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

2 pointspekinb15y ago4 comments

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.

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.

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"?

2 pointspekinb15y ago4 comments

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"?

4 comments

4 comments · 4 top-level

tjr15y ago

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.

dwc15y ago

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 ;-)

veb15y ago

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.

tgflynn15y ago

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.

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