Ask HN: Am I the only “unlucky” software engineer?

Why? It's a pretty valuable piece of information.

Except I upvoted it, I am not offended by it, but didn't bother writing out a "defence" for my view, I have no desire to change those assumptions.

I do not consider myself particularly creative, no, if I was "highly creative" people would pay for my paintings and other artworks, as it stand, I'm lucky to even get invited to display them anywhere. I paint abstract acrylics, enjoy photography, program fun little projects and games, sculpt and print 3d models and build other inventions and electronics, pursue research that has no obvious practical application, the normal stuff that able people do, but I don't feel entitled to do so at my job, I work my job so I can afford to have my hobbies.

The vast, vast majority of jobs are, by their very definition, stuff that is hard or un-fun enough that you _HAVE_ to pay someone to do them.. They're the category of human endeavour that are needed (some more than others) and that people ALSO don't want to do anyway.. I'd pay money for the privilege to program _MY_ programs.. People will sing, dance, play music and write stories and pursue all these lovely, meaningful things, not because they are incentivised by money but because they WANT to, HAS to do them. And yes, there's some small fraction that get to find that their life calling coincide with their paid job, but setting the bar at that level, that is setting yourself up for failure and dissapointment.

I know, you're reading this as if I'm saying you should accept shitty jobs you hate, but read my other comments first.. I'm not saying that. I'm saying you should find an acceptable job, and find something to like about it. You need to at least give it a chance before getting offended that it's not everything you so rightly deserve.

OP asked a question, I gave an answer as best I could, it's not the one true answer, but it is my point of view, how I perceive what he has written through the lens of my own experiences and values. It is not a critique of him as a person, but of the way he comes across, and hopefully, he can use that, together with the other comments, to synthesize some kind of model that he can use to better understand his situation.

But seriously man, take a job, don't make demands, accept a non-senior position, go back to doing your thing, which I assume is developing, after you've been there long enough to show them that you got the stuff, tactfully negotiate new position and salary when you've done that, is well liked and trusted and the opportunity (yearly salary negotiation or whatnot) comes around.

Thanks for the link. That link says it is a the median salary for "Software Developers, Quality Assurance Analysts, and Testers".

I thought the OP meant the median salary for the entire American population.

Sounds like a part is you being disagreeable, and a part is the usual dysfunction of IT companies.

> It's enough to ask a simple question as "why ?" that they freeze.

At some moment "because I told you so" needs to be an answer, otherwise you will have 10 engineers with 10 completely different opinions on how things should be done, and you will never produce anything. They might be thinking "is every decision going to be a difficult fight with this guy?"

> Hire for boring maintenance.

Managers follow their selfish incentives just like the developers do. No manager wants "overseeing the boring maintenance" in their CV. That's why no one will hire you for such role, even if it is desperately needed.

> Sometimes they throw at you some shitty challenge, exactly like a school exam where they test your memory and obedience, but not your abilities

Something makes me guess you fail pretty hard at anything involving obedience...

> Sometimes they talk so much about fit fit fit, but they don't even bother with a personality or IQ test

Yes, it means that they are looking for someone they like.

> they are looking for the exact set of skills. A clone.

Yes. No one wants to spend their money on your learning.

> Why hire a senior person as a poster, if you're not willing to be challenged and listen to different ideas?

You hire the senior person to hopefully code faster, and fix bugs faster. If you want to challenge people, you need to start your own company.

> Almost nobody seems to hire for potential these days!

Companies want to extract value from their employers as soon as possible. Because the employers often quit, especially after they learn something new and notice that their market value increased. It sucks for both sides.