How are you feeling about tech lately?

For Dev.to’s 2025 New Year’s Writing Challenge, I wrote a reflection on the major management change within my company. Fast forward to now and I’m still grappling with the same issues.

I’m seriously thinking this isn’t the field for me. Not because it’s challenging but because I don’t seem to be improving.

Admittedly I don’t have very good indicators of success. It’s probably the fact that there isn’t anything I want to achieve in this field. It feels like since graduating college, I’ve slowly lost my passions.

I can’t say coding was a passion of mine. It seems like forever ago when I last enjoyed it. What I do find enjoyable is hearing other people talk about their experiences.

Normally being this down I’d opt to isolate myself, continue quietly but I’m trying something different.

Feel free to drop a comment. How are you feeling about tech lately? What are you working on?

Comments

[FrancisTRᴅᴇᴠ]

I'm sorry you are feeling this way Kelsey. I am wondering if it's because of AI, the market, or other factors that is bringing you down? Maybe you can share your projects here on DEV? We would love to see what other things you built!

[kelsey-d]

It think it’s the coupling of it to my job. I’ve always seen myself as a designer but fell into the developer role to keep my job. It’s my goal to create more outside of work. I recently participated in the weekend challenge. I’ve done dev.to challenges before and they're highly motivating.

[Thea]

Hi, I'm “that Thea person” :D @pepapepa has now mentioned me twice, so I suppose I should actually appear 😃

I read your post, and I think trying something different instead of isolating yourself was already a good move. Tech is such a huge field, and sometimes losing interest in one part of it doesn't necessarily mean the whole field isn't for you. I've been in frontend for years, and lately I've been exploring AppSec myself, mostly because I got curious about something new:)

And yes, definitely go back to the haunted project if you had fun building it! Challenge deadlines make all of us rush things. I agree that adding more of your own story and personality could make it even more fun.

And if you ever want to talk frontend or need another pair of eyes on something, feel free to tag me 😊

[Sattyam Jain]

Tired in a way that is not about the hours.

I build agent tooling by day and something in mental health at night, and the thing I keep noticing is that the second one is much less lonely. Not because the work is nicer. Because the people in it talk about how the work is going in a way our industry mostly does not.

I do not have a tidy conclusion. Just that "how are you feeling about tech" is a question I have not been asked by anyone at work in about two years, and it took a stranger's post to notice that.

[kelsey-d]

I haven't worked long enough in the field to know what the conversations were like 2 years ago but I imagine it was drastically different. It was probably more about craft and solving problems that help people. Thank you for sharing your thoughts. 😄