
Ask HN: I tired of web development. Should I move back to SDET? - Telichkin
I started my career as a Performance QA Engineer in a game development company. In Performance QA Team we were developing all kind of useful internal tools: log collectors and analyzers, reporting system, test management system, but I left the company because I wanted to be a &quot;real&quot; developer who&#x27;s shipping a &quot;real&quot; product for end users. So I moved to web-development.<p>I&#x27;ve read &quot;Code Complete&quot;, &quot;Clean Code&quot;, &quot;Extreme Programming Explained&quot; and thought that &quot;real&quot; developers solve interesting problems and write maintainable and high-quality code covered by unit tests. I was wrong.<p>&quot;Real&quot; development and &quot;real&quot; products are crap. When you develop an internal tool you do it because of necessity. In contrast, when you develop a new feature for a &quot;real&quot; product you do it because of a manager&#x27;s whim. After two years in web development and after reading HN I conclude that &quot;real&quot; development almost always goes together with inadequate deadlines, shitty requirements, and high level of stress. I&#x27;m one step away from burning out.<p>I want to change something in my career. Should I move back to Automation QA&#x2F;Programming of Internal Tools? Have you had the same problem in your career and what decisions have you made?
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ThrowawayR2
> _I 've read "Code Complete", "Clean Code", "Extreme Programming Explained"
> and thought that "real" developers solve interesting problems and write
> maintainable and high-quality code covered by unit tests. _

Remember that the people who wrote those books cut their teeth in the pre-web
days. It was a much different world back then; there was a huge incentive to
get things right the first time because patches were difficult to get to
users.

Jobs like the kind you describe exist but are uncommon; usually they can be
found in businesses that build tech products and platforms (software or
hardware) or in the FAANG companies. Given your background, I'd suggest
looking for a job at one of the games middleware companies if you haven't
soured on the idea of being a developer entirely.

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airocker
I think if you are in the critical path of any company or project, you have to
learn how to manage expectations and manage stress. It is a skill in itself.

