Coping with total lack of interest in industry

[-]

pydry@reddit

I burned out several times. A sabbatical backpacking through a warm and sunny location where I worked exclusively on fun projects for no more than a few hours a day fixed me.

It took 6 months before I felt ok with going back, 9 months before the flickers of looking forward to going back to work started to appear.

[-]

Ok_Top_4598@reddit

what sort of fun projects did you work on? i'm at the point where i can't even think of something fun to do with my skills

[-]

same. nothing seems fun at all anymore it's so weird. I started learning game dev for the past few months, and that has been (overwhelming), but a ton of fun and am really enjoying it. so maybe there's something you'd find fun that's somewhat adjacent to software dev, but not directly tied to it.

[-]

ICanHazTehCookie@reddit

IME, start with yourself. Both of my successful open-source projects were meant to make my life easier, and happened to solve the same problem for others. You'll feel more attachment/motivation, and have better insights into solutions.

They are both dev tools (ESLint plugin and Neovim plugin), which I find especially motivating because I enjoy the technical nature and it serves a community that I'm a part of.

[-]

ninseicowboy@reddit

Industry is an agile garment factory schlop competition with an arbitrary hierarchy constructed based on lying and political skills. People who should be car salesman are now managing teams making 400k selling MCP servers. FAANG culture is overrated, but guess what’s underrated?

Small and midsized tech companies! Seriously, small teams at midsized companies are doing technical backflips that FAANG engineers could never fathom. Creativity has been abolished in big tech, and at this point, it only exists in smaller companies

[-]

BetterWhereas3245@reddit

Car salesman is 100% how I'd describe my previous bosses/managers. Infuriating and mind-raping. Seeing the way these guys would bullshit and blow smoke up people's asses and they'd just buy it and then we have to develop this insane turd this guy made up on the spot and sold as already made piece of software. I'm feeling my heart rate go up as I type this.

[-]

deathhead_68@reddit

I see this a lot in this sub. I'm not sure if it's just some companies (or perhaps its the general American overwork culture) that burn people out or if a lot of people just don't enjoy the profession itself?

[-]

Izacus@reddit

It's the tail end of the gold rush in 2020s where bunch of people decided they want to grub a lot of money in the industry, without actually being interested in it.

Most people on this sub aren't really senior, despite the name of it.

[-]

deathhead_68@reddit

I definitely believe that based on some of the posts and comments I've seen. I by no means shill for my company unless I genuinely care about their mission or that they are helping the world (which is like 1 in a million), but I do love my actual profession.

I cant fathom being good at something you have no interest or enjoyment doing tbh, and I think I've met lots of those people irl and they are usually not great swes.

[-]

SmartassRemarks@reddit

I think it’s company/org specific, but I think it’s become more common because of the end of ZIRP as well as the lopsided and consolidated nature of the industry that allows incompetent orgs to survive and crowd out competition with M&A, regulatory capture, and anticompetitive behavior.

[-]

deathhead_68@reddit

Ahh that makes sense, though I always saw a few of these posts back when interest rates were zero, it was a lot less than now.

[-]

Varnish6588@reddit

I just came here to say, me too.

Although I am not lucky enough to financially support my family while taking a sabbatical year, I currently feel trapped in this "dumpster of human souls" that the technology industry has become.

I feel my work is absolutely meaningless, not because it isn’t important (it produces a lot of revenue for them) but because of the shit show happening around me and because it’s not fulfilling. I have sacrificed many years of my life working hard and working smart, only to realize what I truly want, and this industry in general, and the direction it is heading, are not what I want.

Like you, I still have passion for the technical aspects of my career. I enjoy coding my home projects, but I no longer want to work in technology because the awful management, offshoring, and AI hype have broken my soul. It’s dreadful.

[-]

greg90@reddit (OP)

I couldn't have said it better. How many YoE do you have? My dad owns a factory and I'm seriously thinking about working for him and learning how to mass produce fasteners to do something actually useful to the world with my time. Shouldn't be this way tho but the insane amount of money and toxic management has made interesting problems toxic to work with.

[-]

Varnish6588@reddit

I have over 15 yoe. If i was in a sabbatical year, I would try some other types of jobs, at least temporarily. From customer facing jobs, volunteering, including working in your dad's factory. Maybe you will discover a new career that you feel passionate about. who knows.

[-]

Extra_Internal_5524@reddit

burnout takes a lot longer to heal than you imagine

[-]

dinosaursrarr@reddit

First people will tell you it takes seven years to really get over. Then you find the people who tell you that’s the polite way of saying you never really do.

[-]

fmgiii@reddit

This is seriously true. It can wreck the soul.

