Is Tech Even Right For me?

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What is up? We're going to not experience devs subreddit. We're going to CS career questions uh to switch it up, I guess, cuz I've uh scrolled through enough experienced devs content and can't find any good topics. This person was asking if it's uh normal that they've been in tech for well, specifically in software development for for 6 years. and they were saying they're not really even sure if they like it or if it's the right thing and kind of go on to say that like you know the pays pays well lets them kind of uh live and do the things that they're doing um but they're just not sure that it's actually like a a passion for them and like just looking for some perspective on that I guess and we I think we talked about this in one of the recent videos, but this is uh I don't know.

I saw it and thought I'd talk about it probably again or maybe we'll find some different angles here. But uh I do think this kind of thing is important, right? I think one of the last videos we were chatting about this idea of like do you need to be aligned with your, you know, uh or like passionate about your the company you're working for and the mission that they're on? And my perspective was like I I think that helps. I don't think that you have to uh associate like your identity necessarily with that, but I would probably say from my perspective it's a similar thing here. And so um I don't know enough about other industries outside of software engineering because this is all I've done uh professionally. So it's hard for me to to say exactly.

But I can say that in software engineering for sure there's a ton of pressure for um you know being better staying cutting edge like how do you get ahead in your career uh I'm sure this kind of thing does exist in other industries as well right but uh like I said I know for sure we get it in software development and so I think the maybe like the side effect or one of the driving things here is that that's going to cause people to to have this pressure to be focusing on being a software developer, being a software engineer, getting ahead, doing more, getting better. And um I don't know, I feel like it's probably pretty hard for that not to become part of your identity when you're trying to focus so much on it. But like the reality is that's just not going to be the case uh for everyone.

And I don't I don't think that it should be the case for everyone. I I guess my thought is that I I think it's totally fine if uh and great if people are passionate about software development and they live and breathe being a software engineer and they like doing it outside of work and all that kind of stuff. And I think it's totally fine if uh if people don't have that, right? If uh if work for you is 9 to5 and you know you'll do good work from your 9 to5 and that's where you'd like to keep it like I think that's that that should be totally fine, totally acceptable. And I I'm very curious for people watching this. I think most of my audience is probably uh US-based statistically. I haven't actually looked at the demographics, but probably US andor Canada.

Um, and I would be very curious to hear if there's folks that are watching or listening from other parts of the world if uh if this kind of thing, this framing is like also common where you are or if this is maybe more of like a western kind of thing where there's this uh this pressure, right? I'm I'm genuinely asking this uh as I'm quite naive uh about other parts of the world and part of me wonders like how much is a a cultural thing here or like a how much of it's like a software engineering thing. Yeah, I I I don't think that you know you have to make your career your identity. Um, and I don't think you have to do that to be successful either, cuz you might be watching this or listening and saying, "Sure, we don't have to, but then we're never going to we'll never, you know, succeed or never excel at it." I don't think that's true.

Um, but I would suspect that the people that are passionate about it and do make it a big part of their life, uh, not that it's a guarantee they will be more successful, but they they probably find more enjoyment in that process. Well, or at least I would hope that they do. I would hope that they do if they're making it that big of a part of their life. So, when this person's talking about this kind of stuff, right, they're saying, "I don't know if this is for me. Like, it seems to be good paying." Uh, part of me is sitting here going like, "I don't know." Like, are you are you content with the other parts of your life, right? Like, because if the answer is yes. Oh, man. This bus. Come on. Sorry. One sec. this part's pretty pretty messy.

Um, if the answer is yes that you are content with the other parts of your life and uh you know work is a is a part of just a part of it then like who's to say that you have to you know that you have to be in love with work. I would what I would really try to get people to be thinking about is like if you look if you kind of step back and look at what's going on in your life like do you h are you do you have or are you working towards things that like that give you h like overall happiness and satisfaction in your life. I think that is probably the framing that I would try to get people to look at from like a career perspective at least because if the answer is no is that is that because you're spending so much time and effort at work and that's not the thing you love.

So, not only you spending a lot of time, but you're also not able to make more out of the remaining time you have. That's probably not a good combo. And if that is the case, is that a temporary thing? Right? Are you doing a phase of life for yourself where you're you're working your ass off and you're trying to get ahead and you're like, "Hey, like I'm just I'm just trying to set myself up for um you know, like delayed gratification kind of thing." Um and it's not for me to say that's right or wrong. The point is that I think when we're looking at our careers, our satisfaction in our careers, I think that's honestly got to come back to your overall, you know, satisfaction and quality of life. And I've shared this before that at least for myself personally I I am very motivated and fulfilled by by doing hard work.

