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First job as software engineer. Realized I don't love it as much as I love the humanities/social sciences. What to do? (hexbear.net)

submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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So I just finished my masters in CS and got a job as a junior software engineer. When I first chose CS for my bachelors, I did so because it was somewhat intuitive for me. But I wasn't crazy about it. Thought the interest would grow over time. I've had undiagnosed ADHD throughout my life and thought the difficulties with CS during my bachelor's (which took almost 7 years) was due to the ADHD and not due to lack of interest in the subject. Learned coping strategies and did my master's. Graduated with a 4.0 GPA so I'm not bad at it for sure.

Now I'm medicated and I finally feel like I'm able to be 100% of myself. But despite that, I still just do the tasks at work for the sake of doing it. I like the problem solving aspect but it isn't something I dream about every day. I see my mentor working in the same company live and breathe this stuff and I can tell there is a clear difference in the thought process between both of us. It's easy for him to produce great quality work as he's naturally curious about this stuff. Me, I just try to get it done. It's not lead by curiosity for me. What grabs my interest is stuff like literature, history, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, movies etc. I don't need any incentive for those things. I'm naturally curious about those fields.

Now I'm wondering if I should still stick with software engineering where I'm decently okay but not that curious about it . Or should I consider a career more aligned with the social sciences/humanities? I don't even know what careers are in those fields that would be comparable in terms of pay/growth to software engineering. Is the choice between money and passion or can I have both to some degree in the non-SWE fields?

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 21 hours ago

consider that many fields, including the humanities, have a need for people with your skills. and you could find out more about those specialized needs by furthering your formal education in the humanities and how they interact with digital archives/preservation, or some other point of convergence.

I, too, started in "computers" but after a few years I figured out that it's more of a skillset and knowledge base than a mature discipline, so it's kinda boring unless you're doing something interdisciplinary and novel with it. and most shit just isn't. it's monetizing fart apps.

so I went back to school for something I was really interested in (and completely unrelated), having "computers" in my back pocket. it helped me immensely in school/grad school and then again later in getting to work on novel projects with organizations I wanted to be a part of, because usually people aren't combining "computers" and another discipline in a single head.

anyway, all that to say, you're allowed to keep learning. as it turns out, solving the problems of tomorrow will require interdisciplinarity.

silos are for the academy. specialization is for insects. chase the knowledge you want and your mind will connect the dots later.

people will think you're a warlock when you do.