Why Are Programmers Never HAPPY With Their Job?

[@yevanyevan7238]

Your channel should be renamed as "developer psychotherapy".. It's such a soothing, touching and empowering channel, which has personally answered my woes as a developer. I have been in such a terrible state, not having a good work life balance, working in a big tech company as a full stack dev. Work goes past 9 pm sometimes and some days we have worked on the weekends too to deliver critical releases. Even if it's not work, it still takes my weekends to learn new tech on both sides (front end and back end) and catching up with the fast moving tech on both sides is horrendous! But I thought it's the norm and "is expected" of the developers until I saw your channel, where I first saw a developer (yourself) voicing against such malpractices and burnout. Keep them coming Jamie!

[@YetAnotherChanel]

Glad to see you back

[@KineticCode]

I'm a relatively new dev, and I find that I really really crave growth and impact currently. I generally just grow outside of work studying the things that I want to learn. But the pay is OK and my boss literally never checks on me and I could literally hand him a stick figure drawing on a piece of paper as what i did the entire week and he would say "nice work". I work from home all the time and take breaks whenever I feel overwhelmed. It's a dream scenario for some people, but I don't like the feeling of doing nothing challenging especially so early in my career.

[@IacopoCutino00]

This is normal, clients or bosses doesn' t care about how challenging and rewarding is the job for you. They just want the same thing, fast. It night be a boring job...and it s all the same.

[@daisyduckpretty7060]

I’m looking for people like you. What kind of programmer are you? As in what are your skills? We are building a web app (first build) and it’s a startup.

[@sadboisibit]

During the first 6 years of my career, I was hyper-focused on growth and impact. I left my first job (of 5 years) to follow the senior dev to his new job so I could continue to learn from him along with working with his mentor. However, that all changed when ~the fire nation attacked~ the company dropped our ability to work hybrid/remote and 2 weeks later removed my (and only my) ability to work flexible hours (6am - 3pm). My desires quickly changed to growth and work-life balance. Within 3 weeks I moved to a new company that offered similar opportunities for growth and a better work-life balance. I'm pretty sure as I grow older (and eventually have children) my desires will change to work-life balance + benefits. I wouldn't argue that my experience has probably made me a bit jaded but from what I've seen companies don't care about your impact. From my manager all the way up to the CEO they all told me I was the most impactful and driven developer they'd ever worked with and even though I was direct and clear about feeling dissatisfied with their policy changes I was simply going to have to accept my new reality. I'm now a few months into my new position and although I've already started to impact the way we build our products I'm noticing that I no longer derive any satisfaction or assign any value to my efforts. At the very least not in the same way that I used to.

[@HealthyDev]

Hey Kyle sorry to hear you’ve had some rough times lately. It sounds like your priorities are shifting and you’re aware of them though. I hope this year you’re able to let go of some of the things you mention may not be as important right now, and that brings you some peace.

[@brianmoeller3539]

I think this just made me realize I have a unicorn for a job. I've worked for a utility company for 25yrs. I'm a senior developer, make plenty, have numerous growth paths (if I want them), drive direction across a multitude of projects and my work/life balance is up to me. I was originally unhappy with the implementation of Agile, but I do believe the company is trying really hard to improve the process through constant feedback and refinement. Sometimes the whole "Grass is greener on the other side" can blind you from a good thing. No job is perfect and I do have periods of frustration, but it eventually passes and I'm back to loving my job again.

[@El3ctr0Lun4]

I know people who would say that still being a senior after 25 years of experience is a massive red flag. As opposed to something like a principal, or distinguished engineer, or CTO etc. I don't have that opinion though, as I've worked with senior engineers who were in their 50s, and they were happy in their career and just not interested in constantly advancing - their focus was on their life outside of work, and while at work they did their job well.

[@brianmoeller3539]

@@El3ctr0Lun4 I understand what you are saying. If you look at the resume with no context, you could draw a conclusion about the developer being suspect. I started my career at this company right out of college with no programming experience. It was the days of "web masters" and animated gifs all over websites. I found I really enjoyed working on the web and self-educated myself with basic front-end development. I moved through the years learning new languages (ASP, ASP.NET, C#, Perl, Python, JAVA). I very much enjoy working in the code and taking a technical path. I've been asked if I wanted Team Lead positions, but that didn't interest me. Work-life balance has been my focus since my kids came along. I get 6 weeks vacation, full remote work, flexible work schedule and a laid back team / team lead. This is why I've been here so long :)

[@El3ctr0Lun4]

@@brianmoeller3539 Honestly, stories like yours are a breath of relief. In a lot of companies people are expected to move up the latter, and they often get promoted to the level of their incompetence. For example, a great engineer who's being pushed into management may just not be a good manager, and may be miserable because of it. I also hope to continue staying technical for as long as possible. Thanks for sharing.

[@MrRytiux]

I have a few years of experience in software development, so I haven't had much time to be picky about jobs, but the ones I've had the 2 main points have been Benefits and Work-Life Balance. I've never felt really attached to having a big impact while working for other people. I think I would like to achieve the impact myself someday. Growth did seem to come pretty naturally in the technical side due to being newer and having good senior colleagues, but I'm feeling the social side has been neglected due to not focusing on it, I will need to work on that. With Benefits being my main focus at this stage in the career I still feel willing to sacrifice some Work-Life balance to get a higher reward if I get opportunities like that.

[@HealthyDev]

Sounds like a very well-reasoned analysis of your current situation.

[@nickvledder]

Quote: " I've never felt really attached to having a big impact while working for other people." True. For me the main-reason for only doing software-development in my own company. Not with my legs underneath the desk of someone else!

[@amir.granot]

Impact and work/life balance are a must for me. After 10 years in the industry **I've given up**, left my last job very much burnt out. I started to develop health issues. It took me 1 year to get better, I moved north and for the last year I've been working in a healthy vegan kitchen in a retreat where people come to relax, heal from chronic illnesses and detox. I'd love to find 60% job (so I won't be burnt out again) where I'll also have a purpose. Seems impossible.

