this post was submitted on 30 Apr 2025
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Less than 3 years as a developer and already been laid off twice. Does it ever get better? (lemmy.world)
submitted 6 days ago by [email protected] to c/cs_career_questions
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I'm a 25 yo British guy. I landed my first job as a dev in 2022 for a consultancy with a 1 year international placement, it was good but a few months after returning, the whole cohort was laid off due to corporate politics between the offices in the two countries. After 7 months of searching, I got my second job working for a small pensions fintech startup, it was fine but I didn't find it all that fulfilling. After 9 months of working there, the CEO pulled me into a meeting and said they'd made a mistake hiring me and they needed a more senior developer who could help steer the company from a business perspective too, so I was once again laid off.

That was in January, since then I've had 2 interviews, both of which have gone nowhere. The vibe of every position that's matched my CV has basically been the same sort of work- pretty mundane web dev roles and I can see myself being pulled into a cycle of mundane work then being laid off. I've wanted to be a developer for as long as I can remember, I started writing code when I was 12, studied CS throughout school so I could go to uni and do it for my degree - but now, I feel so disillusioned with the whole industry, where do I go from here? Does it get better? How do I find a job that actually feels fulfilling?

Sorry for the ramble, it's 4am and I just happened to stumble across this community while scrolling. Thought it might be worth an ask.

TLDR; been laid off twice in about 2 and a half years, feeling pretty disillusioned with everything, where do I go from here?

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

I've been been in technology for practically my whole career. Going on 17 years. I honestly can't say my career has been especially fulfilling. Most of my jobs have been either "bullshit jobs", working on projects that were clearly DOA (at least it was clear to everyone except management) or being a corporate politician.

I haven't loved any job I've had. But I've only hated one of them. I've stayed in tech because I enjoy it overall, I'm good at it, and it's provided me with a decent living. I've been around long enough to have developed a healthy degree of cynicism. By that I mean, I know that no matter what any employer says, I am nothing but a expense line item on their income statement. They will get rid of me the second they believe it's to their benefit.

But, I view them the same way. My loyalty is to myself and to the fact that I don't want to work until I die. I'll work for someone as long as they compensate me well and treat me well.

Aside from a good living, two things this industry has provided me with are lots of experience in a variety of areas and a reasonable amount of free time. I get fulfillment from volunteering. I don't do nearly as much of it as I used to due to family obligations. Local not-profit organizations are always looking for help from board members all the way down to janitors.

In fact, whenever I'm asked in interviews which jobs I've enjoyed the most, my answer is always "the ones I didn't get paid to do." That usually gets a little chuckle but I'm being serious. Spending a little of my time and talents to help make other people's lives better more than makes up for my boring ass (and often pointless) day job.