This post resonated with me. I hope someone else has good advice around this. I'm in a similar situation. I used to love this field so much but I'm finding myself disenchanted with it this year.
Last year I started a company that crashed and burned. That was a pretty painful process but one that was ultimately worth it I think. I'm still kind of recovering from it but I'll try it again and don't feel too burned out in that respect.
When I came back to the field after the failure of the company I found that I had an even easier time finding jobs. Higher paying jobs even. But I've also found that I don't enjoy the work. It's more "senior" and just so many more meetings and so much less doing anything that feels useful or interesting.
I've thought about trying to step back down to more technical and fun roles. That might wind up being a money hit but might actually be worth it at this point if I can go back to writing code.
I've also thought about trying to move into a different field. VR is one that is really compelling to me. It's still part of "tech" but feels new and untamed in the way that tech used to. This field used to feel like blazing a trail and lately it has felt more like an arbitrary part of business, like accounting or something. Even if my perspective is warped and it hasn't happened yet - it's bound to happen someday. It's not even a bad thing. But what I loved about this field in the early days was the sense of adventure and rebellion. Nobody knew what was going on and it felt like there was a lot of opportunity for creativity. Now it feels more like implementing a bunch of boring standards made up by other people.
I feel jaded about it and I've considered that might be the issue too. I came off the biggest failure of my life into covid when I thought I was going to be taking 2020 to get back to normal and regroup. It could be that this year just kind of sucks and I'll go back to loving tech when the world gets back to normal a bit.
Hard to say. In any case I'll be keeping my eye on this thread for anybody that has advice or has been through a similar experience.
Last year I started a company that crashed and burned. That was a pretty painful process but one that was ultimately worth it I think. I'm still kind of recovering from it but I'll try it again and don't feel too burned out in that respect.
When I came back to the field after the failure of the company I found that I had an even easier time finding jobs. Higher paying jobs even. But I've also found that I don't enjoy the work. It's more "senior" and just so many more meetings and so much less doing anything that feels useful or interesting.
I've thought about trying to step back down to more technical and fun roles. That might wind up being a money hit but might actually be worth it at this point if I can go back to writing code.
I've also thought about trying to move into a different field. VR is one that is really compelling to me. It's still part of "tech" but feels new and untamed in the way that tech used to. This field used to feel like blazing a trail and lately it has felt more like an arbitrary part of business, like accounting or something. Even if my perspective is warped and it hasn't happened yet - it's bound to happen someday. It's not even a bad thing. But what I loved about this field in the early days was the sense of adventure and rebellion. Nobody knew what was going on and it felt like there was a lot of opportunity for creativity. Now it feels more like implementing a bunch of boring standards made up by other people.
I feel jaded about it and I've considered that might be the issue too. I came off the biggest failure of my life into covid when I thought I was going to be taking 2020 to get back to normal and regroup. It could be that this year just kind of sucks and I'll go back to loving tech when the world gets back to normal a bit.
Hard to say. In any case I'll be keeping my eye on this thread for anybody that has advice or has been through a similar experience.