[@HealthyDev]

I can relate big time. I’ll be making future episodes to share how bad my burnout was. Significantly worse than yours (at least time wise). That’s awesome to hear you found some things that helped you recover!

[@mikekrzych]

You did very well mate. Give yourself a little more time to heal if you can and once the time is right you will have gained the necessary knowledge to help you protect yourself from another burnout and to avoid toxic workplaces.

[@edmarsouza2479]

"Growth is not limited to technical skills" Man, this is the most important thing you said in the entire video. I came across a lot of developers in my career that had tons of certifications, but had next to none of the so called "soft skills". Growth is almost a stigma/dogma of the IT industry: you need to be up to speed with an everchanging environment, where frameworks and tech stacks change almost every 5 years to stay competitive and relevant to the market. I'd say the two things that are missing for me are really Work-Life balance (I'm burned out), and maybe Reward/Impact (?). Sometimes I just feel that I'm numbed into a career (backend/fullstack) because that was the thing that paid my bills, but doesn't really fulfill me.

[@HealthyDev]

I know this may sound kind of jaded, but I’ve been generally unimpressed with the outcomes of certifications. I really wish more companies would see the value of a person’s history of being able to learn on the job as more valuable!

[@iolss]

I'm changing companies this month, and I was thinking about my career till now, 12 years in the IT industry being 8-9 into software engineer, I've worked most with the same stack and one thing here and there with other techs, and I was kinda bad to think that I wasn't good enough, but then I remembered about how much I have grown up for the so called "soft skills", from things like understanding the whole development process and each player's part, their problems, their importance, how to deal with PMs, BAs, Product Owners, how to shift priority if something bad is going on, how to deal with deadlines, how to ask for more time, how to ask for help from SMEs and the importance of doing that, etc, etc, so many "soft" skills, and I think all of this is undervalued in our industry but experienced software engineers are also constituted from that.

[@HealthyDev]

@@iolss experience with all the human complexities and pitfalls you mention are incredibly valuable. If you can continue to improve your ability to sell the value of these in conversations when you're being interviewed or just networking with people, those people who have more experience will know the value of them - trust me. Most jobs I've landed over the years with high value for me were because I found someone who was close in experience to me and knew what they were getting.

[@El3ctr0Lun4]

I tend to be quite very vocal and quite confrontational with my managers when it comes to protecting my personal time. Start saying "no" more often, and it will become easier to do so.

[@Danielcover10]

You're back!! We missed you so much.

[@madmilla]

For me it's Impact and Growth. When i was doing R&D in the medical field i felt a purpose of the work i was doing. Now i'm at a different company and i feel stuck and just like i keep fixing the same mistakes over and over and over again.

[@HealthyDev]

That’s no fun. I’ve been stuck like that a couple times when I had too much going on in my personal life to get out. Hang in there. Hopefully you can persevere until you’re ready to land a better gig.

[@JinnGuild]

Work/Life balance is the hardest because it is rooted in nature. So that is where I mainly focus. Beyond that it is Rewards. Those two of your categories are things that require a lot of pressure to be put on the workplace management. Impact and Growth are heavily choice-driven by the individual. About Work/Life balance: At the beginning of adulthood most of us get jobs, as well as marriage and children. People have a desire to spend more time with their young children for the sake of precious childhood memories and raising them with strong foundations. As our children become young/adults, our time spent with them is still valuable, but more recreational and fun. Less foundational. The same goes for any relationship to some degree. Unfortunately, the Professional world works the same way, but moreso Requires you to spend a lot of time and energy early on to earn your stripes. As we get older and hit that juncture where we stop being worker-bees and become managers and/or consultants, we start to make our own schedules and the work/life balance shifts. But by that time our relationships are what they are, and our children are older. Though many of us never really leave the worker-bee phase. That is all a sad fact. But that's also why I focus a lot of attention on fixing broken processes and making work/life balance a real thing. Yes for all in general, but I admit I focus mainly on the people reaching those junctures and helping them push through into the management or consulting phase of their career.

[@HealthyDev]

Great insights. Thanks for sharing this.

[@michaelmemory6938]

This actually is coming at a very opportune time. Being one of those starter periods in my career, I have several offers I’m having to debate around good benefits (that requires relocation) and growth vs better work/life balance & impact. Some things are not as important as I may have initially thought, especially with not a lot of assets on the line currently.

[@DotKsmGlmrMovrBtc]

Good timing! I have an interview tomorrow and I'm a little stressed out. Usually, I'm not in a situation where I really need the job so I want to make sure I don't come off as desperate or have low standards. At this moment, I would say "Growth", "Work/Life Balance", "Benefits", "Impact".

[@TheMistr25]

I absolutely love those grooves you put in the episode.

[@DMZ40]

The next topic you mentioned is quite interesting personally. There are different attitudes in the companies regarding personal projects. I had to turn down an offer because we could not get to terms acceptable to both sides regarding possibility of running a secondary business activity. The overlap was only in that both the job and the personal project were software related. Having a personal project answers the question of this video's topic as well that what I need from my job mostly is stability and benefits. Growth and purpose comes from elsewhere. Though it is not all black and white of course.

[@HealthyDev]

Makes sense. I’ve definitely needed to look to personal projects for growth when the day gig wasn’t offering it before. Nothing wrong with that!

[@Viciius]

Great guitar solo! Thanks for that and all your videos!!! ✌️😎🎸 Amazing content.

[@Xavior212]

Welcome back! Was very excited to see a new video from you in my recommended this morning.

[@HealthyDev]

Thanks! There’s a couple other videos before this one to check out since I came back too. Appreciate the warm welcome. 🙏

[@Locomamonk]

For me right now, the ones that I have are work/life balance and impact, and the ones I feel I have to pursue more are growth (which I think I'm slowly achieving) and specially rewards (money wise). I definitely cannot give up work/life balance right now due to family problems, and the jobs with higher pay that I find are extremely time consuming. So I'm pretty much stucked. Anyway, I find your videos really on point and extremely wise. I've been in the field for 14 years now and I think everything you said in here is dead on. Your videos have really helped me out not to feel like I'm taking crazy pills and validate a lot of my own opinions in the field. Thanks so much and I wish you the best.