[-]

EmotionalQuestions@reddit

It was 9 months before I could even look at a job posting on LinkedIn.

[-]

rco8786@reddit

I got burned out of big tech after \~15 years also. I was jumping around teams at a FAANG-adjacent, compensated well, but just completely bored and couldn't find any work that interested me and all upward growth stalled because of it (basically "stuck" at Staff).

Then an old colleague reached out to catch me up on the company he had founded a few months prior.

We negotiated a salary, I quit big tech, took 8 weeks off, and jumped into a seed series startup. It's been just over a year now, and I haven't looked back. I'm actually *building* things again and remembering the reason I fell in love with software in the first place, and getting lots of fun opportunities to help out in other areas of running a startup - so really stretching my capabilities in other ways also.

Anyway, maybe consider a smaller company...way less process, no time for micromanagment.

[-]

JaySocials671@reddit

Are you guys hiring?

[-]

rco8786@reddit

We actually have a senior front end role (react/TS) and a senior backend role (ruby on rails) open. DM me if you'd like.

[-]

Brought2UByAdderall@reddit

Ruby backend but you're inflicting TS on JS on the front end? I don't understand this.

[-]

Cahnis@reddit

Why did you guys choose Ruby for the backend?

[-]

rco8786@reddit

Bunch of Rubyists basically. Just went with what we know. I’ve written a bunch of other languages over the years and Ruby just jives

[-]

chaitanyathengdi@reddit

Is this a remote position?

[-]

rco8786@reddit

Yup. US only tho

[-]

JaySocials671@reddit

Sorry. I’m weak at ruby. Would be happy to help for services with Go, .NET, or TS backend.

[-]

brystephor@reddit

I wonder. Is there anyone who prefers working at a big FAANG style company over a smaller startup type, assuming comp and benefits were equal? I could see folks talk about better work life balance, but does anyone enjoy the "work" (the doc writing, design reviews, OKR reviews, alignment meetings, etc) part of FAANG more than the "work" part of a startup?

Every time ive felt frustrated with my job its been because of 1) my manager and I not being on the same page 2) the process of getting someone multiple levels above me or non technical to buy-in to an idea. So, many, reviews.

[-]

rco8786@reddit

I genuinely enjoyed a lot of it. I learned a ton, shipped some really neat stuff, got to work on systems at scale, etc. but yea eventually all the tedium started wearing me down.

[-]

moduli-retain-banana@reddit

+1 I think the only way to escape this is to join an early stage startup.

They don't have the time or money to keep the deadweight that pervades FAANG.

[-]

greg90@reddit (OP)

Exactly. Something it took me awhile to learn at FAANG is when someone's entire job is to be the bureaucracy, they are never going to make your work more streamlined since it's admitting they aren't needed lol

[-]

Working_on_Writing@reddit

Same here. I'm considering quitting my senior eng management role without anything lined up. I just dont care anymore. It doesn't help that my boss is a happy clappy corporate type who demands happy clappy engagement or she regards you as not a team player.

The current AI craze is also pushing me out. I think it's good for many things, but my boss just pulls numbers out her ass. ChatGPT 5 coming out will apparently "accelerate our roadmap by 50%". I have no idea why she thinks that. Her AI positioning document was itself written by AI. We dont even use ChatGPT... it just feels like a cult at this point.

I'm looking around, but it feels like the industry is generally in meltdown. Investors are convinced they dont need as many of us anymore "because AI," so everyone is under pressure to do more with less.

It really feels like I've spent 15 years building a career just for it to be destroyed.

I joke about retraining as a plasterer, but it's not seeming like a stupid idea.

[-]

clotifoth@reddit

Your manager doesn't sound like a human being. That will wear on you.

[-]

Sensitive-Ear-3896@reddit

Maybe she’s ai?

[-]

Working_on_Writing@reddit

Given that every document she's ever sent me is formatted exactly like she asked ChatGPT to write it, I honestly think AI does a good 40-50% of her job.

[-]

PsychologicalCell928@reddit

Have ChatGPT read it and create a response. See if you can tune it to the level of sarcasm, cynicism, and edge of disrespect you want to convey.

[-]

Sensitive-Ear-3896@reddit

You’ve actually made a pretty good case for why upper management is the part that should be replaced with AI

[-]

PsychologicalCell928@reddit

Now there's a vibe coding or freeware project that would attract a lot of developers.

Wouldn't be surprised if equity investors had lots of test cases they'd be willing to share to train the AI.

