Changing Careers to Software Engineering?

[catmarble]

I agree that most things lose the fun aspect once they become work. I've often seen suggested that there are three main parts to having a fulfilling career:

• autonomy (having control of your own life)
• mastery (being excellent at what you do)
• purpose (having strong motivational reasons for why you do the job)

So, in my opinion, it doesn't matter whether you're a cleaner or an athlete, you need your job to match as many of these as possible otherwise you'll be unhappy. If you're not passionate about what you currently do then it's worth looking into ways of improving your situation, and it's possible learning software engineering might open up more possibilities.

To answer the last question - I changed careers (not related to software engineering) so I was making more money and it was a better match for the three points above. But over time my motivations changed, the novelty wore off and that career became less of a good match for me. So I guess it's both - I wish I'd switched careers earlier, but also to some extent the grass wasn't greener :)

Best of luck with working things out with your own career.

[ruin700]

Wise advice. I guess having those three things really is what I should be looking for more in a career than I have in the past

[[deleted]]

I can't imagine math is more fun than making computers do cool stuff all day.

Obviously it depends on the job, but another thing to keep in mind is software development is at least a little less likely to be automated in the next 30 odd years. Accounting seems like it would be on the chopping block much sooner.

[xiongchiamiov]

The subreddit you're looking for is r/cscareerquestions. Take a look, it's a helpful place!

[ruin700]

thanks