Not even 30 yet and I feel like I've reached a point of stagnation in my career. I no longer enjoy writing code. What else is there to do? My life is set up right now so that I must be a software engineer; I don't have much of a choice.

I feel trapped.

Maybe depression has hit you?
That can happen in winter with little sunlight and the special times we live in.

Geh zum Psychiater und lass dir Fluecetin und Vitamin d+ verschreiben. 🙂

I know absolutely nothing about what you do for work other than it’s programming based but my guess is you’re probably bored and you rarely get interesting or challenging projects. Maybe land a different job?

@dUcKtYpEd I've been through most of it. Frontend, backend, dist-sys, game dev, product dev, SaaS, interactive, fintech, internal tooling, devexp, you name it.

I just really don't like the industry nowadays.

@dUcKtYpEd That's kind of the question at this point. I have no idea. Trying to focus on that a bit.

I started to lose passion for my work at my old company. For me it boiled down to a boring business area (HR software) and lacklustre work culture (didnt really gel with my team much).

I switched companies, got into cyber security and landed myself an awesome team that I get along super well with.

Ive never been happier with my job.

Think about a time when you were happy in work and try to figure out what has changed since then.

@heyheni out of curiousity, why the seemingly random change in language?

I am at times writing rushed code. So I sometimes get excitement when it breaks. Not recommended.

You feel trapped because you are.
Lower the effort you put into your job and put more effort into hobbies and your social life.
You will then still be trapped. But you will also have more fun and less stress than before.

Guys. I don't work, I don't have a job lol. This isn't the problem. The industry is garbage anymore.

@junon
In that case: Find something you really like a lot - and make that your hobby.
Then find something you also somewhat like but feel rather unenthusiastic about - and make it your job.
Then you have a hobby you really like and a job you don't hate and hopefully also will not start hating when you get confronted with the inevitable bullshit - because you are not caring that much about it...