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Question to all you web developers out there: how do you survive long term in this job without going nuts? I have been working in this industry for almost 7 years and feelings of frustration have accumulated, to the point where I honestly feel like laying g bricks as a job would be more rewarding. Here are the main reasons why:

1) The fact that your job is never "finished" and it looks like and endless stream of tasks. Either the project has money being rolled in or is pretty much dead. Ever changing requirements ensure that most of what you do will be rewritten in 6 months or so. This is ok for the most part, but overtime it does give you the feeling that most of your effort was wasted, and you have the same website/app to show for it, slightly different...

2) The never ending churn of tech, particularly in the Javascript/node ecosystem. Sure, there is a good side of learning new approaches of doing things and it brings variety, but there is the dark side that you never feel you are getting better at doing your job, as every new project does not look anything like the previous. Even if all the stack pieces are the same (never happens), everyone sets it up and organises the project differently enough that you have to spend loads of time solving things you have done before. This makes it difficult to get a sense that you are mastering something...

So, if autonomy, purpose, and mastery are the keys to fulfilling work, I find this career lacking in mastery and purpose...does anyone feels/felt the same? How did you counter it?

Comments
  • 4
    By not looking at grandiose goals. Look at smaller milestones and enjoy their completion. Each time you discover something new, it isn't lack of mastery but the gaining of mastery! My purpose is to solve problems, and every bugfix is a problem solved. Enjoy little victories! Don't look to be a master of (insert technology in stack here) but a master of your craft. The same way a custodian can clean rooms over and over is because each room is clean for a bit!
  • 1
    Coffee and coke helps
  • 1
    Feeling you. If big goals are your view I wouldn't be dissuaded from that too much. Find the right job. I have a friend who likes to describe himself as 'a builder' when asked what he does (He's a dev). It's worth remembering that this job is to a large degree characterised by building things in a way that many jobs aren't (doctor, lawyer, etc..).

    If you notice there's a lot of maintenance/feature churn it only feels wrong because you know it's in the dna of the job to be more so go and find the early stage projects where it is.

    It's also worth remembering that time spent churning round fresh ways to do similar things is why your site doesn't look like one of those corporate embarrassments that has supposedly been continuously developed but doesn't look to have changed in 15 years.
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