Can kind of see the major training case ontology now:

Management over hyped the product and under hyped the schedule.
Developers burned out due to: - under hiring; -ridiculous schedules; - cancelled vacations; -being blamed for poor requirements; ...
Product pivot; target market pivot; requirements priority pivot;
Investor money dried up just as the product was nearing completion

Would be interesting to see what AI would recommend as the optimal staffing up model.

When should different management roles be hired; and which should be contracts or outsourced?

CEO, CFO -- required to get funding but could an AI CFO better manage the investment / spending

CMO - hired how long before there really is a product

HR - what's better ( hire or outsource)

When do you staff up on sales people? Clearly need some lead time but what is optimal?

(TBC - don't read anything negative into the roles listed or their order; just the way they popped into my head. )

__________

I've seen a number of startups that failed because the product wasn't ready or mature enough to actually close sales. Lots of interest, lots of people willing to see a demo; however not enough functionality to justify a purchase. Often wondered if they hired sales people when they had something ready to sell would they have survived.

[-]

Pristine-Moose2337@reddit

There's pretty good money in doing restoration for legit old school lath and lime plaster work, and a growing market for people who want to build with "natural" plasters like lime and clay, but you'd probably have to live in Europe or be willing to travel to stay busy doing that work. (I say "natural" because gypsum plaster isnt unnatural per-se, but it doesn't have the same breathability characteristics that folks interested in the natural building movement are looking for.)

I wouldn't want to get into doing contemporary drywall, that just feels like drudgery when I have to do it on my own house.

[-]

greg90@reddit (OP)

This 1000x what you said about 15 years. I felt so belittled by the time I finally quit. Having the rug pulled on you by peope who speak confidently about things they have no relevant expertise or experience in just isn't healthy :(

[-]

Pale_Height_1251@reddit

Get flexible about where you work next.

I'm going to guess you did Web development or something equally boring.

Consider small companies doing embedded work, or indie games, or just anything that isn't just the standard "having meetings about stuff nobody cares about" domain of software development.

[-]

orlandoduran@reddit

I’m 7 months into an eight month sabbatical rn and I was basically catatonic for the first six. But I’ve gotten more done side project wise in the last month than I had in the past 5 years.

Someone else ITT said something along the lines of “I think all of us love programming but hate the baggage around it”, and I think that’s spot on.

My dream is to start a mercenary dev shop with a couple other engineers as a workers’ co-op. Everyone has skin in the game in terms of risk but also everyone’s compensation is commensurate with the value we’re generating rather than that value getting hoovered up by a management layer of… dubious utility. And that’s to say nothing of the hoovering going on in the c suite.

[-]

Ziboumbar@reddit

I want to start the same Interesting coop model, no management everyone has a say and we move as a real team, we build and we ship, exit the bureaucracy. I know so many amazing engineers that are not realizing their full potential and would benefit tremendously from getting such type of work. It has some complexity to it (finding contracts, prospection etc...) but I think it's doable and maybe a good structure.

[-]

NoobInvestor86@reddit

I hate my job. Was just commiserating with a friend who’s in the same boat at his place. Is over the grind. Pay is great but the work is mind numbing and getting more and more boring and simultaneously stressful. The obsession with AI is also so freaking annoying and i cant wait for this bubble to burst and die.

[-]

Nicky-Pan@reddit

I can relate a lot to what you wrote.

I’ve been a software developer since I was 20 — I’m almost 38 now. I’ve done frontend and backend, always picked things up quickly, and was good at my job. But over the years I burned out, not from coding itself, but from bad management, endless meetings, shifting priorities, and feeling unheard.

My peers often valued my contributions, but managers always wanted “more commitment” and delayed promotions. I tried starting my own projects — alone and with friends — but motivation faded or conflicts got in the way.

Two years ago, after a depressive period, my wife encouraged me to quit and focus on my own app idea. I worked on it for a while, but my mental health declined and I burned out completely. I stopped coding and focused on my son and hobbies.

Now I have no interest in going back to work, not because I’m lazy, but because I don’t feel mentally stable enough. If I did return, it would only be in development — but I dread interviews and constant evaluation.

You’re not alone in feeling this way. For me, the emotional toll has been bigger than the technical challenges.

[-]

frompadgwithH8@reddit

I took two months off of work and expected to get back to work after that. However, finding a job was hard. So I just ended up taking nine months off instead of two. Which wasn’t ideal. I burned through $30,000 in savings.

I never really regained any love for software, I just knew I needed to stop squandering my savings

[-]

bradleyfitz@reddit

Try being a consultant / contractor. Get a new contact every 6 months - 3 years. It keeps everything fresh. When one contract isn’t to your liking for whatever reason, just finish out the contract and don’t take a renewal. Move on to the next one.

