What Do You Do When CS Isn't Fun Any More? 1177
wonderless asks: "Long ago and far away, I thought that I was going to be a Great Geek, and that I was going to provoke a revolution in the computer industry--and indeed, the world--with my mastery of technology. I could hardly wait to throw myself into an intense, highly technical curriculum and shine. But as I said, that was long ago and far away. Now I'm one semester away from graduation, with a 3.5 average overall and a lackluster 3.0 in CS, and I'm liking it less and less every day. I used to be able to say that at least it pays well, but now I can't even take solace in that. I drag myself to classes and through projects, and it all seems really pointless--I'm just implementing what's written in the book, and eradicating the countless off-by-one bugs is nothing short of mind-numbing. I'd like nothing better than to recapture the feeling of joy I used to get out of doing this, and to once again be able to say I'm doing what I love. What do you do when it isn't fun any more, but you'd like it to be?"
It doesn't get any better (Score:2, Informative)
- A burned out 28-year old developer.
I had that problem (Score:2, Informative)
Plus it is a completely different environment - you get paid - you get to work on something all day vs having to juggle a ton of classwork.
Finding the fun again. (Score:5, Informative)
As for finding the fun again... Take a break. Explore hobbies other than coding. Let your coding skills sit quietly in the back of your mind, and some time later, you'll feel the itch again - the need to code a little widget that's Really Cool. It mainly sounds like you're getting burned out to me.
OTOH, coding may or may not be what you really want to do. If your primary goal was to awe the world with your m4d sk1llz, you may simply not have noticed that you weren't having fun doing it. That will reveal itself during your sabbatical. If coding ever was fun for you, the desire to code will come back.
YMMV
Learn about eXtreme Programming (Score:5, Informative)
Re:It doesn't get any better (Score:1, Informative)
Maybe it goes down hill next year but... (Score:1, Informative)
Personally I was bored to death doing a regular CS curriculum so I ended up graduating with a minor in it, and a Sociology degree of all things. Ironically I did more useful computer work for the Sociology deparment than I did for CS. CS was constantly solving abstract mathematical problems and instead I was applying my knowledge and building useful tools for real people.
The one negative I do run into is that I've tried to stick with smaller more creative companies which has made for a somewhat turbulent career path. I spent two years doing great work for a company, then moved on to a new job where I twiddled my thumbs for a year while the company slowly went under. Now I'm at a new company that's got a whole lot of potential but may not even be here in a year's time. I'm sure a job at some big corporation would provide more security, but then again I'm actually enjoying my job so I'm willing to make that sacrifice.
Re:the problem word here is "undergrad" (Score:5, Informative)
Real Programmers Burn Out sometimes (Score:2, Informative)
Well, almost three years later, I'm a developer, and I love it. I've loved it ever since I stopped writing linked lists and solving the 8 queens problem in Prolog.
Computer science in college sucked. Programming for real is cool. I get to work with new technologies all the time and work on new projects every few months. Sure, there're things that suck, like maintainence work and jerk managers, but you have that anywhere. And I've found that the good parts of the jobs usually far outweigh the bad parts.
As for pay, I started out very low on the salary scale (at the time, my high-school teacher girlfriend, also fresh out of college, was making the same as me), but things are much better now. I think I'm making about 2.5 times what I started at, so your career will go places quickly. Yeah, things are looking a little down these days, but it can't last forever.
I know a lot of people are weighing in on this one, but I was in exactly the same situation as you, and now I'm doing very well in a job that I like a lot. Hopefully things work out just as well for you!
John Hofmann
It does get better (Score:3, Informative)
Not all jobs are mindless, boring, and riddled with bad middle management. CS people in the real world aren't doing the same things as CS people in academia. They apply what they know to widely varying domains of problems. Look for a job in an intersting domain, and check it out.
If you have a liking for aerospace, look at defense contracting companies, or satellite imaging companies. Lots of potential for interesting work there! Some people have a knack for telecom and working with low level hardware. If you've got a background in other sciences, there's a wealth of possibilities there... biotech, computational chemistry, genome work, all of these are highly dependant on specialized software.
Avoid things like "Enterprise Application Integration" unless you really are in to middleware and writing glue code. Some people like this, but I find it gets very repetitious and boring quickly.
If you don't know what you want to work with, a consulting company can get you exposure to a lot of domains and technologies. But they can also wear you down with mind numbing projects that you don't care about.
I guess my big point is that academic projects bear little relation to projects in the real world. It's completely different. Beyond your basic skills, and knowledge of design/development process, everything you learn at a job will be new. And very little of it falls into that "grading bucket" where someone looks at it once and puts it in a filing cabinet.
Right now, you should just look at school as a stepping stone... something to be passed through on the way to a more interesting application of what you've learned.
Take a risk (Score:3, Informative)
Post-grad education (Score:1, Informative)
Currently, I work in an ivy league university. Smack dab in the middle of an Engineering and Applied Sciences department.
There is so much research and development going on at the moment, that I'd suggest you continue into a Masters or PhD program. You'll be assured of working with some top-notch players in the field.
And, you'll get exposure to some very exciting
state of the art technology. Sure, it may be slow and mundane at times, but the payoff is seeing your research published and reviewed by your peers. Besides, you may discover something that only a few years ago was seen as an improbability.
Plus, if you go far enough into the advanced degree program you may realize that you have an affinity for teaching others. Something that many
Masters and PhD students end up doing while continuing their education.
Just remember, it's never too late to start over or begin!
Later on,
Casey
Re:the problem word here is "undergrad" (Score:2, Informative)
Bill Gates had a trust fund and a mother who knew the president of IBM
Try an ajacent computer related field (Score:1, Informative)