#SoftwareEngineering #Programming #CareerAdvice
Are you feeling disillusioned with your software engineering college diploma? Unsure about your love for programming? It’s a common struggle among aspiring software engineers. But before you jump ship, let’s explore some key points to consider.
## Finding Your Passion in Software Engineering
### Understand Your Motivation
It’s important to dig deep and understand your motivations for pursuing a career in software engineering. Ask yourself:
– Why did you choose this field in the first place?
– What aspects of software engineering do you enjoy?
– Are there specific projects or technologies that interest you?
### Explore Different Paths
Software engineering is a vast field with various specializations. Consider exploring different paths within the industry, such as:
– Web development
– Mobile app development
– Data science
– Cybersecurity
### Seek Mentorship
Having a mentor can provide invaluable insights and guidance. Reach out to professionals in the field and ask for advice or shadow them on their projects. Seeing real-world applications of software engineering can reignite your passion.
## Overcoming Boredom and Lack of Motivation
### Engage in Hands-On Projects
Theory can only take you so far. To truly enjoy programming, dive into hands-on projects that challenge and excite you. Building real-world applications can make programming more engaging and rewarding.
### Join Coding Communities
Connect with like-minded individuals through coding communities and forums. Surrounding yourself with passionate programmers can inspire you and motivate you to improve your skills.
### Attend Workshops and Hackathons
Participating in workshops and hackathons can be a great way to break out of your routine and spark new ideas. Collaborating with others on fun projects can reignite your creativity and passion for programming.
## Dealing with Competitive Environments
### Focus on Personal Growth
Instead of comparing yourself to others, focus on your own growth and progress. Set personal goals and work towards achieving them at your own pace.
### Embrace Collaboration
The software engineering field thrives on collaboration. Working with others on projects can lead to innovative solutions and a sense of camaraderie. Embrace the opportunity to collaborate and learn from your peers.
### Find a Supportive Work Environment
If you find the competitive environment overwhelming, look for companies that prioritize a supportive and collaborative work culture. A positive work environment can make a world of difference in how you perceive your career in software engineering.
In conclusion, before jumping ship from your software engineering career, take the time to reflect on your motivations, explore different paths, and find ways to reignite your passion for programming. By engaging in hands-on projects, connecting with coding communities, and focusing on personal growth, you may discover a newfound love for software engineering. Remember, it’s okay to feel disillusioned at times – but with the right mindset and approach, you can overcome these challenges and thrive in the field.
Why are you even doing this then? Why are you devoting all that time and money to something you don’t enjoy doing and can’t even motivate yourself to do the bare minimums for. If you dislike it that much, find something else that DOES inspire you and makes you happy. This ain’t it.
You don’t have to like something to do it. If you get money that you will be using to di stuff that makes you happy that’s good enough. Life is not about enjoying it all the time…
> but I can’t love programming.
That’s okay because nobody’s gonna love your 2-year software engineering diploma either so I guess we’ll call it even. 🙄
^(You’ll find out soon enough)
Maybe you should go to computer support. It helps you to write batch or script file for process automation. AI could help to ease your work.
Having one or many programming system will help you in later years.
I wrote a small [library management project](https://github.com/ZalanTonsiti/LibraryVB4) using Microsoft Visual Basic 4.0. It is available in GitHub.
You will need Microsoft Windows 95, Microsoft Visual Basic Enterprise or Professional edition and Microsoft Office 4.3. Compile and run it on a virtual machine of your choice. Check [Comparison of platform virtualization software](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_platform_virtualization_software).
Extra software needed to edit the report. AFAIR, the reporting software was [Crystal Report](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Reports).
You could study the source code and practice creating pseudo code, programming algorithms, DFD, and check out the database scheme.
You may enjoy the cooperative work you will do in order to fulfill a common goal of progressing an application used by customers. If you think so too, try to find work in a company that has that atmosphere.
