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Im cynical after spending years in shitty manufacturing jobs, so keep that in mind, but just take the money in your good career field. Most people have to work a job they give no fucks about or even hate for not a lot of money.
You say your company is somewhat socially aligned with your beliefs. Being in a company where you believe in their mission at least a little while making good money puts you far in the upper percentile of job quality
jr positions dont come with much atonomy, youre basically there to learn and close tickets. As you do more learning and get a better understanding of the systems youre working on you will be able to intuitively come up with better solutions. You should also be learning about operationalizing the systems youre working on, how to respond to incidents, how to know an incident is even happening. You should be learning how to operate in a software organization. Make friends with managers on other teams, you never know when youll need to collaborate.
SWE can be adjacent to a lot of different fields! IMO work can only be so engaging, like I love CS but I only get to do the fun stuff at work sometimes. Esp once you have your fundamentals down, most of the actual work is planning, organizing, and reporting.
I'm trying to get my ADD treated, now that I'm getting into more challenging roles I uhh need more help with concentration.
Had/have a similar problem. Didn't get a job in academia in my field of study (despite years and degrees) because my heart wasn't in my field (it was in the humanities like you) and have been stuck in boring data analysis jobs since. The pay also has not been keeping up with rising costs, so there's this push to get higher paying tech jobs which I don't feel qualified for. I know all the math ML and such, but I've got piss poor devOps skills. And most companies seems to want someone with data engineering knowledge which I don't have. So now I feel a further push to learn all these skills that I have zero interest in just to stay on top of it all. And I was already burned out on this long ago.
And going back to school seems unrealistic, and there aren't many jobs that pay well in the humanities.
Something thay has helped me, and may help you, is if your current job gives you free time then use it for your own passions. I feel like I've given up on having a meaningful job, so I'm just taking back as much time as I can.
Since I have STEM skills I have been using them to learn the math in political economy and do some modeling in my own computer for it.
So it is a niche little area that combines STEM with the humanities that I do in my free time. And it keeps me sane in some little ways.
But alienated labor still sucks. There's no way around it, but it sucks less on those days thay I have free time. Some weeks I'm constantly busy though and that's where if gets bad. Like you, I hate this stuff lol.
So, it may be possible to find some way to use your skillset and direct toward work or orgs that you care more about.
It may have to be volunteer, or you may have to take a pay cut if working for a NGO. I hope it goes well. I feel your pain
As someone who got into coding much later in life without going to school for CS or anything even related, I don't really like it or even know wtf I'm doing half the time. I'm just here to pay rent and make sure my partner and I can live without any other support
I wouldn't give up the money I make to do something I enjoy because anything I enjoy would be ruined by making it into a job. I fucking hate having to work and I don't know how anyone who understands the nature of capitalism can even imagine themselves enjoying working in the US. I used to work for a university and went to grad school for psychology (dropped out at the end), which is what I would probably be doing if I didn't live in a nightmare hellworld that makes it almost impossible to pursue meaningful work and pay rent at the same time
Edit: you could always start a company of your own and give me a job
Software engineering isn’t one thing. It’s like knowing how to use Microsoft Office. The actual content of your work day depends on where you work, so maybe just look for a new workplace but still within your field. It’s too early to give up imo. Most people hate their first “real” job after exiting the relatively enriching atmosphere of university
Cash the cheques as the disillusionment slowly encroaches on every facet of your life and you burn out in 5-10 years.
I guess it depends on what you mean by a field in the humanities. But it's generally much worse pay, and more competitive because there are a million PhDs and very few good jobs.
This. As someone with a humanities degree, I can tell you it's not something that really shows up much when scrolling through pages and pages and pages and pages of job listings. It's almost always something technical, or something like nursing. You're lucky you stuck with the CS degree long enough to find what sounds like a decent job with non-shitty managers.
What people usually tell us starving artists and philosophers is to find a "real" job (like a trade skill or tech skill) and do our artsy interest as a side hustle or hobby. There are historically many authors and artists who've had to live this reality, unfortunately. That's capitalism for you.
If you're able to do the work, go home, and just completely forget about it and do something else, that's a very cushy job. The people who get completely invested in CS projects get chewed up and discarded by the industry.
100%, just milk it as long as you can and give zero shits when you get home. Don't respond to emails or messages either after 5
I would stick it out for 2 years and then start trying to find something else so that you have a good resume and some money saved up
careers are in those fields that would be comparable in terms of pay/growth to software engineering
Yeah there are none. Especially if you compare entry level jobs. Maybe look into software engineering in places that are more socially aligned? Lots of NGOs and stuff like that always need IT people
My current workplace is somewhat socially aligned and they do good work. Problem is me not finding the work itself that exciting.
I'm okay with a paycut early in my career if it means I actually enjoy doing what I do. My concern is long term if I'll be able to have good growth opportunities or not. What do you think?
Seconding this. I found work with a conservation group. There's always something.
My current workplace is somewhat socially aligned and they do good work. Problem is me not finding the work itself that exciting.