[@HealthyDev]

Thanks for sharing and I’m glad this sounds like it’s helping some. You have my respect for prioritizing your family. That’s hard to do these days but looking back on my own career it’s worth so much more than anything else to keep those relationships healthy! Stay strong and I hope things get better soon!

[@iamtrapped1]

Nice perspective. I'd like to add that seeking these 4 goals is very difficult anymore because employers make up their own definitions to industry terms, like Scrum, Agile, Code Review, and More. It's so difficult to interview anymore

[@metal571]

I'm glad you're back making these videos, and that's a gorgeous Jazzmaster there

[@HealthyDev]

Thanks! It's a crafted in Japan. They make fantastic Fenders over there.

[@tafadzwagonera]

I'm hitting the 10 year mark and planning to start a family soon. I intentionally devoted the first act of my career to growth and impact. I've dabble in anything and everything...TPM, DPM, FE. BE, a bit of DevOps, split roles, etc. across mainstream prograrmming languages...but I can already sense priorities shift towards rewards/benefits and work-life balance.

[@go_better]

Hellooooo! So good to see your videos again!

[@josiah5776]

I got a graduate degree in a machine learning related area. In practice, I change config files and restart webservers. 1. Impact - minimal to none 2. Growth - none; The ways in which my company pushes me to grow are neither of any interest to me nor of value 3. Work/Live Balance - very good 4. Rewards - ok It's just a fairly easy paycheck and that's all it is for me. I get my fulfillment for the first two outside the job.

[@kimono90]

Such a good realistic advice! As someone coming from outside the dev world into the dev world I have to admit I sometimes even feel spoiled in this field of work. I feel quite privileged as a developer. Not that it cannot be hard or tough, don't get me wrong :). Maybe also because i finished college in the middle of a crisis. So thinking about what i actually wanted was just limiting my job opportunities way too much back then. Im very grateful i got the chance to make my switch to dev. For me work life balance is #1 priority. As a second one it is growth (since i am new in the field).

[@HealthyDev]

I’ve experienced some survivorship guilt over the past few years too. I’m not in a great financial position, but I’m still in a better place than many people who lost everything during the pandemic. We have much to be thankful for getting to work in this industry - even with all of its problems!

[@sethkg9596]

Hey 'cuz. Great chat here. Loved the groove at the end; b section was hip. Much love, keep it up

[@HealthyDev]

Hey! Thanks man. Miss you. Hope you’re hanging in there okay.

[@adamday5045]

Slowly turning on lights

[@tr1pH0p6uru]

Hey Jayme! Great to have you back! Imo, the two most important aspects of a job are work life balance and rewards (comp) because with those two we have more time and money to invest on a side gig that can makes us grow and have a big impact.

[@HealthyDev]

I like it. As you said, if comp lets you save enough, desires can shift to growth and with that growth - make a bigger impact. In my experience it’s sort of a cycle that repeats itself. Not sure if you’ve experienced the same?

[@tr1pH0p6uru]

@@HealthyDev Definitely! Currently I am building a MVP as a side project and I am learning lots of cool things, such as A.I., etc, stuff that I would probably never have a chance to learn in my current company, or even at any of the companies where I worked before. Hopefully this MVP will be the beginning of a startup with big impact. With enough savings, Im even planning to take some months off to work exclusively on it. And, if it wasn't for this MVP, I would be probably contributing to some open source project.

[@HealthyDev]

@@tr1pH0p6uru nice! That sounds super fun - and potentially profitable! I hope it goes great for you.

[@steel0tsunami]

I feel that I have a good mix of all 4 in my current career, impact and work life balance are probably the highest and most important to me at this moment in my life, but growth and benefits are not far behind. I found it interesting that you say you couldn’t have all four, I agree that chasing all 4 is unlikely to work and on the extreme ends of the scale, having all 4 at one time is extremely unlikely as well.

[@mikekrzych]

Congratulations. I believe we first need to discover and balance out the 4 needs for ourselves. Once we define what matters to us finding a company with similar values becomes a whole lot easier. It took me about 10 years to shape my needs and to finally land a job in my happy place and even though the road was (and will be) bumpy it was well worth pursuing. Wishing you all the same.

[@Allyourneedsmet]

Love the music at the end.

[@thr4wn]

I am definitely growing a lot! Just became a manager after 9 years xp, and enjoying it.

[@HealthyDev]

Nice! I never went full people manager, but I decided to start practicing new teamwork and leadership skills about 10 years in once I saw how much growing they could offer. It was one of the best decisions I ever made! We need better management in our industry so it’s awesome to know you’re coming into it with many years of real experience.

[@MariutaMihaiDan]

Dude, your videos are awesome and your explanatory skills are so good. I like your vibe!

[@HealthyDev]

Thanks! I'm trying to get better. Appreciate the feedback!

[@christopherscholl2852]

I set a goal for annual salary 10 years ago. I realized that I would never make that in food service or making art as I was, and so I starting learning software development on my own. I got my foot in the door in 2017, and took a $0.25/hour pay decrease from food service to do "data analysis". 4.5 years later, I am a front-end dev, and I finally hit my goal from 2012. Almost 200% increase in salary over what I made in 2017, but I am older, and I need to prioritize retirement. If I grow my salary another $20K, I will be able to live comfortably, and to save 15%-20% toward retirement (even with inflation as it is). I work for a consulting company, so I don't make as much as if I were a company dev, or at a startup. This means in order to grow financially and to guarantee my retirement savings, I will need to push for a management position, which will tax the work-life balance that I have as a dev. If I could choose what company I work for, it would be for an organization like Khan Academy, and not the online retail space in which I am currently doing work. My team makes an impact for the company, making minor UI tweaks that drive users to complete transactions, to the order of tens or hundreds of millions of dollars in projected sales. I feel good knowing my team is successful in this space, but I will want to move into a tech space that is actually making the world better, eventually. In order to be able to choose my future job, I may need to prioritize growth. For now, I am prioritizing benefits and growth. In the next couple of years, I will be prioritizing impact in terms of working for a company that I believe in. I think work-life balance will suffer a little bit as I progress.

