She was in charge of hiring campaigns, would come to the manager and tell him that someone had applied "but he's like old" (in his thirties). The expression on her face was as if it were a contagious disease or something; as if merely reading the résumé or saying the age out loud decreased her lifespan or endangered her life. It was hilarious.
I always wonder how far I could have taken that legally, but I'm not litigious.
"You look so young."
"I have this portrait in my attic."
The thing that bores me most is how software teams are organised. Lame management treating programmers like bricklayers is simply gross. I am in a fortunate position where I can choose my clients, but i run as fast as i can the moment i see product managers, or non tech managers, trying to “debug” things together with “their” devs, or giving architectural guidance when they clearly have no clue what they are doing.
It took me until recently to realize I needed to find new problems to work on to avoid burnout.
It feels like a paradox (avoid the well trod easy stuff to work on challenging stuff) that this adds to job satisfaction but I think it’s true.
I meant more 30+ without any qualifiers , would try wording it better next time :)
I've come to the realization that when you take up a salaried job, you're exchanging your time for money. If it satisfies you're lucky. Otherwise, do the essential minimum at your job and then outside your work hours
a) Find alternate ways to seek fulfilment to lead a balanced life(a sport, something creative etc.)
b) If you're motivated enough find alternate career avenues / start your own venture
If you've enough savings you could quit too, without having to put up with job. But that's a privilege very few can afford
For some people, changing their job is the answer, but for others, even a career change won't feel different. For this bunch, my hunch is that the choice of field is not what's truly bothering them. In which case, I would revisit my first point -- make self-care a priority.
I haven't directly answered the question posted by OP because I think trying to convince yourself to be excited about something leads you further from a solution that addresses the root cause.
I hope the answer I gave was not too prescriptive. There is no judgment here. Best of luck, OP.
Anyways programming, design and everything around it is so broad, you never run out of problems to fix. Each new technology introduces new problems. So there is always something to do.
If it comes to an excitement on my stage of professional career I am excited to see my team providing great solutions and client is happy about it. Also having enought experience to have impact on a project success , not only as a code author, is pretty exciting.
For me being a programmer in my 30ties is like being a programmer in my 20ties, except now I often know what I am doing :)
* If your current job doesn't keep you excited - there are others just around the corner that might.
* Experience (don't mistake it for age!) is a cool thing. We have seen some sh*t and can thus avoid mistakes. This yields effective coders, reviewers, and designers.
* Mentoring can be a cool thing, too.
Seriously, if you are struggling to remain motivated as a software engineer, this is in the first place a sign that either your current job or your career path are not what you want to do. Talk to people (and perhaps real people around you) to understand what it is you want to do. And then look for the change that is needed.*
If a new database comes and is better than postgres, I might switch to it in a couple of years, but, I wouldn't want to be working in a new database. Software for software sakes doesn't motivate me too much.
Solving problems for the film industry with visual effects does motivate me a lot. I love seeing the end product and being part of it by making the studio and artists more efficient! That I can do it by using my tech skills is awesome.
Professionally, I've come to terms with just putting in the hours for money and taking time off when I need to. I honestly think I wasted a bit of my twenties caring too much about that "dream job" and building someone else's cool product.
Our love will never die. Brainwashed by the algo botnet generation influencers like you are the bigger concern. There's nothing genuine or innovative about a generation that grew up on social media.
I then save the money or use it to go travel, go for hikes, kayak etc.
To do something “exciting” would probably require dedicating the rest of my 20s and 30s to do, and I don’t really care that much.
All of engineering is using technology to help people. People never run out of needs and desires. Technology keeps improving, and most current technology as deployed is such a poor fit for needs that if I just spend a few hours watching somebody do their job, I'll see a dozen ways to help. And getting some improvement actually in their hands? A joy.
I've been in the industry 41 years. It's been interesting watching the younger generations "innovate" the same stuff we used 30 years ago.
I'm in for another 8 years.. One because I have to boys to put through college and two, because it's interesting, challenging and fun work. Even if I do see the same issues over and over again.
These days, this comes down to clearly understanding a problem, the aspects that need to be made clear and separating out the parts cleanly into a design. Getting good at naming things, having strategies, deeply knowing 'why' I do each thing I do. I spend a lot more time in some kind of notepad thinking than I do any sort of coding, even then it's pseudocode in a notation that I make up on the spot. This is exciting. Working remotely, it's amazing how much can be expressed in Github markdown tables and ascii block diagrams.