[-]

BomberRURP@reddit

Yes capitalism is bad. Workers should be in control of their workplaces.

Idk what to tell ya dude, read Marx.

[-]

Superb-Education-992@reddit

When you’ve spent years pouring yourself into work and the joy gets chipped away by politics, shifting priorities, and micromanagement, it’s no surprise the thought of “getting back in” feels empty. The fact that you still enjoy coding on your own terms is telling it’s not the craft you’ve fallen out of love with, it’s the environment.

Right now, you’ve given yourself something rare: time without pressure. Let yourself sit in it. The next chapter whether that’s freelancing, building your own thing, or even pivoting industries tends to appear when you stop trying to force it. For now, keep following the projects that make you forget to check the clock.

[-]

preyta-theyta@reddit

i’m at the 20 year mark and 8 months into a sabbatical (that i safely stopped being able to afford 3 months ago). and while i still love developing, getting prepped and competitive for interviews with people with half my experience as staff engineer is… not motivating. i have to recast how i’m looking at this shit. i’m also starting to look into trade school & selling art

[-]

preyta-theyta@reddit

(if someone said hey here’s a gruntwork codegrinding job for $100k with easy interview i’d take it)

[-]

AizenSousuke92@reddit

in my area it's not even 100k but more like barely 60k with multiple round of gruntwork

[-]

xaervagon@reddit

The interview grinding today just rubs me the wrong way. I'm at the 18 year mark and it feels like I'm studying for my SATs into my late 30's. It just feels wrong. I don't mind being testing during an interview this ain't it.

[-]

t2thev@reddit

I burned myself out at my last position. Was let go. Took around 9 months to find a new position.

For me specifically, I'm trying to figure out where I could go. I'm specifically embedded so it's either learn hardware, continue in software or transfer to management/team lead.

My current role is contract, my first position as full time contract and I'm surprised at how much impact I've made in my short time there.

More importantly I also learned today with the tight market, the resume is less important and hiring is just vibes all the way down. Don't overthink it. If you like who you interviewed with and think you can stand the people you work with, just do it and think about your career track next year.

[-]

Active-Razzmatazz-10@reddit

In the same boat right now.

Had 2 bad startup experiences in a row, the first because of incompetent leadership and the second because of a toxic team and poor managers.

I quit without anything lined up for the most recent (with enough savings, thankfully) to avoid jumping into another shitty startup and landing in the same position.

I agree with you though, I love the job and building things but it's all the other bs that comes with it. Having to engage with and protect yourself from politics, toxic managers and non-technical leadership pushing aggressive deadlines with little to no desire to understand the complexity behind the problems (with AI now making this one even worse).

I've gradually started interviewing again but even going through the process is burning me out. It's so much time and energy for something I'm worried will lead to the same outcome. There are more bad companies and managers than good IMO.

I'm hopeful that I'll land something at a bigger, more stable place as I really want to find somewhere I can grow for 4+ years, but with the way the industry is right now, that may not happen.

I guess my learnings from this experience are:

- Don't stay at a toxic company for longer than you need to. I stuck it out at the last place for as long as I could and I'm paying the price for it now with my health and confidence.

- Do as much research on the company as possible, i.e. Glassdoor, Blind, etc. Have a strong set of questions that help to pull back the curtain a bit in the interviews.

- Keep yourself fresh and relatively interview ready. A companies culture can change overnight so even if the reviews and company culture looks/is great at the start, I've seen it flip enough times to know not to trust it anymore. Also layoffs.

[-]

JaySocials671@reddit

i burned out from this as well. i recovered by moving home to my family and really protecting my interests and time. i am also looking for people who are on the same path as me. would love to connect with u and maybe we can get through this togehter

[-]

MaximumDerekCat@reddit

I've been lucky to have enough money to have a nice long sabbatical in my own home, but as the time draws closer that I need to find another job...I find that I may just have lost too much of my enthusiasm for tech for it to be a viable option anymore. As others have mentioned, the industry's current culty AI-mania is exhausting and dispiriting

[-]

JaySocials671@reddit

Nothing wrong with AI. It’s actually nice. It’s the hard-to-navigate politics of tech

[-]

greg90@reddit (OP)

So this is something in my mind... I could move home to my family since I'm from a very low cost of living area and just rent a place and have no worries about expenses and income for a year or two while I reset.

[-]

yxhuvud@reddit

I'd recommend that. When I burned out it took more than 6 months after exiting from the company I worked at to even start looking for anything at all. And it will give you plenty of time to think about where your priorities lie.

[-]

JaySocials671@reddit

At some point you gotta choose. I made the choices I have. And honestly, you might be asking did I turn out alright? Because maybe you want to know if you’ll turn out alright urself. My answer: enjoy the ride.