[@rdean150]

In my experience, consultants typically make considerably more money than standard employees of the company. The trade off is that they do not have the job stability, because their contract can be terminated much more easily and cheaply than laying off full-time salaried employees. Consultants also don't have as clear of a career path. So they make money in the near term to offset the higher risk of less money in the future. This may be something to consider in your current situation.

[@alexischicoine2072]

You might get all 4 if you were previously underpaid or the job market is super tight. I'd say in that case you'll still probably be sacrificing pay a bit but it might not be so obvious. Another thing is like you said if you change technology stack next year you can get more money and less growth.

[@skurke]

Great vid, thanks for the perspective. commenting for the algorithm :)

[@robotempire]

Ay!! I went from writing React to working in my dream career field in dist sys. I am truly blessed to have one of those dream jobs that doesn’t exist. I don’t work at a Big 4. It won’t last forever, and people are already letting themselves be a little more real/cynical around the new hires. I’ve been around plenty to recognize the darkness creeping in at the edges of those rose-colored glasses. But when I inventory myself and how I feel… I think objectively I’m where I’ve always wanted to be, and I’m savoring it while it lasts. We all know it won’t be forever.

[@subbamaggus1]

Wow. That is just what i needed! Thank you so much!! i am in my mid 40s. And switched jobs in Jan 21. Because sth was missing... I find myself now in a position that is even worse. I took a pay cut, because benefits were not that important to me (no kids, and paid off house is the main reason). and still is. So my priorities would be: impact work/life balance growth benefits I still think that my best skill is in software development/engineering. But the last 10 years i was stuck with some old school tools at an old school company. (Visual Studio 6.0) So i would consider growth as a need to find a job, not a need for my own "good" feeling. Again: Thank you so much for sharing. This will help me a lot for the next job!

[@wforbes87]

This was video was good food for thought. Working with the same company the last 4 years, with 7 yrs total work exp. I'm not thrilled about the work-life balance here but it's all self-induced because I'm extra hungry for skill growth, and I'm virtually the only non-junior on my project - so I've got to be the guy with the answers. I'd been working on my degree during a lot of that time too. I'm also not thrilled with the pay, but content. I've gotten 10-15% raises every year so at this point I'm at a solid median salary in my opinion. I'm graduating in about 6 months, at that point I'll be looking for a position that I can join the 6-figure club with, working with other mid-level devs and some seniors that I could learn from. Hopefully you're still coaching by then, I'll give you a ping!

[@lorissupportguides]

I am finished with my 3 year apprenticeship and got my first job. Money is insane but all I want is impact and work life balance.

[@chrisbluey2458]

Thanks for the video, right on point.What's that track you're playing at the end of it? Loved it!

[@HealthyDev]

Thanks. It’s the guitar part for one of the songs I wrote. An unreleased one.

[@metalor696]

At 30 I decided I wanted to be a software dev so I made that happen. I'm 36 now and still loving it. It's the first job I've had that I actually enjoy doing and I'm aware I'm fortunate in that regard, so I'm happy in my role and happy growing naturally with it.

[@mikekrzych]

Hi Jayme. I agree all 4 needs are important and the hardest thing is finding the right balance. You've also mentioned burnouts which can happen partially due not having the right balance met - and not necessarily always due to toxic companies. I have recovered from a really bad one before and they're no fun and very serious. If you think shooting a few videos with people who had recovered could help those undergoing it feel free to reach out Id love to help.

[@HealthyDev]

Hey Michal thanks for your offer. I definitely plan to revisit themes of burnout in future videos. I can’t say yet what that’ll look like, but it’s a great suggestion and I’ll keep you in mind!

[@oasntet]

Work/life balance has been my highest priority for my entire 18-year career. It can be hard to find sometimes, and even if you find it, it can change out from under you when management changes. It's such a boon when it does happen, especially when a company embraces a

[@LDdrums20]

You are very well provisioned in the guitar department. As well as in your development advise department.

[@Hondaczz]

love you're videos

[@HealthyDev]

Thanks! It’s good to be back to creating and trying to figure it out.

[@awtanoarcturus187]

Just when I was prequalified to become a software developer, I pursued mostly growth. When I realized how quickly I grew, I got a sweet taste of impact, so I added that to the mix. I was switching companies as soon as I lost momentum in growth and impact. But when I got married and got two boys, I realized I need to choose where I want to have the most impact and growth, in my family life or at my work. My current pursuit is mostly work-life balance. It is not just not having to work overtime, but saving some emotional and intellectual energy for the family relationships. In my current job, I feel completely depleted when I finish my workday. I just want to get somewhere quiet, not having to answer any questions, just to blank my mind. If I am not able to do that, then at least a few shots or a few puffs to calm my mind. So yes, definitely can't get all of it, some decisions have to be made.

[@paladinsorcerer67]

Growth and Work/Life Balance over Impact and Benefits. I have been falling behind in tech skills so I need to focus on Growth. I have a family so WLB is key. Impact is nice but if anything is lacking there, I figure that I can make up for it on my hobby projects. Benefits are needed but they are less important to me than the other factors.

[@HealthyDev]

Sounds like you have a good plan and focus!

[@JackedEngineer]

Most important: 1. Work-life balance 2. Benefits. I accepted deemphasizing growth and impact. ~14 years dev; small team lead at big company

[@AlexSuperTramp-]

Love the episode groove! Would you consider doing a video about dealing with being laid off? Also how to responsibly handle vested equity?

[@HealthyDev]

I’ll think about it. I’ve only been laid off once but I had another place I’d previously been at ready to pick me right back up. I’m not sure if I have enough varied experience there to offer much of value.

