When I look back at the time when I got my first coder job it feels like yesterday.
It's been 8 years.
I've started to take action only after getting a mediocre exams grade to enter university.
I didn't try hard. Exams are irrelevant, but at the time it gave me a good push.
Set my mind to complete the JavaScript course during summer break, did it successfully.
Still passed to a decent local university, found a gig and dropped out.
Everything starts rolling perfectly: learn a lot, get raises, reach senior, then lead level.
All is well, right?
But I got hard stuck in big tech.
Don't get me wrong, I've learned a lot here too.
But it moves so slowly it's crazy wild to me. And how could it be otherwise with this much staff?
What I currently see is this:
* There's no interest in development (okay, for me)
What are we even building & why it matters?
Why it takes so long to code this stuff using internal tools, is this the wrong way?
What would I want to build?
The meaning part did arise when I was working in outsource.
But back then there was so much stuff to learn - it didn't matter what to build.
And we had creative freedom to choose almost any open source stack to get the job done.
Library X is hard to use? Throw it away, choose another solution, or build your own.
And yes, the desire to come up with and create something serious and valuable, myself, was and still is there.
I'm still happy coding or vibe-coding my ideas.
* Unnecessary tech work
Moving stuff around, from team to team, from repository to repository
Field X got deprecated, use field Y
I get it, there will always be chores to do.
But seriously. What are we doing?
The business value of this is less than zero.
I'm not saying we should pile on legacy crap, but some stuff is just obnoxious.
* Strict Requirements
What and how to write is pre-determined
Code standards are set; use internal tools, frameworks, cover with these and those tests.
The architecture is set in stone, good luck trying to overthrow or simplify it.
There's nothing to add to designs, specification and the product itself.
This may be good for business: a factory pipeline that delivers predictable results.
But that's the point. It's robotic.
I'm not saying you shouldn't join bigtech or climb a career ladder.
But if you want impact, build your own thing.
Or join a startup. Experiment.