I I don't know why I I do like to work. When I say that, I'm not saying that, you know, my my passion is working uh for a specific company or anything like that, but genuinely I do like making things. I like being productive and that makes me feel good. I also happen to be very interested in software development in general. So like that's really good alignment for me and where it's kind of a I don't know like a miss or still exploring is like the specific industry right and I think those are some some of the angles that I'm I'm looking at in in a question like this right if this person is like not in love with software engineering that's fine but like I don't know maybe if they had the opportunity in an industry that they were really excited about cuz that's the one cool thing about software development is you can you can develop software for any industry which is super cool.

So maybe it's a matter of like the uh the industry that you're building software for is that something that gets you excited right? So, it's not that building software itself is a thing you're in love with, but you get to do it for um I don't know, like for for sports teams or you get to do it for uh supporting something that's uh charitable that you're really passionate about or I don't know, like anything, video games. And maybe that's sort of a way to kind of add more satisfaction in without having to be in love with programming. But I I like I said, I think that's the question that I would be asking is like when I look at my overall satisfaction in life, what is that shaping up to be for myself? Because I do like to work.

I have said that I understand that my my day-to-day basis for for a large part of my life is going to be working and so I want to make sure that I'm doing work that I really enjoy. So for me it's very important in my overall like quality of life satisfaction that that I'm building software like that is a huge part for me because I do really enjoy that and for for others that just might not be the case right um if you're filling your your days with other things outside of building stuff totally cool right like you probably want to optimize your time and attention for those things. So I think it's very acceptable to have software development as a sort of a a means to facilitate that. Um probably from a career perspective I would regular and I would say this in general even for people that love what they're doing currently is like I think it's important that you probably take the time to regularly check in with yourself, right?

If you I think the things you value in life change over time because you're at different stages of life. So this person was saying like you know programming being in software development allows them to live in San Antonio. There's a couple other things that they were saying about what it uh you know allows them to do in their life and that's great, right? But th those things that you value may change over time. And if you were kind of like, well, I'm just going to be a developer because it lets me live in San Antonio and uh whatever a couple other things. If those things aren't aren't valuable to you later in life, like then then maybe you're propping you're propping this up with a job that you don't have to be doing either. You could be doing something else that maybe you are more interested in.

So, I think doing a regular check-in with yourself, a bit of a reflection on like, you know, where am I at in life? What are the things I value? Um, is this still something that is at least engaging enough to to make my overall quality of life satisfaction where I want it to be? But we're all different, right? So, I don't think it's fair to for people to kind of, you know, have to feel this way. I understand why people would be questioning like, hey, not super passionate about it, not in love with it. Is it is that okay? I think that's totally normal thing to happen. And I'm just kind of saying this because it's uh it's unfortunate that there's like so much pressure. It really is. Where's this rain coming from? It looks You can't see uh cuz the camera, but it looks like it's crazy storm ahead, but it's like looks okay above me is I don't know.

But the rain is coming and going, so we'll see. I I think I'm about to drive into some crazy rain. But TBD. Um, but yeah, I'll probably keep this one pretty short cuz I don't want to just keep repeating myself. But the reminder for all of you, right, is that, you know, a a job can just be a job. That's totally fine. And that's uh you know ultimately for you to decide in your overall quality of life how satisfied you are and people shouldn't make that decision for you I guess is what I would have to say about that. Certainly if someone told me like you know I have to feel a certain way about being a software developer or not I I have to go do something else. uh especially at this point in my life, I would tell them to go stuff it. But yeah, we'll leave it there.

Um if you have questions, leave them below in the comments. Like I said a little bit earlier in the video, if you work in a different part of the world and you've noticed that, you know, how I'm describing software engineering is very different from maybe what it's like culturally for where you're at. I would love to hear how how it's different, what that looks like, because I think that would be super helpful for other people to learn about. So share below in the comments and otherwise you go to codekame.com, you can submit career questions, software engineering questions anonymously and I would be happy to try my best to answer to be helpful. So thanks for watching and I will see you in the next one. Take care.