[@AlexSuperTramp-]

@@HealthyDev No worries, appreciate the reply! :)

[@JamesKelly89]

11:40 I totally get that it is unrealistic. I really want to jump over to video game programming from "enterprise" application programming and I know I'd have to take a huge pay cut to be able to land a position like that but I feel like the tradeoff would be worth it because I'd finally get to do something cool, at least for a little while.

[@HealthyDev]

Sounds like you’re weighing your options and making the best trade offs you can. That’s all we can do!

[@jaymartinez311]

I got my first dev job and I hate what we are building but I learn something almost everyday. It’s remote too. So that’s a plus but I want to get back into IOS development. I use vuejs with vuetify at my job. I love vuejs but vuetify with a lot of tables is insane! Every page makes an api call and this application probably has 150 pages. Mostly with data tables. Immensely helpful in work with complex data but I want want IOS app development in my life 🤨 I’ll take less money like you said in the video. Just to be able to get in that career path. Everything they got after this project (It’s an It security company) is dotnet with C#. I’m a mac guy. Have been since 2009. I hate windows 🪟 with a passion but it’s my first job in tech and I’m 39. So this video was helpful.

[@vstxp]

Nice video, really good at explaining the most common desires. It actually helped my understand my current situation, with a simple train of thought. As for top 2? Impact and Rewards are not what I'd like for me right now, definitely... And as a result, I have been lacking motivation at work lately. I need to upgrade these two, even if it means W/L balance becomes a little bit worse for a period, though I always set hard boundaries on that.

[@MichelZelff]

That guitar solo at the end was definitely deserving a like

[@ivanequihua1291]

I've been working as a dev for 3 years now and right now I'm perusing growth and impact, just got a really nice offer with a technology that I don't know that well and this is just what I got in my head, if I want to do well in this new job I;ll have to sacrifice more personal time in order to be able to perform. Thanks for sharing :)

[@isurujn]

Was that guitar solo at the end one of your own or from a song?

[@HealthyDev]

Hey, that's the verse and chorus guitar part for a song "Jewels" I wrote a couple years ago. I haven't released it yet.

[@isurujn]

@@HealthyDev You totally should! It's very nice. I played that part like a dozen times 😀

[@HealthyDev]

@@isurujn hahah awesome!!!

[@markuspfeifer8473]

Great work life balance: -check A boss that doesn’t push me around: -check Wage: given where I chose to buy my house and that I don’t have to commute, it’s fine Constant learning and growing: - check Great people: -check - getting to use all my skills: ahahahaha no. But that’s fine, that would be totally nuts Impact, great mission: sometimes, it can be exciting, but usually it’s just a job. But why would I care given all the rest? Also, I‘m on my personal mission to change a few things about how people work together so I don’t need an additional big goal there

[@gammalgris2497]

You could call it the IGBR Theorem (#1 (I)mpact,, #2 (G)rowth, #3 Work/ Life (B)alance, #4 (R)ewards/ Benefits). You can choose some, but not have all at the same time ,-)

[@PaulSebastianM]

Love those 🎸 licks! Feels like they hit the point harder. 😁

[@Minecraftpecake]

Nice solo at the end !

[@TJDeez]

How do you deal with a lack of interest because the work is no longer challenging and doesn't seem to have an impact?

[@HealthyDev]

Find a more challenging job!

[@TJDeez]

@@HealthyDev Is there a minimum time one should be at a job?

[@TJDeez]

Also thanks for your time answering questions on top of making great videos!

[@HealthyDev]

@@TJDeez I don't believe so. But I also think being at a job for only a year let's say, is not really giving you enough time to hit your stride in contributing to the company. I find it takes 2-4 years until I'm really able to coast with being productive at a company building stuff that has a visible impact to their bottom line. YMMV

[@ZontiBoy]

I'm mostly interested in growth and life balance.

[@JanPavlikdr]

100% true… in last 8 years as CTO I changed my priorities couple times, now whole life is balance and fixing processes and building team. Growth, rewards is pointless to me.

[@divinecomedian2]

I've always favored having a greater impact over the other qualities. I just can't work hard on something that I know is a lousy product or service. That's why we work right? To provide value to others. Sometimes I feel like I'd provide more value by grabbing a shovel and digging a ditch in the middle of nowhere than by working on a crap project.

[@petropzqi]

I always get happy when I see one of your videos recommended to me. Your topics are always spot on and really hits me. If I may come wit some feedback. I often listen to you, not necessarily watching your voice and how you explain stuff just makes it very nice to have on in the background. But each time you start playing the guitar in the middle of the video I think it's a commercial showing. Kinda interrupts the flow. I get it you like playing the guitar and please do that but not just in the middle of the video. Lex Fridman use to play the guitar early on but now just let the spoken world speak for itself. Keep up the great content.

[@antoruby]

Felt the same. Using it more as a sound track (and maybe using image at the end only) would be nicer I think.

[@HealthyDev]

Thanks for the feedback I’m still experimenting. I’m using it as a pattern interruption for when the dialogue has been going on for a while. It worked better in the previous video I think, partially because that guitar groove was easier to slice into smaller parts and wasn’t distorted. I’ll continue to see how this goes and evaluate the feedback I’m getting. I appreciate y’all helping me put out a better show!

[@tafadzwagonera]

I actually prefer the guitar interlude. It helps close an act after a lengthy monologue and digest what was said.

[@danwilson5630]

I find it relaxing

[@dmitriyobidin6049]

To be honest - the more i think about growth the more i come to conclusion that growth is really a prerequisite for other desires, cause we were taught that you should work hard no matter what. We seek growth cause we hope that it will help us achieve other things. We are looking for growth to feel ourselves more comfortable in the job market/to be able to ask for a raise when we feel like we deserve it/to be able to control our own work-life balance better/to learn new things. But when all other boxes are checked - then the need for growth really shifts from "what i need to do to grow professionally" to "what i really want to do, regardless of my professional level in it". So i highly recommend to treat that "need for growth" with a VERY BIG grain of salt :) Chances are you're "looking for growth" as meaning of achieving other things. So, maybe it's better to focus on them and not on that abstract growth that might lead you to nowhere in the end.

