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First job as software engineer. Realized I don't love it as much as I love the humanities/social sciences. What to do? (hexbear.net)

submitted 2 days ago by jurassicneil@hexbear.net to c/chat@hexbear.net

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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?

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[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 6 points 1 day ago (1 children)

encounter the same problem again where the work is not engaging or fulfilling (ubiquitous ADHD struggle)

Is this a well-known feature of ADHD? I'm not clued up about it at all.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It is very easy to end up thinking about alternatives that are more desirable than the current one. Everybody has the novelty-seeking inclination but people with ADHD have it worse.

When I switched majors to something I was interested in and that didn't involve writing papers, for a while it worked but then I ran into the same motivation problems. To this day I know I can't work a job that involves being at a computer, and I've only had one job (out of 8+) that I've held for more than 2 years- and even then, it was part-time and I put at most 1.5 years of full-time equivalent into it. YMMV though.

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Have you been diagnosed with ADHD? Hope you don't mind me asking

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 2 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Yes, in fact before everything I mentioned in that last comment.

[–] Churbleyimyam@lemm.ee 1 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Sorry, I didn't see that. Have you found your diagnosis to be helpful? I'm starting to suspect that I have ADHD as the more I hear about it the more it seems to describe things that I've struggled with.

[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 1 points 1 hour ago

Ehh. I'm not super compatible with this economy and I've made peace with that. My career is not a stack of acceptance from selective colleges and companies; my career is taking entry-level jobs to better understand the economy and then reverse-engineer some business plans.

The only situations in which I haven't felt depressed and underachieving have been staying on communes. And yet, compared to 10+ years ago, my life has looked less like "constantly trying and failing" and more like "constantly tripping and tumbling in the right direction".