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I've been at this point at least 4 times, each time I couldn't find anything else to pursue long-term that seemed all that compelling when I looked at even the cursory details/financial prospects/day-to-day. It's still on the table for the next time, and I'm keeping an open mind about it, but it would take full commitment. The silver lining in being laid-off or fired numerous times, for spans of a year or more, is that I've been forced into re-thinking things and my relationship with coding and work. I don't think I'd be able to re-enter a coding job otherwise, it just gets miserable at a certain point, it's isolating, bad for your body, stressful at times; I do think this comes with anything you pursue for long-enough while trying to push yourself in some direction or another, unless you just get extremely lucky and it becomes entirely optional. In those times, I've worked in random jobs (cafe, etc..) when they've come up, where I've had a different physical and organizational relationship with peers, solving different problems, using my body and communication skills differently, on different schedules, and I think that's absolutely crucial. A LOT of the time it's not as easy as you'd think; if you don't get rejected out of hand for a myriad of reasons, many jobs aren't as easy or as miserable as one would think from the outside. Volunteer work may also be incredibly rewarding. This is my recommendation to you, especially if you have some savings to fall back on for an extended period of time. It'll give you the space to consider things differently and get out of the headspace of being mired in code. Take up a challenging hobby and not-so challenging one, just to do anything else buy coding. Try to learn design or something in the visual arts to a serious level. Have an adventure. Ultimately, I had the same thoughts as you earlier on in what can only vaguely be called a career, that coding is somehow intrinsically important and I should love it and it'll change the world or whatever crap, but later after numerous burnouts, I realized that coding is just whatever, it's text, it makes computers do things, who cares it's not that important. But it can still be compelling in various ways, and that's fine too, let the relationship be an organic one, and let it fight for your attention once you've put your attention elsewhere. |