[@LightWrathme]

Benefits, more specifically mentorship. I've learned a lot over the last few years but feel I could grow faster and with more confidence if I had some level of mentorship. I think this is a work place culture issue. As now there are those that are maybe less experienced than myself and so I try to help them but it's difficult as mentoring is a skill in it's self that is probably best learned from another mentor (passing the touch). There's also the feeling that you get in the back of your mind of "I learned this the hard way, so why shouldn't others" ... so you must remind yourself of your principles.

[@PrinceSimba93]

I 100% at both of the first two companies i have worked have always felt the Impact is what i have been lacking and searching for, i know i am very talented but it always feels the projects i never get to see them through or im just working with Legacy systems which doesnt do much for me

[@JakeSummers2424]

The perfect job for me would be... a person does not have to constantly fill multiple roles (backend/frontend/ui-ux) - A project is proposed between the client and the business. - The project manager gathers the project requirements with the client - The ui/ux person/team does a wireframe. - ui/ux meets with project manager and client to go over project and see if the wireframe meets the project needs. Updates are made and cycled through. - once wireframes are accepted, ui/ux creates a detailed design (figma, adobeXD, invision, whatever...) - ui/ux goes over design with client and project manager. Cycles through changes until accepted. - frontend and backend are given designs and have an initial discussion on how to build out the crud operations. - frontend/backend create their own sprints and action items via agile, and begin work. If changes in the project come down the line, it goes through ui/ux first, then frontend and if needed backend. People are not asked to do work out of order (e.g. frontend isn't asked to start developing without designs, or put in a ui/ux hat). That to me is the perfect job.

[@HealthyDev]

Sounds to me like a job where people are open to trying the process you have in mind (or at least making process changes at all based on your request) is in order! Nice. 👍

[@JakeSummers2424]

@@HealthyDev The reason I said that was because yesterday my manager asked us if we could start continuing the development of the other pages on the frontend without any designs from ui-ux. I tried to push back and say it's bad idea to start developing without designs. He said well we can't wait and besides you guys already know more about the system than the new ui/ux person does and can probably just hammer it out quickly. Well it turns out the very next day we had a discussion with ui/ux. Not a single thing... no... not one... looked like the design ui/ux had worked on. So we now have to go back and remove all the work we did and fix any bugs we may create while doing so, and then go back and implement the design. I'm just really tired of saying "i told you so".

[@JakeSummers2424]

@@HealthyDev come to think of it that would be the perfect job for me... one where I never end up saying "I told you so" lol.

[@nsshurtz]

Currently, if I had to pick, I'd say benefits, but even that being said, I feel like my current company really gives me all 4 of those at a very desirable level.

[@MIIC2]

Impact and growth I lost some years as warehouse worker and I need to make up the lost time.

[@schism15]

At this stage I'm focused on growth and benefits.

[@kelskye]

It's interesting that the modern corporate culture is geared towards (4) and that's meant to compensate for the lack of (1) to (3). And because so many workplaces have poor working cultures, we just accept that because that's the way of things. For myself, the last job shift I did actually emphasised (2) and (3) at the expense of (4) and it's the first job I've had in a long time where I haven't been stressed and wondering what's the point. This tells me that (4) and (1) have a sort of symbiotic relationship. We question (1) because of (4) and can put up with a lower (4) if the (1) is strong.

[@PainRUify]

Starting a new job with better growth opportunity and benefits but leaving a job where I have great impact and work-life balance. I switched jobs chasing for growth but now Im not really sure what Im truly chasing for 😅

[@AssasinZorro]

I want impact and work life balance. I can live with shower professional growth for now, and rewards need to cover basic costs.

[@HealthyDev]

Sounds great! Health and making a difference, always my north star too. Occasionally I gotta sacrifice em for growth and rewards but I try to keep that only for a short period of time.

[@TheRealInky]

Eh, that job does exist, but there's a caveat, and the caveat is two-fold: 1) Those jobs are incredibly, incredibly rare 2) You need to be near the top in terms of knowledge/skill/experience to have the slightest hope of getting those jobs I know they exist because when you described that perfect job, it sounded like mine. My job ticks most of your boxes. Nothing is perfect or ever will be, but with a lot of work and a little luck, you will find a job that you can love. Just to clarify, as apparently some people are taking this as some kind of attempt to boast, what I am really trying to do here is encourage people. If I can do it - granted, with a little luck - anyone else could too. I, in fact, do not think I am special or superior or smarter than anyone else and that isn't what it takes anyway. It's mostly hard work, passion, dedication. I love what I do, that's the main reason I am here today. If you love what you do and you work hard, you may never find the perfect dream job (a lot of that is really luck, and experience/credentials [that anyone can get, you don't need to be some genius]), but you can certainly find a job where you're content and fulfilled!

[@TheRealInky]

Also I apologize if you go on to make a larger point in the video, and ultimately address some of this - I'm looking forward to watching it but haven't had the chance yet!

[@AnimatedStoriesWorldwide]

This goes to prove that if you make a video talking about something impossible, you will always find a lemming insecure enough to tell you that he did the (quasi-)impossible thing, but only because he is smart, talented, rich and beautiful. Funnily enough it means one of two things: 1) It's true, but in such case only confirms the point made that's it's extremely rare (with the added burden of reading through self-aggrandizement) or 2) It's false and then...focus on mental health? You don't need kudos from us. Good talk inky! Sorry I didn't compliment sandwich this. My feedback would be that if this is the peak of your analytical mind, I REALLY hope you are not at the top of anything.

[@tannermeade]

@@AnimatedStoriesWorldwide self-aggrandizement or mental health? I didn't read tons of pride or unhealthy mental health in his comment. To @Inky 's point, I've seen a lot of devs who make their jobs unhealthy in either impact, work/life balace, rewards/benefits, and growth. Like it wasn't a function of anything at the company. Their bosses constantly emphasized to go home on time while laxing the expectation on work to be done, but the dev set an expectation for themselves and had a horrible work/life balance. Often it's because they aren't comfotable or don't feel like they're worthy of the job some how. Basically, there is some important way they can mature in their career. Knowing that you have high value to offer and feeling comfortable with that isn't pride. Inky didn't come out and flaunt it. He was talking about a general principle he believes is true and said that he has experience it.

