Does anyone else find software engineering boring and meaningless?
I came from a reputable university. Worked really hard in my computer science program, graduated nearly top among my peers. Was planning to do a PhD but decided to work since I got a job from G. Was really frustrated by politics and the environment and jumped to Apple to join a friend’s team. Team is okay but now I am seeing the same old BS again. Saw a lot of people who got promoted because they were outspoken and close to management and don’t have much real technical skills. Summary of the software industry: 1) grunt work done by new graduates who don’t know any better 2) people drinking koolaid pretending they are helping the world when in reality, the main reason for joining FANG is because it sounds prestigious and pays well. 3) most jobs are mostly boring. In G, the general perception is we are just moving protobuf around. 4) most code are badly written and waiting to be deprecated. Little incentives to fix them especially since people tend to join new teams or join new companies after 2 years 5) lack of rigor in the tech industry in general. Just look at number of boot camp graduates getting full time jobs and so called data scientists without a strong stats background. Break things and move fast? Yes. Thanks FB for making everyone so short sighted. 6) weak management everywhere pretending to care for you but they are just hypocrites and don’t really give a hoot about your well being. Those who rise fast are not surprisingly more focused on their own career profession than yours 7) startups might be more interesting but only in theory. In actual reality, your stock options are too little to worth the risk. In successful cases, founders get everything while you slave hard for peanuts I am thinking of doing a PhD but I know academia has its equal shares of its problems too. Sure it might be more intellectually challenging but the pay is too low to justify it. Plus, there is little point in doing a PhD for 6 years and rejoining google as a lowly t4 or t5. However I can’t bear the thought of working as a mediocre engineer for another few years of my life. Anyone has the same thoughts?
I came in wanting to disagree with you but you make good points.
You make a lot of good of points but whenever you make such broad generalizations you are doomed to lose the argument
I am not trying to win an argument. Just trying to see how many people feel the same.
I agree with you on a lot of points but making statements as "all the code is sh*t" or "all managers are hypocrites" has no room in a constructive discussion
Your view is skewed, because you are junior and have only worked for monopolies. Consider profitable companies with roles where your role has impact and can actually move the revenue needle.
Like what? OP mentioned startups as well. Other companies don't really pay as much as FANG.
Have you ever experienced software engineering elsewhere? You don't know how good you've got it.
Knowing how poor some people in south Africa are doesn’t make me feel any richer :(
Dude... You should visit South Africa (of Africa, for that matter) sometime. People have more fulfilling lives and they probably never get to ask why their lives suck or why are they meaningless - because they aren't. They have it much better than we are.
Pretty spot on. Took me many years in industry to feel this. Our job is very similar to a doctors. We study hard, work our way to becoming senior. Then the learning flat lines. Most problems we have seen before and know how to solve. It's rare to see challenging problems. Maybe a few times a year. I have thought of going to management, but I hate politics and game playing. For the time being I am getting paid very well. I have branched my interests beyond software and focusing on family and that helps. Regarding academia. Most publications are trash. One off use cases that aren't practical. Very few professors are making true impact. You would need to be one of those top guys to be getting paid high. So when a company tells you "we are working on hard problems and are looking for really smart people" its probably bullshit.
Yes
You have somehow managed to not notice where new ideas come from. Yes, the young are ground down while they learn how to computer. Then they start coming up with ideas. That is inherently political, it involves conversations with actual people. A single person can't make an iPhone update. If you don't want to talk to people, then, yup your prospects are limited... WTF did you expect? Magically you'd make a new Google by yourself?
Replace “software industry” in your post with pretty much every industry and you are spot on. It is luck to get on a team that does innovative work, has no politics and pays well, especially if you are junior in your career. Good news is you are not bound by family and can change teams as often as you want until you find the place you are satisfied with.
So the best way is to start your own company or work as freelancer so you get to set ur own directions
Every successful team has someone doing the politics. Even if it's just keeping the douchebags away. If the Juniors are unaware it exists, then there's some epic motherfucker running the show.
Leave the path of generalist software engineer and try specializing. PhD is one way of doing that; or else work for a group/company solving some specific problem you are interested in.
Academia has way more politics and BS than industry. It is a nasty environment full of pricks. And you will be treat as a slave.
What type of politics in Academia?
Who gets to be the first author on a paper, who gets the job/tenure etc.