When i started my career in IT, everything seemed so promising. But pretty quickly, i got tired of the grind and the burnout. i had this feeling of being stuck, just another cog in the machine.
It reminded me of all the mistakes i made early on—learning the wrong things, working in bad environments. It led me to talk with a lot of developers, both working and retired, about why people really quit coding.
Here's what i learned.
The Workspace
A lot of the time, the problem is the culture. As developers, we focus a ton on hard skills, but soft skills get left behind. Managers sometimes use this to set intense expectations, and you can't fight back because you're not great at communicating. This can create a toxic environment where no one is transparent about problems.
It's Not Your Passion
We are creators, but how many times have you built a feature that never sees the light of day? It just gets thrown away. We want to work with modern tech, but we're often stuck with old stuff because the company prefers safety over something new.
Let’s be honest, most of us don't dream about coding. Every developer i asked talked about having a house somewhere remote, with a garden or a place to fish. My personal dream is to have a remote castle with horses and my own farm. Coding is a great skill, but it can be a stepping stone to what you really want, not the end goal.
The Constant Grind
The chronic stress from high workloads and strict deadlines is real. It's not natural for us, and over time, the passion just decreases. i personally think the "hustle culture" in IT is toxic. You're expected to constantly learn and grow while also delivering and maintaining complex systems.
It's like trying to train for a marathon and a powerlifting competition at the same time. You can't master both at once and you just burn out.
So, you can either try to find a compromise, or you can use your job as a tool to reach your real goals and then move on.
i get into all these points in my new video. Watch it when your boss assigns you another "urgent" ticket for the sprint.
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