[@TheRealInky]

@@AnimatedStoriesWorldwide You know, to be quite honest with you, you come across as incredibly condescending, which leads me to believe you may be projecting here. I am not sure what I've said that has upset you to such a degree, why you're feeling so angry over me sharing encouragement for others, through my personal story. If you disagree with me, that's fine - if you believe that I'm wrong, I am 100% okay with that. Why not share your argument with kindness and calmness? Does it really bother you that much when people hold ideas you disagree with? If so, that's weird! I don't feel a need to prove myself to you in any way whatsoever. I know who I am, my story, and my position today. If you'd like to believe I made my comment in some narcissistic attempt to stroke my own ego, I'd assure you that that is not the case - again I can't see any real reason for you to have gathered that from my comment, so I'll just presume this is projection. I hope you feel better, I really do.

[@TheRealInky]

@@tannermeade yes I've seen this plenty, too. Our kind tend to be a little perfectionistic and many of us are incredibly passionate about our work. I suffer from those problems, certainly, I am a workaholic and an overachiever and a perfectionist. I won't pretend none of that plays some role in being where I am. Thanks for defending me here, too, I appreciate that.

[@gusmueller4413]

i think i have the job you described in the opener -- i make 100k and work about ___ hrs a day mostly learning new tech that nobody else on the team wants to learn. sometimes i feel like im not given quite enough work, but that's a small complaint

[@csy897]

That job doesn't exist but you can get quite close to it, briefly. I have 3.5 I guess? the comp is not incredible. It's still really good compared to my peers in other industries and I am able to afford a good life. But also, other teams are on the bad type of fire and the team that I am working with is working with consultants and when the consultants leave I'm not sure it would be a joy ride from here on. But I think I got really close to ideal for a good half a year.

[@HealthyDev]

Nice, enjoy it while you got it!

[@manuakasam]

Personally, I think that work-life-balance is the most difficult to achieve when trying to comply with all needs. I'm from Germany, so I'm experiencing a very regular, non-over-hours driven livestyle of working about 40 hours per week. During CoVID I've had cut working hours down to 6hrs per day and I must say - that was fucking amazing. Overall I've felt so much more relaxed. I had so much more time to take care of my house, cook with my family, enjoy my hobbies, etc... And Productivity - quite frankly - was roughly the same. So from my point of view I see no reason why I shouldn't simply work for 6 hours only but receive the same amount of money. That, however, is not something that one is able to realistically make happen in financial talks.

[@noblesavage149]

* Impact irl (greenfield project that is actually disrupting but being held back by management decisions) * Growth (have no one senior leading/mentoring/helping me in my first software role...)

[@lppedd]

I'm not working in the US, so I can't really apply the money/stocks part. Leaving that aside, my problem is mostly about being bored after 1/2 years. In my seven years of experience I've changed many times because of this and I'm beginning to question if this is "ok" or not. What do you think? How do you keep going when you get bored and what you do seems always the same everyday?

[@HealthyDev]

Hey Edoardo, everyone is different but I made an intentional decision to try to improve my teamwork and leadership skills 10 years in. For me, I felt though I love technology I’d get a bigger return on investment and maybe be less bored if I challenged myself with something really different. It really paid off. I didn’t become a people manager - I just became recognized by the business and my teammates as being a more professional acting developer to work with. It was one of the best decisions I ever made. YMMV

[@MoeSawalha-]

is this uploaded to your podcast ?

[@HealthyDev]

Yes! It's available on all the major podcast networks.

[@damorpl]

One desire I very often see and I belive has huge impact on many devs is the ability to change projects frequently. I have expiernced that myself. I was working 7 years on a singel project and I had impact, good money, I could try whataver tech stack I wanted (being reasonable ofc :) ), I had very good work/life balance and yet I decided to change job because I just felt burned. Comparing to others it is still long period. For many 2 years is too long but I noticed that people often want to change it because it's easier than make some changes in the project and fight for it a bit. It's like marriage I guess :)

[@eotikurac]

all i need is a good salary because the work is mentally exhausting and soul crushing a lot of the time. i don't really care about impact or new technologies. i'm old school and i like old, proven tech that works. besides a salary that makes it worth it i want a fixed number of hours per day, meaning no overtime. that's about it.

[@HealthyDev]

Makes sense. As long as your getting the benefits you want and have a healthy work/life balance, why change anything? I feel similar, until I’m sometimes forced to grow my skills again to keep my salary or rate within my expectations.

[@SherriAshton]

Just starting out but left my healthcare career because I wanted more of a work/life balance than anything. Maybe benefits as the second but close to growth. I’ve already made an impact in healthcare 😆

[@HealthyDev]

Congratulations on the switch in profession! I hope it works out great. My cousin did the same thing (not coming from healthcare though) 10 years ago and he’s been really successful.

[@cazterk]

work life balance is pretty important for me

[@vadergrd]

to each it s own : growth , reward , work life balance, impacg ... sometimes work life balance goes to nr 1...

[@Megalevel95]

My sense is that it is possible to find a single job that satisfies all of these desires 75%. It's when you want to maximize one of them to 100% that you have to start making sacrifices in other departments. Personally I prioritize rewards ($$$) and work/life balance. Impact is nice but it's hard to feel jazzed about helping businesses get richer (99% of dev jobs). Growth also seems hard to get in most jobs as velocity is generally glacial compared to someone's capacity to learn/grow. My mindset kindof incentivizes job hopping. So far my only problem with this approach is that I'm bored out of my mind most of the time, and it's hard to imagine a job in development where that's not the case - I'm sure it exists though! My fantasy is to be part of NASA's frontend team - though I'm sure even NASA gets boring sometimes lol

[@HealthyDev]

I think the job hopping thing is understandable early on, and almost encouraged by the way our industry prioritizes technical skill and cash above all else. As long as you’re exiting companies within their policies you should be okay. I have had a couple clients who were career hoppers that were having trouble moving up mid career. But it was more that they didn’t expand their skills beyond coding than hopping that put them in a difficult (but not impossible!) situation.