You don’t have to love programming. You don’t have to *like* programming. You just have to have smarts and the ability to be persistent, even when the work is difficult.
If it’s boring and no motivation for you, then before changing your major, first make sure that you don’t have depression.
Dont worry, people with years of experience cant find jobs anymore. Not loving it wont really be a concern if you dont have some serious luck or connections.
I mean making your own projects is fun, doing boring shit is not. Jobs suck, thats kind of it.
Would recommend jump ship to smth that you like. Do something that you like with your life
I love working on my OWN projects; they keep me motivated, and the insights from my personal projects can be applied to work/business. I also don’t enjoy programming, which is why I use simpler tools. You don’t need to love it; you just need to get things done, effortlessly.
Become a project manager…
You’re probably in college, take some other classes as electives which you think interested you’re not forced to become a programmer.
If you have to force yourself to do it, it isn’t the right industry for you. Lots of people truly enjoy coding
I always advocate for people to do something that they enjoy. If you think you can grind it out and get the lifestyle you want then sure go for it. But there are less stressful things out there that you may find more enjoyable and you can have a decent life on the pay of most office jobs.
There are so many other things you can do outside of programming in this world. If you have a good job, get some certifications (AWS, Sec+, etc.) and move into a different job in that world. So much can be covered by the Software umbrella!
If you don’t love to code your college projects… you definitely will not be happy to code old mammoth’s legacy shit too 😁 I guess it is better to find another thing, it still could be near it like business analytic or project manager.
Why stick to something you dont like to do? Listen I know money is a very important thing but in the end why have lots of money if you’re too depressed and miserable to spend any of it? Find something you love to do that pays decently and I promise you you’ll be so much happier with life. When you’re on your death bed you’ll be happy you choose to follow your heart rather than be a money-hungry goblin.
Do you ever try to build your own creative projects? That is what sparked my love for programming. Instead of learning languages for the sake of learning them, I just jumped right in and started building something I thought would be cool. Now I compare development as legos for adults. I never had so much fun seeing something I envisioned come to life through my hard work. It is the most satisfying feeling ever.
You don’t have to, it just has to make you money.
Start learning nextjs and react you’ll start to enjoy coding once you begin building with modern tools.
Wasting years doing something you don’t enjoy is a fast track to an unfulfilling life. Follow your passion, before it’s too late.
If you feel like that OP, my advice would be to try and get a job in a programming field whilst exploring what things you might enjoy.
India, where I’m from, has a saying: “People here do engineering to realise they love something else” but at the same time, it’s important to support yourself financially.
When you get in the real world it’ll feel different as you will be able to apply your skills to help people achieve things. The scope of a developer work is enormous and I very much doubt that you will hate or love all of it.
If it’s to jump ship into a career that doesn’t give the quality of life a career in development would do for you then I’d advise to at least check it out a little before jumping as these are valuable skills in a lot of other industries.
In the end work is work. I’ve been working in software engineering for over a decade and I don’t do passion projects nor do I learn anything outside of work. I wouldn’t call it a passion but it’s the thing I find tolerable when I give 8 hours a day to an employer and the pay is decent.
I enjoyed working on the programs at school; at least solving them was fairly enjoyable for me compared to other classes. I am also in a similar situation where I don’t feel motivated to do much extra stuff. I could never get into starting personal projects.
I have a 2-year as well and about four years of experience now. The job search for me wasn’t difficult I had companies wanting to hire me with just my associates degree as they could pay me less. I had a job offer before I even graduated, and it didn’t take too much effort for me. Of course, everyone’s experience on that will probably differ. I make as much as others who have bachelor’s degrees at my company now.
