The grass is always greener on the other side. Let's see.
I have 3 degrees in unrelated field (Industrial Eng, Theology, and CompSci), and worked in on a few careers, white collar jobs like being a sales engineer at a biodiesel company, helping running a cafe for a family business, being a church administrator before the current software engineering. I also worked on low paid labor jobs such as laundry, dry cleaning, deli, restaurant. All with their own physical risk, tiredness, stress from customers, etc.
The current job which is software engineering is far better than any other jobs that I had. It is pretty stable, great income, great benefits, stress free, not limited to space and time, can WFH, more flexible schedule, etc. I like software engineering a lot so I did side projects on the side, learning various programming languages, programming techniques, reading programming books, etc.
Now I am bored of all of those as well, and right now just focusing on my hobbies. I am focusing a lot on my musical skills right now, and that's the only thing that captivates my mind daily, not programming books, programming podcasts, etc anymore. Software is just another job. I'm not changing the world, not saving lives, not helping solving global warming or pollution or the declining flora and fauna that we have, or ending wars. It's riddled with churn mentality in this industry, politics, etc.
Somedays I dream of making it in the music industry, or creating a small cafe with aquascapes that I create as decorations, or not having to work at software anymore, or not having to work because I need income.
But in the end, I still work as SWE. The grass is always greener on the other side, and that depends on one's position in life like age, economic situation, etc. Right now I don't have the luxury of leaving my SWE jobs, and no I don't do this for myself, but for my family members.
As I see it, it's mainly a question of what you look for when interviewing. If you look for money then you'll likely get more stress. If you look for calm then you'll likely get less stress. You'll also get less money but nothing in life give you everything. I've turned down multiple offers when it was visible they valued workaholism or had bad processes.
I am paid pretty well at my company right now, but there are always my colleague that I know get a higher offer for some other role. I can choose to get salty about it or just try to transition with that role but with less satisfaction and more learning.
There are more to life than just chasing money. No matter who you are, peasants or kings, you are only given a limited time to live. We trade 40 hrs of our life for some numbers on the computer that can go up or down, meanwhile the rich just gained a lot of money due to this pandemic.
Yeah. You don't need to make bad money if you want a lack of stress but generally the difference between good money and great money is going to be a lot of stress.
Every software engineering job I've had was stress-free. In 10 years, I never had to do overtime. Quite frankly, if something can't get done in 40 hours per week, that's not my problem. That's the company's problem, and I will work on that problem in the hours I agreed to sell to said company.
Software development is not your calling, it's just another job for you. A very good job, but still: just a job. I'm not critcizing you, just stating how I understood what you wrote.
Difference between something that's your calling (music, judging by what you wrote) and a job is that you don't invest emotion into the job.
When you invest emotion into what you do, when your craft is sacred to you - then you experience disappointment when you see other people in the field not caring as much as you do.
When you follow the industry and the trends and when you understand that most of what you get to read is fake - a huge pile of disappointment creeps up. I'm in the same boat as the OP, and oddly enough - I'm preparing for the same line of work - woodworking :)
Honestly, I can't wait to leave this world of software development where most of what's available is fashion or just pure bullshit sprinkled with lies, but I have to pay the bills and mortgage so I can't afford to leave right now.
It's not about grass being greener on the other side, it's about not having to put up with other people who are often dead wrong and completely impervious to any kind of reasoning. Leaving software development business does not necessarily mean one stops writing software. I can't see myself stopping writing code or thinking in code when I finally leave IT, but I can't wait when I get to stop to absorb fake content from linkedin and when I don't have to read emails that are 99% white noise and 1% useful information.
Indeed, it is not my calling. I think earlier in my career I thought that way. But I also don't know what my calling in life anyway for now.
I think I'm pretty good at my craft because I spent time after work honing it. I am in the same boat as OP and you, already went through the disillusionment, but I have other things that satisfy my creative side and physical side, besides I need the money as well.
In regards to social media, I stayed away from Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin (pretty satisfied with my current job I don't need other roles). I still use Reddit, Youtube, and probably other visual/audio social media for reasons related to hobbies.
I have 3 degrees in unrelated field (Industrial Eng, Theology, and CompSci), and worked in on a few careers, white collar jobs like being a sales engineer at a biodiesel company, helping running a cafe for a family business, being a church administrator before the current software engineering. I also worked on low paid labor jobs such as laundry, dry cleaning, deli, restaurant. All with their own physical risk, tiredness, stress from customers, etc.
The current job which is software engineering is far better than any other jobs that I had. It is pretty stable, great income, great benefits, stress free, not limited to space and time, can WFH, more flexible schedule, etc. I like software engineering a lot so I did side projects on the side, learning various programming languages, programming techniques, reading programming books, etc.
Now I am bored of all of those as well, and right now just focusing on my hobbies. I am focusing a lot on my musical skills right now, and that's the only thing that captivates my mind daily, not programming books, programming podcasts, etc anymore. Software is just another job. I'm not changing the world, not saving lives, not helping solving global warming or pollution or the declining flora and fauna that we have, or ending wars. It's riddled with churn mentality in this industry, politics, etc.
Somedays I dream of making it in the music industry, or creating a small cafe with aquascapes that I create as decorations, or not having to work at software anymore, or not having to work because I need income.
But in the end, I still work as SWE. The grass is always greener on the other side, and that depends on one's position in life like age, economic situation, etc. Right now I don't have the luxury of leaving my SWE jobs, and no I don't do this for myself, but for my family members.