Strange things happen when you become a software engineer

When I became a software developer, strange things happened in my life. I share my experience of living behind a screen and abandoning my smart phone.

[@CodingWithBibBobBib]

As a young developer, I once shared an office with three other developers, and that office was only suitable for one person. With 4 people it was too crowded, smelly and loud. Opening a window always led to a discussion. Remote work is a blessing nowadays ☘️

[@StephenSamuelsen]

lol that's the worst. Yeah it was like a super small room with 5 desks. I remember walking through the office during interviews and I was trying to act excited when I saw the tiny office room, but internally I was freaking out lol

[@CodingWithBibBobBib]

@@StephenSamuelsen 🎈

[@troyfitz1638]

Please keep this content coming.

[@user-jt6uv8vx8c]

I can really empathize with missing hanging out with friends in my childhood. But I’m a 2023 grad and I Wish I could find a software engineering job, which seems to be my wall.

[@LukeAvedon]

WOW love this. I had similar experiences.

[@VoiceOfJack]

I'm now at the point where I'm going to leave development behind after 11 years. I've been burned out many times and tired of that process

[@StephenSamuelsen]

what are you going to switch to?

[@owen261]

Felt like I just listened to a recording of prior self. Had the same experience even down to the wood working and smartphone disillusion part.

[@user-ow3db6tg3i]

Thank you so much for this man. Starting my python journey + this vid came at the right time!!! 🔥

[@StephenSamuelsen]

hope it goes well! Im a big fan of PyCharm as an editor whenever I use python.

[@thisguymartin]

Dude, I am in the same situation I am feeling I should be a electrician and what not it just feels like what I make is not real. I am trying to explore my creative side and using video games learning as that, but I do encourage for something to be more hands on.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

yeah for sure. It definitely does not feel real a lot of the time

[@christianacuna1771]

Same exact thoughts that I could be doing something more practical instead of just coding. Wood working , mechanic , handy man things around the house, homesteading . Personally I think it’s the need to have a balance and hobbies to offset the screen time . Over stimulation from screens is terrible for anyone . I also am considering a dumb phone . Heard of the light phone and it seems like a good option

[@StephenSamuelsen]

I looked at a light phone for a bit too

[@Phauglin99]

Had exactly the same experience in my first "real" SWE job. Luckily I found a different workplace which helped me get over it. It never really goes away though

[@StephenSamuelsen]

I gotcha. Yeah I went remote full time and that seemed to help some

[@donaldjohnson-ow3kq]

If you want to know what organizations think of IT people - can you think of any other profession where they would seriously consider having workers share a 1 person-sized cubicle because there isn't enough space? I've seen this happen to contractors more often than I'd like to admit.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

I remember one office I was at they had cubicles with only the half walls and so you were just constantly making awkward eye contact with people lol. Open offices are even worse imo just because you literally hear and see everything

[@donaldjohnson-ow3kq]

@@StephenSamuelsen I tried to reply, but the moderators keep removing my reply. Strange, because it was pretty harmless. Agree that the half height cubicles are terrible.

[@zen-ventzi-marinov]

9:02 "we're past that point in society". No. We're pass that point but not the upper-class people. Not saying they don't have their own type of issues but this isn't one of them.

[@novaploca2080]

Year and a half in and I have same those feelings. Thinking about quiting and becoming electrician or electrical engineer. I have Msc in E.eng.

[@StephenSamuelsen]

Yeah a year and a half in can be a rough time. In my opinion, I would try to stick it out a bit longer tbh

[@novaploca2080]

​@@StephenSamuelsen It's not enough time to learn everything or learn enough of things that you use in daily job to be fast and correct but its enough time to find out how much you really need to still learn to be fast and correct. My optimistic estimation is 3 more years to get to some mid level in backend. I worked alot of different jobs, before, during and after college. I'm 30 years old and this is probably one of the hardest jobs to get good at. It's just too much of prerequsite knowledge and knowledge in total to produce complex end to end solution which solves real business problem and is not some CRUD app. One would need to take enough brakes to stay sane, take care of fitness and food. All the while creativity in programming solutions and pure programming output should remain high all the while maintaing learning schedule with full time job.

[@glui2001]

I had this same epiphany shortly after starting my soft eng career in the late 90's. I told myself that "I'm gonna change careers in 10 years". 10 years past. 20 years past. I'm still in tech. With the exception of the current state of tech employment, the market has always been an employee's market and the money is too good to pivot into another career. Silicon Valley has a very bland mono-culture IMO. Techies tend to have the same personality traits and interests and everyone talks about the same thing. Tech topics, stocks, long commute, how much everything costs, etc. I long for the day when I can retire and not have to deal with such a (sometimes) hollow existence. Not just tech, but really just the rat race in general. At least this generation has some nice things. Look at those monitors. In the late 90's we had to code with 17" CRTs. I was so elated when I finally got a 21" CRT in the early '00s. haha

[@StephenSamuelsen]

21" lol, that's crazy. and yeah for sure I wonder what it will be like in 20 years

[@nii-san5485]

if its a Microsoft account you might just be able to go in to your account settings and switch back to SMS auth codes. If its Duo.... im sorry

[@StephenSamuelsen]

Yeah I’ve looked around. SMS codes can get annoying

[@x86-64]

not gonna lie, i wish i had this problem. I can't even land any interviews and I am stuck with a CS degree working at a petco making close to minimum wage

[@StephenSamuelsen]

what programming language are you looking for jobs in?

[@darthnihilus777]

I am in the exact same situation, I’m working as a delivery driver even though I have a CS degree. I’m trying to land a Java job.

[@x86-64]

@@StephenSamuelsen I've been applying for java, python, and c/c++ jobs, and been upskilling my web dev skills to start considering web development positions. what's weighing me down is that i have no professional experience and only have a couple of academic internships and a handful of projects under my belt

[@blubblubee]

bro hasn’t gotten to the point yet where natural light is unbearable. it’s okay. you could touch grass at night too.

[@Condimenting]

Working from home makes it a lot better. A bit more lonely, but it's a lot more comfortable, and you can take walks. I live on the beach :-)

[@StephenSamuelsen]

remote is definitely more comfortable

[@WhyteHorse2023]

Coding was dead the day they tried to make it into some kind of engineering thing. A legacy of Boomer job protectionism. Thank God AI is coming to make them obsolete. It used to be fun to code and make computers do useful things. Now it's all about ads and gamification.