of disciplines. You don't need to pick tech stacks, write code all day, or specialize in radar wheels.

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#23

Post by Xophmeister »

savant_penguin wrote: post #15
ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #4

I really think people who leave software engineering altogether mostly failed to find a company that respects engineers/pays well. If you are good at the algorithms interviews, you can make ~400k with 5 to 8 years of experience. Do that for a decade, and with some saving and basic investing, you are basically done working. On the other hand, fail to pass the algorithms interview, you are essentially stuck at 140-170k…

I wish I was stuck programming for 140k

Indeed... I'm beginning to believe that I exist in an alternate universe (colloquially known as "Europe") where insane software engineering salaries aren't normalised.

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#24

Post by bigtech »

I see agile as the problem here. Before agile, I would essentially 'own' pieces of the code, so I was committed to making it maintainable. Now, it's all just pieces and parts, and I'm not responsible for nearly as much, which make me fungible, and in general is dispiriting.

As a side note, I question the author's appeal to Marx as an authority.

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#25

Post by Mikeb85 »

What a non-article. Author is burned out by modern corporate software development so is taking some time off to code for fun. I'm going to go out on a limb and say he becomes a freelancer or does a small startup. Also, the fact he's able to get out and do nothing for a while is testament to just how well software developers are paid (also makes his reference to Marx somewhat ironic).

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#26

Post by pixelgeek »

It sounds like coding isn't the issue and its more a problem with the bureaucracy of large organizations and projects.

Those are indeed thorny issues that many people deal with and if he can find a way to still code outside of that environment then it seems like a good plan for them. I know I couldn't work in an environment like that.

There is one issue that they mention

> It comes down to a simple observation. Everything is chopped up into tiny parts making us into experts of radar wheels instead of a whole car.

I see this in a lot of environments like Vue, React etc. They all seem to me to be built by and for large organizations/groups and not a solution for single developers or small groups.

There are a lot of tools and libraries that I would love to try but they seem to be 'out of scope' for me.

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#27

Post by davesque »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #4

I really think people who leave software engineering altogether mostly failed to find a company that respects engineers/pays well. If you are good at the algorithms interviews, you can make ~400k with 5 to 8 years of experience. Do that for a decade, and with some saving and basic investing, you are basically done working. On the other hand, fail to pass the algorithms interview, you are essentially stuck at 140-170k…

There are a lot of ways that this comes off sounding like bullshit advice a la "make $300k a week with this one simple trick after taking my course" style advertisements. There are a million things that could go wrong over a ten year period with your perfect plan. I think there's a heavy survivorship bias among those who've managed to execute this kind of exit from work life.

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#28

Post by beamatronic »

hellisothers wrote: post #17

“ For instance, I could be fulfilling any of these roles: …kitchen helper…” Has developing software really gotten worse in the last 10 years, have expectations gotten higher, or what? I’ve been around 20 years and (anecdotally) for me it’s better than it ever has been. I’m a mobile developer and not a web dev though, how much does language matter in job satisfaction?

In the olden days, being a web developer might have meant pushing your PHP files to your server using rsync or SFTP and you were done.

Now a days, being a web developer means you run a Jenkins job to webpack your 1,000 JS libraries and deploy your React Docker container to multiple clouds.

Edit: Not to mention the legal team has to sign off on your cookie compliance strategy

I totally see the article's point about being alienated from your labor.

Re: I am getting out of software development after 10 years of coding

#30

Post by throwawaysleep »

ldjkfkdsjnv wrote: post #4

I really think people who leave software engineering altogether mostly failed to find a company that respects engineers/pays well. If you are good at the algorithms interviews, you can make ~400k with 5 to 8 years of experience. Do that for a decade, and with some saving and basic investing, you are basically done working. On the other hand, fail to pass the algorithms interview, you are essentially stuck at 140-170k…

> Every job feels the same, pays the same, and really doesnt need you, you are a cog.

I find this provides me with a certain freedom. If I’m tired, I can just not do something. I am freed from pressure and high expectations as the worst possible outcome is I get fired and end up in the exact same type of place.

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