I think software development “is not a dream job” as people outside think it is.
Most of the time people think you get paid for sitting behind the screen. Which is also true and might be hard for some types of people on its own.
But a lot of people don’t want to be measured on results, don’t want to deal with learning new stuff on the job, having responsibility for something complex that might break at any time quite often for reasons totally not in their control.
I like my software dev job and I also would not switch but I can see how it is not a dream job.
> don’t want to deal with learning new stuff on the job
I think this might be the big one. A few years ago I got small window into someone going from no programming experience to getting a job (completely self-directed, not through school or a bootcamp) and he thought he had to learn everything before getting the job. I had to reassure him that no, that's really not how it works in tech - even if you could learn all of ___ right now, there's stuff continually being added so you'll have to keep learning anyway. Basically that typically you'd get the basics down then learn new stuff as you needed it.
His previous experience mostly came from a mix of skilled and unskilled laborer jobs, where even the skilled laborer ones you could learn everything in like 6 months and from there onwards it's just refining skill (as he described it, at least).
> But a lot of people don’t want to be measured on results, don’t want to deal with learning new stuff on the job, having responsibility for something complex that might break at any time quite often for reasons totally not in their control.
See the blog's paragraph on incompetent colleagues. :D :D
Most of the time people think you get paid for sitting behind the screen. Which is also true and might be hard for some types of people on its own.
But a lot of people don’t want to be measured on results, don’t want to deal with learning new stuff on the job, having responsibility for something complex that might break at any time quite often for reasons totally not in their control.
I like my software dev job and I also would not switch but I can see how it is not a dream job.