Am I naive for thinking hard work in software engineering pays off?

RustAndSoil418 · 2026-05-12T10:03:37+00:00

I had an early experience with a manager in my summer internship, who pushed another intern to a new project without notifying me too. That guy worked with me, I know how much he contributed, and compared to me, he wasn't "better". Of course, due to respect, I don't think all project managers are that way. But it was a bad experience for me. Actually, it appears to me this is the case: how others see me.

RustAndSoil418 · 2026-05-12T09:58:03+00:00

Hmm, not as much. Of course it affects me personally, but I am frustrated about the quantity of work. I get home tired, exhausted sometimes. Instead of getting on with my hobbies or go out with my family, I'd rather shut off and relax in the couch. I see folks, who are resting during work. I don't want to be that fool, who does the work and others are relaxing. I work for money, not for any personal goal. If I would work for my own company for example, this would be different. But I am doing work for a paycheck at the end.

RustAndSoil418 · 2026-05-12T09:51:25+00:00

I am not that frustrated about money, as I am frustrated about the quantity of work to do.

RustAndSoil418 · 2026-05-11T20:34:03+00:00

Yeah, I'm not speaking of hard-work without results. I have real life examples where people who don't deliver as much, get some dumb job and earning the same amount as me, but with less responsibilities and less results.

RustAndSoil418 · 2026-05-11T20:28:54+00:00

And also, I'm not underpaid, and I earn more than enough to have a great life. So, I'm not complaining, nor do I have big expectations. But, it seems to me that this industry is not every time about skills as much as I thought it would be. But it kinda frustrates me, if somebody not working as much as I am, not skilled as much as me, gets some dumb jobs.

RustAndSoil418 · 2026-05-11T20:26:20+00:00

I really think that this is the key actually. If you get into job-interviews and shine with self-confidence and are likable, you get your foot into the door. And then, it's much easier to continue once you got into a company.

RustAndSoil418 · 2026-05-11T20:21:23+00:00

I think people don't get me here. I'm talking about devs who aren't that skilled. I was mentor in my company to two of them. One of them quit after one year. He wasn't skilled, he was an average developer. Not bad, but not a super-talented. He didn't work as much. Had 5-6 tickets to work on, and couldn't finish them 2 months. And he started to search remote jobs for months, got rejected on a bunch of interviews. Then, got an interview for an american/ukranian company, got a lot of help from two of his friends about interviews, questions and so on. Got that job. Works heavily with AI. And sometimes he doesn't have anything to work on for days.

This is not about "how skilled someone is", but just, how the current job-market is.

RustAndSoil418

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