I am 55 years old male and not motivated.
Looking forward to some great motivation and career advice. I am 55 years old and work for a local software company as support engineer for the last 5 years. Through out my 30 year old career, I have held jobs as software engineer. But in last few years I have lost my confidence.
I was advised to get into FAANG and for last 1 year I have been going through interview prep resources like LeetCode, AlgoExpert, and practicing from books like CTCI for interview prep. And then thanks to Chat GPT, AI, I lost my interest in becoming a good or even an average software engineer.
So I would like to get motivated, get a software engineer buddy here on Taro, who understands challenges of mindset at my age. I would like to expand my outlook and get energized about software engineering career. Or may be launch a SAAS application of some sort. Thanks for reading.
![Senior Software Engineer [E5] at Meta company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fmeta.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3Da7a5bcc0-e178-4b5b-b71e-09bf6c6aefae&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
![Entry-Level Software Engineer [L3] at Google company logo](/_next/image/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffirebasestorage.googleapis.com%2Fv0%2Fb%2Ftech-career-growth.appspot.com%2Fo%2Fcompany_logos%252Fgoogle.jpeg%3Falt%3Dmedia%26token%3D780356ef-3efc-4728-9eb4-d909b75bb4a6&w=48&q=75){kind=small}
Discussion
(3 comments)- 8a year agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
I also wanted to say, I really appreciate this question. Everyone goes through feelings of doubt and burnout in their career. This is totally normal, and it has no bearing on whether you are fit to be a software engineer or not.
No one should gatekeep what an age, gender, or job type which are allowed to be software engineers or not. If you find joy in building software, you can become an effective software engineer.
- 7a year agoTech Lead/Manager at Meta, Pinterest, Kosei
For me, the excitement of software engineering is simple: the ability to easily build something that lots of people can use and benefit from.
for last 1 year I have been going through interview prep resources like LeetCode, AlgoExpert, and practicing from books like CTCI for interview prep
For most people, including me, interview prep is soul-sucking. I would not recommend you spend much time on this unless you are confident that you will start to get interviews.
My recommendations to get energized about a software engineering career:
- Surround yourself with people who are enthusiastic about building and shipping. "You become the average of the 5 people around you", but the beauty of the internet is that you get to pick which people you hang around!
- Ship something ASAP. I truly mean ASAP. Like, spend the next 3 hours deploying a website, or publishing an Android app. You'll get a huge dopamine hit when you see your code live in the world -- don't worry at all about the quality.
- 6
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a year agoCareer Coach • Former Head of EngineeringYou got to trust you internal signals and definitely don't feel guilty when others "advise to get into FAANG". You know your own situation best. Trust your instincts, especially if pursuing it is most driven by external pressures and not internal desire.
I honestly wouldn't let the whole GenAI wave get you down. Your core focus doesn't change, which is to find and solve problems where tech could be a good solution. Just look at any GenAI tool as exactly that... a tool to help you with the job.
Glad you found Taro, I've met a lot of people here over the past few months that greatly changed my outlook on career and life in general. People are very receptive, so don't be afraid to reach out and participate in the community.
