The Harsh Reality of Being a Software Engineer

You know, being a software engineer, it isn't all glitz and glamour. What's up everyone, Jossie here, and I really wanted to make this video because I see this like trend where people only really talk about the positive aspects of the tech industry and being a software engineer. I myself definitely am guilty of that. I have at least probably a dozen videos where I only really talk about the positive aspects of being a software engineer, which can kind of make the industry and the job itself seem a bit unrealistic. Aspiring software engineers should have a deeper understanding of what the reality is like for software developers, opposed to just these expectations of a six figure salary and free coffee and snacks at work and being able to bring your dog to work. For one, as someone who desired all of those things, I realized that those are major perks, but there are some not so healthy things that come along with landing that dream fang job or really high paying salary. So what are some of those negative things that come along with being in the tech industry as a software engineer, working for a competitive company? The first thing that I can think of is burnout. So what causes burnout? Developers are always working harder to become more efficient. And as you climb the ladder, your expectations obviously grow larger. You have more meetings, but also have the same amount of programming, which can get overwhelming quickly. For one, your backlog seems like it's a never ending growing list of bugs and refinement and UI, UX work and technical debt that your developer team never gets to because because most teams are typically like under man. Like there's usually like a need for more developers, which is another issue in tech. Also, success gets pretty addicting, especially with all these videos talking about how people are making, you know, $120,000 right out of college. People are making $200,000 in their 20s. It makes you want to like make that amount of money as fast as you can. So you jump from company to company and you're working on your skill sets at work, obviously, and then outside of work, you're programming and coding all the time, not building healthy sleep habits. So that's one example of how programming or just the tech industry in general can cause stress and overload, which leads to burnout. That's an example of burnout. While you're working in a job as a software engineer, let's talk about the burnout that people experience before they even start their first day at work. When I was preparing for technical interviews, I seldomly had time for really anything else, which really created this like poor quality of life. I was not only programming for my regular job, which was quite difficult at times and demanding, but I also was studying data structures and algorithms, basically a student after 5 p.m., which is a totally different beast. Like your actual software engineering job is significantly different than like what you're studying and preparing for, which is another reason why I don't understand the purpose of some of these technical interviews. They don't reflect what your reality is as a developer. Programming for a company takes creativity and collaboration, along with having the ability to Google stuff and go and stack overflow to debug your code or figure out how to create whatever thing that needs to be created. Whereas in an interview, they can ask you any question. So I was studying algorithms and data structures. I was doing at least two medium Lee code questions a day, along with watching Stanford lectures on data structures and algorithms, and I even went as far as doing virtual peer interviews through Pramp, which I definitely recommend. That definitely helped me a ton. And I also got really good objective feedback from people who don't know me. The point that I'm making is applying to a million jobs, because let's just be honest, like LinkedIn at this point is just a resume stack, along with preparing for technical interviews, interviewing, and then starting the job to make a lot of people feel exhausted. I know for one that after I finished my interviews, I was like, I don't think I ever want to do a technical interview again. And I was preparing for my technical interviews. It was during the holidays. So literally during New Year's Eve, I celebrated with my wife and her family for like a couple minutes when the ball dropped. And then after that, I was on the iPad studying for the technical interview that I had like in the next five or six days. It's such a horrible feeling when you get declined from a company where you made it to like the final round of interviews. And that happened to me a couple times. Now, obviously, I'm really grateful to even have those opportunities, but you can feel really defeated when you like do three, four or five rounds of interviews and then you don't get the job and then you don't really get a clear reason for why you didn't get your job. Oh, you just need to work on data structures more or algorithms more. But that's such a vague statement. And that really is predicated on who's interviewing you at the time and how nitpicky they're being. There's this other thing in tech that can be really annoying, which is that double standard. For one, there's that, you know, whole got to be able to prep for the interview and study for like a ACT or SAT that no other industry really has to deal with. And then there's that double standard that, oh, you should really be, you know, eat, code and sleeping like that should be your lifestyle. It can feel that way, especially when you're a junior developer, because see, when you're a junior developer, your job really is to just learn the code base, like as well as anyone and knock out as many pull requests as possible. It seems like to be considered a successful developer, you need to not only open and close a bunch of PRs in a sprint, but also need to code outside of work and be up to speed with all the latest technology. And see, that's probably one of the more frustrating things when it comes to the tech industry, especially if you're someone like myself who has other interests outside of coding. I honestly feel like I can't keep up. Like I like to work out, I like to play basketball, I liked, I don't know, go on walks with my wife and do photography and videography, you know, or kind of have a YouTube thing going on that takes a lot of time. And sometimes I feel like I am not doing enough as a developer. Hear my like coworkers talk about all this new technology that they have experience with outside of work and the things that they're doing outside of work. And it makes me feel like I'm slacking when in reality I'm not, because what other industry do people expect you to do the same kind of work that you do at work at home for like fun? Like only industry I could think of is like athletics, right? You have practice in your games, but then you're also expected to work out and do other things to get better. And technically programming is like that because it is a skillset and it does seem like a lot of your value is based on how well of a developer you are, despite the fact that that company told you that they didn't hire you because you weren't a culture fit, a culture fit. And that's the irony of it all. We all know that yes, programming is a very competitive field, especially landing a really good job. But there's a lot of in demand jobs and there are way more jobs than there are programmers. But there's that feeling that you get where you feel like you're in jeopardy of potentially losing your job or looked down upon if you feel like you're not the best developer on your team. I think there's a lot of imposter syndrome that goes on within the tech community, especially amongst developers and a lot of comparing, which is really unhealthy because the reality is if you have programming skill sets and you're working for a company as a developer, you are very valuable. I know that some people eat, sleep, code, and they're fine with that. But some of us, we enjoy technology and we like programming. We need to rethink how many hours we should be programming, especially for our mental health because programmers are interacting with computers all the time, all day, and we need that human interaction. So I definitely think we need to reevaluate that 40 hours a week whole thing for everybody, but definitely for developers. Anyways, that's my rant on why you maybe should not become a developer or really the harsh realities of being a software engineer. And my motivation behind this video isn't to discourage you, but I recently saw how difficult it was for my wife and her peers throughout their coding bootcamp. And I can only imagine how excited they were in the beginning, oh, I'm about to become the software engineer and make all this money, which is definitely a reality. But going through their coding bootcamp, a lot of people realized that, hey, this really isn't for me. And I think I just was thinking about all the opportunities and the money and not thinking about the stress of critical thinking all the time. That concludes this video. I hope you all enjoyed it. Comment down below some of your thoughts on this topic. I'm curious to see what you all think. I love engaging with you all through the comment section. And as always, have a wonderful, blessed rest of your week. I'll see you all soon. Peace. Transcribed by https://otter.ai