I think a big part of your question comes down to if you think you will enjoy your work. Honestly? This depends on your personality, but I think it’s worth sticking it out for a bit and seeing if you can make it work for you. I like working alone and sitting in front of a computer, and solving puzzles is more enjoyable than most other job alternatives I can think of, so the job fits well with my personality. In fact, I can’t think of another job that would really mesh for me like software engineering does. I still do plenty of collaboration too, but I can just work by myself 80% of the time and not have anyone breathing down my neck. It’s probably one of the better jobs for introverts who just like thinking about stuff a lot. If that isn’t who you are, it might be more of a toss up for you.
Wait are you getting an associates degree?
That’s not going to help you unfortunately, especially in today’s market.
Why did you force yourself into that in the first place?
Job competition is for delusional idiots, you don’t want to work for!
Jump ship
Nah. Try to get 1-2 years work experience. That’s the most important!
You’ve reached a major milestone, congrats!
After you’ve worked for a company, and learnt how to work from 9-5. Then you can reevaluate. Make sure to pick something like front-end or databases. Nothing too archaic. Pick a place with a decent office culture. Maybe even a company like Deloitte or something, or Miro (they pay well).
Make friends, create a Linkedin page, and network (go to after work drinks and meetups). I guarantee that even if you don’t like those next two years workwise. You’ll get used to putting in the hours. Then you can always transition into something else. Ideally tech related (product manager) or something more client facing.
I’ve been in the industry over 25 years and have never seen anyone be highly successful as a developer that didn’t enjoy it. So if you’re maybe thinking you should just get your head down and slog through it for the money, guess what, you’re unlikely to even make that much money.
By contrast there’s several people from my high school class who went into fields that I thought couldn’t possibly pay a living wage, but they’ve gone on to be wildly successful because they loved what they were doing.
If you’ve not even finished a 2-year degree your career hasn’t even really started yet, and the skills you’ve learned are still useful and transferrable. You should absolutely not consider it a sunk cost to switch professions now. Good luck.
EDIT: note to other sub members downvoting this – while we might have a duty to help encourage people who want to be developers but are encountering short term frustrations, that isn’t a situation that OP is describing. They’re not having setbacks and want some cheerleaders to get them back in the game, this is someone who categorically states that they do not get pleasure from it. There’s no gatekeeping here. Instead of thinking as a software engineer, try thinking as a human.
Just to give you a frame of reference for some of those who work in the industry, I’m almost 9 years deep into my career as a software dev and I:
1. I haven’t learned a new language in about 5 years (and I only did then as part of a proof-of-concept for my client for why they didn’t actually want their proposed solution)
2. I haven’t done any programming outside of work in probably 6 years (and even that was a small text doc processor to organize some things)
3. I’ve been at the same company for 7 years because I already make decent money and don’t want to deal with the nightmare that is HR interviewing (I’m not even bad at interviewing, it just sucks)
If you at least have the mind to be able to do it and you don’t hate it, keep truckin.
Consider moving to other areas rather than programming, you can do DevOps, project management, maybe work as web designer with no code solutions. There are many other branches that you could try that are not only code that you may enjoy.
Maybe you could try Frontend, I know universities used to be around backend which is less visual and more architectural. Maybe you’re more of a visual person, which may help as well.
I would suggest trying this areas and seeing if you like them, if you don’t really like nothing related to code, then is better to move on.
I hope it helped 🙌🏻
Don’t jump ship, finish your degree. Then choose to work in an area of business that you like or can relate to. Code for two years and then move on to some other role than coding within that business. Treat coding as just a way to get in, a lot of people do this. And having an understanding of coding is never wasted
If you have the opportunity and means to learn something else, and if you have an idea of what else you’d enjoy doing, you should absolutely try it. If you can’t, you should explore the various possibilities and evolutions that the job of programmer offers and find aspects you at least enjoy a little and try to specialize in these aspects. Otherwise you’ll be unhappy in your career and you’ll end up suffering a burn/brownout, or just feeling miserable.
Some positions exist outside of a competitive environment, in small companies for example. If you don’t like the coding aspect, you can try to specialize in the analysis aspect and aim to become a project manager or product owner. Why did you pursue software engineering in the first place?