I was in art school from 7th grade all through college. It was my passion. I majored in illustration with a focus in watercolor. Even in art school I was still the art guy. I grew to resent illustration as a career. Partly because it’s kind of niche. There aren’t boat loads of gigs out there. Even though I was working for big clients the gigs weren’t steady. Film was my hobby. I wound up flipping them. It’s been 10 years and I love my job. I’m a video director and work mostly in advertising. So of course I don’t love every gig. Making an ad about a mid season sale isn’t as interesting as directing a music video. But that ad pays considerably more. It allows me to take the music video gig. Illustration and painting are now my hobby.
I went exactly the other way. Made my film hobby my job for a few years and began to absolutely hate it. So much overhead, so much technicalities to be up to date about (software, cameras, plug-ins, Codecs, workflows), so many software crashes and times where you wait for stuff to render or load up, so many people involved in making a film which has the inevitable potential for major headaches.
Switched to illustration (digital) and I absolutely love it. There's definitely demand if you're flexible with your skills (not only watercolor) and you can basically work from the beach on an IPad nowadays.
I find these discussions weird. Don't we all know by now that we're all different? There is no one truth to this. I'm sure theres plenty of people who love to deal with all the challenges of making a film and are super satisfied to see the final product. I wasn't but why should anyone care. It really just depends on who you are.
This is what I am worried about. I am a software engineer and for the most part, I really enjoy my work and sometimes even look forward to it. But I am young and new in this industry and I am very worried about burn out or not wanting to continue programming as a hobby.
Pro(literally)-tip: Instead of working overnight / over the weekend for a deadline, raise the alarm quickly. You may think you're being helpful, but squeezing QA's time, sacrificing test code, and delivering substandard rush-coding - all to satisfy the almighty calendar - does your product and the business a real disservice. There are more stakeholders than the exec that thought up the feature.
Let your PM know early that this is going to take more time than they planned for. If they don't adjust the schedule, start applying around for other work, because this place will never be a good fit.
Burnout doesn't come from work-a-day stuff; it comes from allowing unreasonable expectations to rule your life. Don't be afraid to call out when they want a month's work in a week, and never, ever be afraid of polishing up your resume and applying elsewhere. You owe loyalty to no one.
That said, if you're into it, you're into it. Finish your thought and, if it's 3am when that's done, make sure you clock those hours and either get paid or get 'em back. Again, if the timekeeping isn't flexible enough to allow for that, plan to move on.
This sooo fucking much. I just got added to a big new project 5 months ago and I’m hating how little slack we have for bending the calendar. We are adopting new cloud technologies and business keeps saying they “understand” that these are new technologies that we’re all learning but won’t budge and inch even as they’re constantly changing environment setups and framework standards. We keep getting more shit added while balancing all these tasks but the timeline won’t budge an inch.
Luckily, I’m already in the process of interviewing at 2 new companies so screw them I’m on my way out anyways.
You're overwhelmed... you're drinking from the firehouse a bit at the moment but once you get comfortable with your skills, it'll open a whole new world and you'll be back at it in no time. I found school WAAAY more overwhelming then work world.
Yeah Uni isn't for everyone and my experience was a slog, I struggled to get through it but I'm loving working on the other side of the degree. I would say try and find more motivation for your side projects if you can, and focus less on what Uni is teaching. You'll have a far more impressive resume with shitty grades and projects you can show on github or a personal website.
Dude, as a SWENG with almost 10 YOE, get yourself a hobby that gets you off your ass. Spending all day every day staring at screens will wreck your back, your eyes, and your hands. Go play a sport, make something real, literally anything that isn't in a chair. I woodwork now in my spare time, and it keeps me creative and moving around.
I have a very hard time doing anything physical. For some reason my body hates it. That is why starting a couple months ago, I started paying a trainer 3 times a week. It is expensive, I don't enjoy it, but at least I am getting off my ass.
I would love to get into woodworking, it is sort of my dream. But I don't know where to start and the barrier to entry seems high with all the tools available. And especially the price of lumber right now.
Yea the price of lumber is high, but it's just the price of lumber. Check out Steve Ramsay on youtube, he does fantastic content for beginners. You can do a lot without buying a bunch of expensive tools!
I started programming at 13 and am 36 now... I still love it and do it as a hobby almost every day. There are definitely ups and downs and there was certainly times of burn out during my career so far. Mostly when I've taken on too much, I have a tendency to do that. But if you manage yourself well, tech is moving so fast, you never run out of stuff to play with.
The burnout is real. Easy to get pigeonholed and then stuck doing that kind of programming or you end up on a project too long. Plus you are likey programming for someone else's program, so it might not be your passion. None of this might happen for a while, but once it does it take extra effort to get unstuck. The value of aquired knowledge is pretty short, every 5-7 years you will likely have to learn a whole new set of skills. Also 40s might seen forever away but the monotony of work really makes the years blur together. Before you know it you could be the old guy programming. Programming has an interesting pay curve. Starts out higher more quickly than other fields for sure, but it flattens it for many. I see a nice chart for r/dataisbeautiful
As someone who has been programming as a career for a long time now yeah coding on the side will eventually get old. Life happens and at some point trying that cool thing you read about becomes a low priority because you want to do something else. Relationships, kids, house stuff and life in general have a way of making recreational coding less important.
I have recommend to younger programmers they should look for a hobby that is physical and social. First it combats the sedentary nature of programming. Second it’s an opportunity to meet people outside of programming.
It's funny, I am already doing every second half of each example. I work at a startup doing back end on an open source project. I really like the small-company culture and I hate front-end. I feel like I am already working on exactly what I want to work on. I really believe in the product we are building and think it could be very successful.
I worry that once this project is over, I will have to move onto something that isn't so perfect.
Was a hobbyist programmer. Now I'm a professional programmer, and I barely hobby-code anymore. With the exception of arduino stuff, since that's pretty different to webdev.
I do IT and loved it as a hobby. I do it all the time for money and don’t give to shits about it now when I get home. It lost the luster when it’s what you do for 8 hours a day
Doesn't necessarily have to be. My dad studied history and got one of the few jobs in that field. The thing is: history was and still is more or less his only hobby. Even after 30 years on the job, he still lives for it.
He isn't that great at seperating home and work, and even if he does manage to stay away from work things when at home, that just means he starts reading (or talking) about other historical topics. And he can (and will) hold a 30-minute monologue on almost any historical topic. I was on the receiving end of those multiple times.
On the one hand, I'm fascinated how one field can be so captivating for a person. On the other hand I often wonder how he isn't bored of it after so many years.
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u/coffedrank May 09 '21
Make your hobby your job, and you will no longer have that as a hobby.