

Ask HN: I don't want to be a software engineer. Now what? - pekinb

I didn't start programming as a kid. I didn't write my first line of code until freshman year of college. Problem sets in [functional programming language] were fun and satisfying, then I found myself loving classes like discrete math, algorithms, and complexity theory, so I decided to major in computer science. When it was time to get a job, I had some offers for more money than I thought a 22 year old ever made, so I took one. But I don't love software engineering.<p>I know I'm lucky to have a job, and my salary lets me do all sorts of fun things. Furthermore, I have no idea what to do instead, so letting time pass at my current job seems like the best option. But I don't want to find myself with the same problem in 5 years.<p>So I ask you, HN: what should I do? Shut up and be grateful my 22 year old self has it better than 99% of the world? Have any of you found yourselves with this "problem"?
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tjr
Some software engineering jobs, in my opinion, are pretty awful. Some of them
are good, but not everyone meshes well with the project and/or team.

I was fortunate in that my first software engineering job was pretty awesome.
I subsequently moved around some, and got to experience some suboptimal
situations. Had I joined one of those engineering projects first, I might have
thought that all software engineering was hideous. But I knew there was
better; I had experienced it.

I don't know anything about you beyond what you've written here, but I offer
as a suggestion: maybe you just fell into a particularly bad or incompatible
software engineering job. There may well be other software engineering jobs
that you would enjoy a lot more. If you still think you enjoy "computer
science", you might consider applying for a different software engineering job
and see how it goes. It might get worse. But it might get better.

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dwc
Never shut up and be satisfied while you are not fulfilled. Keep your job for
now, save some of that money, and spend a portion of your non-work time
thinking and exploring what you would like to do with your professional life.
By the time you've figured it out, you may have saved enough money to make it
happen. Possible things based on what you've written above...

* Mathematics

* Doing something totally different in the software world

* Something else ;-)

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veb
I -was- in the same boat. I've been programming, and generally mucking about
doing constructive stuff since I was 12. When I went through by degree, I got
_so_ bored with everything. The way things were done, the people etc. I really
thought of becoming something silly like a florist - less bullshit.

In the end, I went back to what I loved to do, small side-projects. Having an
idea, and building that idea is the _best_ feeling ever.

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tgflynn
There's a huge amount of variation in the type of work that people who are
called Software Engineers do. Based on your interests one option is to look
for a job that involves more algorithm development and less large scale
software systems engineering. another is to pursue an advanced degree.