[-]

LuckyWriter1292@reddit

A few years ago I got burnt out, I got a job at a medium sized company - it was boring but paid the bills.

I’ve since kept working for medium sized companies and care more about work life balance than the grind.

[-]

IOUnix@reddit

Let me start by saying I'm only a year into programming, currenting working on a degree in software engineering, and never worked in the industry. But I completely get what you mean because I myself have zero interest in being a programmer employee. I simply love building this and have been a tinkerer my entire life. Programming allows me to access that with and get the same excitement as I would building a new device except there's almost no tool or material costs. Every tool I need is right on my keyboard. If there's something I need such as a piece of software or server space that I simply can't afford, there's a cheaper (albeit harder) way to just do it myself.

All of this is to say, do it yourself. If you love programming but don't want to be an employee, use what you know to make money on your own. I'm not talking about building something for end users like a site or an app, but think outside the box. Find a niche to make you money, find a way to do it better with programming. I had a history of selling on ebay and have built my own little platform that essentially tells me what items I should be selling.

I guess my ultimate point is, the possibilities are endless. Especially with AI making programming significantly more efficient now. I don't know how your life is setup, if you have kids and what not. And doing it yourself is definitely less stable and immediate than finding another job. But I'd rather struggle on my own terms than suffer on someone elses.

[-]

rcls0053@reddit

I get you. I'm only 10 years into this, quickly made it from junior dev to a successful full stack dev / architect, worked many years as a consultant with many people asking me to join their org and now I'm really bored.

I was forced to switch jobs and thought that changing programming languages and ecosystem I would feel motivated, but.. I just don't. I just don't seem to have motivation. The project I'm working on is so boring. A government project with tons of bureaucracy, inefficiency, poor tooling.. I just don't care. It's a glorified, unnecessarily complex, form platform. It doesn't solve any problems. The use cases are so minimal and it's complete government bs. But I have to spend so much time just working as a SM/PO for my team, keeping tabs on our backlog, even though that's not my job! The customer has stated that they don't want anyone to do that, but somehow expect answers from me when they ask about it. It's completely mental.

I think all of us just love programming, but hate all the baggage around it.

[-]

Specialist-Wasabi863@reddit

I relate to you all - I’ve spent over 20 years as a software developer, recently tech lead and the agile obsession over the past 10 years and now the ai obsession have gradually taken away all the bits of the job I loved. I’ve resigned and am just starting to look for something new but really don’t want to end up with the same old frustrations in a new role. I’ve been building something purely to rekindle my own enjoyment of coding - and to a point it’s worked, it’s been refreshing to look forward to working on it. Where I find that in a paid role I’m not sure. Anyway - just to say I fee your pain and am reading responses with interest. (If anyone is interested my just for fun project is weatherpixels.com, I should be making it live in a week or two)

[-]

cac@reddit

Im also in a similar situation, I really don’t care. At my last job I pushed very hard to make positive changes and got good results but shitty managers drove me out.

So, I took a new job at a different company but I cannot bring myself to care. I get little mini bursts of motivation here and there but honestly if they came and laid me off tomorrow I wouldn’t care except losing the paycheque.

I don’t work on side projects either as I just don’t really care enough to try and I got kids etc so I don’t really have time anyways.

I’d love to just take 6 months to a year off but it’s not super viable at the moment. Not sure what I’m going to do so I’ll just keep at it til I figure it out I guess

[-]

dryiceboy@reddit

Took a sabbatical for a year to recover from burnout and I don’t think I’m interested in coming back to the software development anytime soon.

Probably something adjacent like app suppor which is relatively easy to come by where I’m in right now.

[-]

mauriciocap@reddit

Go deep, fast. Your skills will stay with you, you can reclaim them and build a completely different life from teaching or helping kids and disadvantaged people to management consulting. I was feeling somewhat like you and did both. I may be going for another "reincarnation" right now.

[-]

bonnydoe@reddit

Small(er) companies tend to bring you back where the love started: building things from start to finish, no layers of descion-making entities, working with a few directly involved people (designer, marketing). pay may be less, but satisfaction may be huge.

[-]

Tindwyl@reddit

I picked up a few jobs during the pandemic. I like coding. Realizing this focused my job search. I found a manager who is happy to redirect the political crap.

[-]

Successful_Shape_790@reddit

A while back, I was changing jobs a LOT. I would get restless in a year or two, and be ready to move on. I started some deep inner reflection on which jobs made me happier, and then why I was happy at those jobs. I now try and align jobs to those inner needs. That has helped a ton.