My entry to the field was a bit odd. I’ve been a hobbyist since I was a kid, but I never wanted to enter the files professionally, at least not the way I did. I knew I wouldn’t like it.
But my immediate post high school plans fell through I spent a year working crappy jobs until I eventually figured “you know I bet I could get a job as a software developer if I tried”. It surely would do a lot better for paying the bills.
Nowadays I mostly tell people: I didn’t get into programming for the money, but that’s sure as hell why I entered the industry.
Of course, it looks like my little stint is over, but I don’t know what to do now. On paper it’s the only thing I’m qualified for that’s not unskilled labor.
I stopped caring about industry trends and hype years ago. I was able to get away with it by coasting on what I did know for years, but otherwise I’ve been very narrow (not really true, but in the context of the job market it is). Funny enough this was somewhat on purpose as I was planning to leave anyway, but I thought I had a couple more years than I did.
On top of that, the jobs I still see seem want want increasingly obscure specializations I don’t have. I haven’t had a job for over half a year, and there doesn’t seem to be any sign of that changing. The recruiters dried up a while back and I’ve only had sparse interviews, which have been some of the most antagonistic I’ve ever had.
It’s not any particular “type” of company either. Both the tech profit center companies and the tech cost center companies don’t want me.
But my immediate post high school plans fell through I spent a year working crappy jobs until I eventually figured “you know I bet I could get a job as a software developer if I tried”. It surely would do a lot better for paying the bills.
Nowadays I mostly tell people: I didn’t get into programming for the money, but that’s sure as hell why I entered the industry.
Of course, it looks like my little stint is over, but I don’t know what to do now. On paper it’s the only thing I’m qualified for that’s not unskilled labor.