Why I Quit My Software Engineering Job
Hey Everyone! I have sat to write after a long time. Today I want to discuss on a topic that I believe a lot of people of my generation who are very enthusiastic about programming and tech or going to choose their final career path in some time should know about this. Many of you might know that I have done an internship at a tech company as a junior app developer. It was like a dream come true. I have decided to be a software developer since I was in 8th standard. Which comes from my passion for technology. Hardships of all those years were going to finally pay off but then I decided to quit. How did I get that job for myself? Let’s keep that for another day. I was in a position where six months of dedication could give me a permanent job as a Junior Software Developer. There was also a fresher doing an internship after completing his undergraduate. So in that sense you can say I could have just gotten a good career Yet I decided to quit it.
What are those reasons??
There are some reasons that I want to tell you but before that let me tell you this. In my interview, my interviewer asked me why I wanted to do this job and my answer was exactly this:
I want to see this industry more closely.I want to understand the office culture and how things are in real life.
And I was honest about what I said. There isn’t any reason other than that for me to do that internship. The kinds of things I have learned from that and the knowledge and experience I have gained changed my perspective. I don’t intend to demotivate any of you rather I want you guys to know what to expect. Nowadays every Tom, Dick, and Harry wants to study CSE to become a software engineer. But Is that so fancy anymore? In this post, I have tried to explain my experience as an app developer intern and the reasons I have quit my job so that you can fiqure out is that for you or not.
Reason No 1: Repetitiveness
As I started my work I soon realized that although we say that programming is a creative and problem-solving job. But in my opinion, in our country’s scenario, it’s 90% repetitiveness and 10% problem-solving. You are going to write lines of code over and over again in every project. Which I believe will be replaced by the AI near future. I am more like someone who gets bored doing the same thing over and over. I like challenges and solving problems. Thus here comes another important thing that if you want to grow in these professions, if you don’t want to be replaced by any AI then you have to be an excellent problem solver. In my view, most of the average programmers like me won’t last in the near future. So, if you are just a university graduate only focused on your grades or someone just learned only what they taught you then you are leagues behind the people who are in this field for a long time and they mostly are self-taught programmers. Your chances of getting equal to them are very low and only depend on how good you are at problem-solving.
Reason No 2: Lifestyle
After experiencing the lifestyle of a tech person I soon realised that I am not for this. It is very hard to describe how office life in Dhaka is. Still, I will try to make it as short as possible. It was like a sudden reality check for me. I finally understood why city life in Dhaka is called “Jantrik Jibon”. Especially for tech people their office is their 2nd home. And from my perspective, it is their actual home. I remember my senior once told me, “Nabil, you will go mad if you stay like this. You are too quiet a person”. I realized it too. If you want to fit into the environment you have to feel it like a home. You have to take breaks, relaxations, and chitchat because otherwise, you can’t sync with this lifestyle. They do a 9-6 job where they left home at 7 in the morning and get back home at 9. And all they get is less than 4-5 hours of sleep. In my view, they just go home just to sleep and maybe spend some time with family.
In my case, I was dealing with my college life, hostel life, and work life. Which is not easy to balance. Pressure on one thing affects the other. And because of my hectic routine, I wasn’t able to learn something new to improve myself.
Reason No 3: Less Control Of Your Work
In an app developer position at a corporate, you will not have control over your work. That is obvious because you have to work according to your higher-ups as well as it will feel like just another project. You will just design the app according to the blueprint although there might be some changes that you can bring but you can not think for the corporate side. If you are someone like me who enjoys the whole process of working in both the corporate and technical side that is a thing that you won’t like. I am someone who likes corporate affairs and enjoys day-to-day challenges and problems. In corporate there’s always a new thing every day. Thanks to my internship I got to see how other professionals work in offices. I got to go on Business Expos and got a little bit taste of that world. I still love technology and programming but I want to become someone who can balance between Tech and Business. Just Like Product managers, Business Analyst, Consultants, or Project managers. In tech companies, those people also know programming but they don’t do any programming. They understand the work and lead the programmers. They are the bridge between the corporate and tech team. Just as I have said before I enjoy the thrill of solving real problems. I don’t want to just code according to the blueprint rather I would like to design that blueprint and as well deal with the corporate affairs.
How Can I Be So Sure?
Now you can say how can you be so sure that you want that position. Well, it’s not like I hadn’t fun working as a developer and I changed my choices. N0, I have enjoyed a lot working on the desk and doing the work that I was doing. But I have experienced the fun of planning and solving challenges As I have tried working on my own startups. That was some fun that I can’t forget. Whenever I was working at the desk I was more thrilled on watching the corporate people doing their stuff and after having conversations with them and listening to their stories I got to know how different someone’s life could be if he is that capable. The reason for me sharing these things with you is to tell you that often there are things that we think differently than what is in reality. We have to be more sure about what we want to be in our life. For that, we have to watch that profession as closely as possible. At last, I would like to say one thing, In this current world, you can not achieve anything by being average. No matter what profession it is so it becomes very important now that you have fun with the profession you choose so that you can call yourself an expert and not feel boredom.