So I just finished my masters in CS and got a job as a junior software engineer. When I first chose CS for my bachelors, I did so because it was somewhat intuitive for me. But I wasn’t crazy about it. Thought the interest would grow over time. I’ve had undiagnosed ADHD throughout my life and thought the difficulties with CS during my bachelor’s (which took almost 7 years) was due to the ADHD and not due to lack of interest in the subject. Learned coping strategies and did my master’s. Graduated with a 4.0 GPA so I’m not bad at it for sure.
Now I’m medicated and I finally feel like I’m able to be 100% of myself. But despite that, I still just do the tasks at work for the sake of doing it. I like the problem solving aspect but it isn’t something I dream about every day. I see my mentor working in the same company live and breathe this stuff and I can tell there is a clear difference in the thought process between both of us. It’s easy for him to produce great quality work as he’s naturally curious about this stuff. Me, I just try to get it done. It’s not lead by curiosity for me. What grabs my interest is stuff like literature, history, linguistics, philosophy, sociology, movies etc. I don’t need any incentive for those things. I’m naturally curious about those fields.
Now I’m wondering if I should still stick with software engineering where I’m decently okay but not that curious about it . Or should I consider a career more aligned with the social sciences/humanities? I don’t even know what careers are in those fields that would be comparable in terms of pay/growth to software engineering. Is the choice between money and passion or can I have both to some degree in the non-SWE fields?
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
My boss/who is also my mentor expects me to upskill and upskill fast. As such I can’t forget about it when I get home. I need to put some extra time to handle the learning curve. I don’t mind it too much just that I feel if this field resonated with me more, I wouldn’t think of this as extra work but something I inherently enjoy doing. Which makes me feel that I’m missing out on having a fulfilling career/life in someway.