[@andreaselfving2787]

The company I work at - really, the city I live in - the benefits are low, to keep the other three high. I would have a 50-100% higher salary doing the same work in another part of the country. Currently in my life - with wife, kids, a new house - I premiere wlb and impact over benefits and my manager acknowledged it.

[@michaelnurse9089]

5. Work environment - some places are just pure poison.

[@HealthyDev]

I roll that up under benefits, but yes absolutely!! 👍

[@marcotroster8247]

I haven't seen a well-paid job that's actually interesting. It seems to be contradicting for some weird reasons. Am I just unlucky? 😂

[@HealthyDev]

Are you just searching LinkedIn, or are you finding people at interesting companies and building relationships through networking? The interesting jobs aren't on job sites.

[@marcotroster8247]

@@HealthyDev I'm prob too lazy to apply to a company properly, so it's my fault. But yeah, I'm still studying in my masters, so I cannot do full-time which is killing 99% of job offers. Everyone wants their devs to work full-time in Germany. And students are paid very bad. I'm not the typical noob student; I have had 3 years of experience going into the studies. Always had side-projects as a freelancer during study holidays. So I'm no junior anymore, but people still treat me like that. It's really frustrating, even though I have nice GitHub stuff going, etc. Well, I'm doing some freelancing now instead. But aside of one good customer, those guys on LinkedIn were always talking me into shit jobs. That's what I mean with "unlucky" 😅 Btw: Thanks for your vids. I've been binge-watching them over the last few days. Really nice content! 😄

[@vorandrew]

Fully remote (once a week in office) 8/10 importance Growth 7/10 Salary 7/10 Non trivial architecture - 6/10 Good team - 5/10 Making impact - 1/10

[@jayjaayjaaay94]

growth and benefits are missing

[@kozas0]

Don't work long hours no matter what. Join your trade union and demand your working rights. We are not special, we are workers too.

[@toddboothbee1361]

With every important decision I try to remember I'm going to die. But then again, I don't have kids.

[@Guruprasad_Bhat]

There are happy programmers But the degree is less in American or American driven businesses. Comparatively high in Europe

[@endaksi_channel]

Impact is what is usually misunderstood -- developers are more like plumbers, or mechanics, or builders and nothing more. Imagine builder laying bricks and thinking about making impact :) Its easy to fall into thinking that you are very important but you are not. Builder is not dreaming about living in a building that he is building. A mechanic is not driving or selling a car that he is fixing right now. Developer is not sharing a profit eather, unless he is a partner in a company. So, yeah, impact is a great misconception among the developers. The greatest impact that they are doing is the impact on themselves.

[@HealthyDev]

I hear what you're saying. I believe however, you can have a bigger impact on a company by laying out and governing its enterprise architecture, than being an individual contributor on one product for example. I hope that helps explain more of what I mean by impact.

[@endaksi_channel]

@@HealthyDev I do agree with you that you CAN have an impact on company enterprise architecture but that must be you career path choice and you first you have to prove that existing company architect is somehow incapable... which is not so easy to do. Most folks just scream "I want impact" but actually all that they want is to experiment without taking real responsibility.

[@bombrman1994]

let me tell you, that job exists if its your own business. simply work for someone grow learn from them until u are senior season 5-10 years and start ur own thing. making 50-100k per anum is a good target for first year and the rest comes like butter.

[@arachnid4910]

Any advice? For an aspiring junior?

[@bombrman1994]

@@arachnid4910 learn basics of all the languages and the differences any why each language is preferred at some industry etc. then dive deep in 1 or 2 languages

[@bombrman1994]

Pick one interpreted language and one compiled language and go deep in it. JavaScript and python are for sure nice to know. Then daily just like working out at the gym do leetcode structured stuff like blind 75 and 150. After 1 year of consistency you will be ready and every big name will be loving you.

[@arachnid4910]

@@bombrman1994 thank you, friend

[@henson2k]

I was very happy but 20 years later programming skills are no longer appreciated and programming doesn't guarantee successful career. Competition is fierce and growth is limited unless you decide to go to management side of things.

[@szeredaiakos]

Learning new technologies is not that much growth. I'd argue it's 0 considering how fast tech gets deprecated. Machine-thinking is vastly more rewarding. That is actually building the technology you need.

[@kdietz65]

Here's what I don't want: I get hired onto a team. I'm the new guy. The other people on the team have a few more years of experience on the project, but they're still much younger than me. They don't respect that value I bring to the team. My manager assigns me some random bug that's been in the backlog for years that no one else has been able to figure out how to do. I dive into the code - it's a disaster. Hacked up mess. Important information squirreled away in DOM data attributes that get pulled out by other parts of the code. No abstraction layers that insulate away these details. Multiple coding styles. An overly convoluted DevOps process that makes debugging extremely painful and slow. No documentation of course. No mentor (I don't need one because I'm senior). And guess what, I'm not able to perform a miracle. When I finally get that task done, I'm given another equally obtuse task in a whole other section of the code that I again know nothing about and it starts all over. My manager denigrates me at every turn, says nothing encouraging ever, kicks sand in my face every day, gives me shitty performance reviews. Eventually I either get fired or I get so frustrated I quit, then I gotta go start the whole entire process over at another company. So something other than that would be a good start.

[@HealthyDev]

That sounds like a pretty specific set of circumstances, so starting without it could be anything I guess. I’ve yet to meet people a lot younger than me that respect the value I have fully, they just don’t know how to relate to me. Sorry it sounds like you’re on a project with a really bad codebase. Hopefully you can find something better soon.

[@kdietz65]

@@HealthyDev Thanks. Well I'm not now. I left that company 2 years ago. I won't say which company was, but trust me, if I did, you would know who they are. Now I have the opposite problem. My architect won't work with the legacy code base because he thinks he's going to catch cooties.

[@Youvko]

Definietly work life balance.