[adoga]

I'm upper-20's and been at it professionally for about 10 years if you count college co-ops; longer if you count craigslist websites to get myself a gaming computer as a teen.

My first co-op was gotten through my University's internal job board, and my first "real job" after graduating came from a part-time internship I took one semester.

I still love the actual development part of my job -- being pointed at a problem, mapping out a solution, and then actually getting into flow to solve it (and I'm damn good at it too).

It's all the other stuff that has started to wear on me (currently a tech lead at a small startup). The planning, the estimates, the never ending negotiations for trying to get more in without adjusting timelines. The recruiting, the dealing with unmotivated reports... and did I mention estimates / planning?

Going to stick it out a little longer, but at this point I think I was meant to stay at the senior engineer level at a laid back company.