Is Disillusionment a Must in IT?

Question

I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of IT professionals have experienced a similar journey: you start out as a young person with a liking for tech and computers specifically. You find out about programming and get your feet wet, and it's enough fun to keep you going. You learn more and the fun never stops, so you decide to pursue a career in the IT, perhaps as a software developer. Jump cut forward, you find yourself in a well-paid role in some company with a degree in your pocket, and you've learned so much on the way. But while your day job is tons more professional than what your first attempts at programming looked like back at home, there's also no denying that some of the fun of olde is gone as well. Was is just the magic of novelty you experienced back then? Was it that back home, you were always in full control? Or did something else go wrong? Does it have to be that way? Or are there any jobs that pay the bills but are as much fun as writing your first programs as a young person?

matt_s · Accepted Answer

Working on someone else's ideas is never going to be as much fun as working on your own.
There also is the perspective of maturity and growing older, changing jobs a few times where you start to see the same patterns at different organizations, similar personalities, similar systems, and industry trends that start repeating. Maybe you get disillusioned, but maybe you realize you love the craft of creating things and solving problems and its nice to be paid really well to do that.
And maybe, like me, you want to go build your own thing but never get anything off the ground. Family, career, hobbies, etc. are important. Has external motivation (a company asking you to do X) conditioned me too much to be able to define a my own path forward? Not sure how to get out of that without some financial independence type of windfall.

bell-cot · Answer

The process you describe is far more about growing up than about IT. Though I'll admit that young people with some interest are probably exposed to far more naive idealism about tech / computers / programming than about, say, being a carpenter, or accountant, or ER nurse, or member of the clergy. And these days, tech stuff is easy to have as a "basement hobby" as a kid. Vs. it's difficult to get years of idyllic young "experience" managing a restaurant, or working at a steel mill, or being in the army.

soueuls · Answer

I am mostly working as a contractor so I don’t know the feeling of staying many years in the same company.
But from time to time, I asked myself « is there anything else I would rather do? »
And the answer is always no.
Considering I have to work to make money, I don’t think there is anything else I would rather do for 40h/week

labarilem · Answer

I think every job has this issue. Of course it's anecdotal, but I know lots of people who experienced the same thing with jobs outside the IT sphere.
You'll never find a job which only includes activities you love. Heck, that'd be hard to experience even for a hobby!
But you can try to understand what you do and don't like. Then steer your career accordingly. With this approach it should get better one step at a time. Don't stall in something you don't like, try to explore new activities and don't be too scared of them. You'll eventually find something you like more (or, you dislike less!).

codegladiator · Answer

It's curse of the job. No job can be fun (beyond first few months).