Why I Quit Software Engineering After 4 5 Years

After 4 and 1/2 years being software engineer, quit. Not because hated the job, but just needed to know if actually wanted this life. And that question mattered more to me than the salary or the title. At the time, was 25. Good money, fully remote, living outside of London, but getting London salary. Life was good. On paper, everything was fine. But felt restless. couldn't tell if wanted something more or something else. saved lot of money. lived with my mom for bit and lived with my friends from school, so had roommates, so my rent was cheap. was 25 and only really explored Europe up until that point. wanted to see the world. And one thing that really really interested me was van life and specifically in New Zealand. But more importantly, wanted to answer my own question. Do really want to be software engineer? wasn't running away from my job. was running towards clarity. thought quitting would fix the restlessness. thought travel would give me the answers. thought stepping away from that everyday grind 9 to5 would make things lot more obvious. kind of thought was going to have like the big moment. But what it did give me was it answered some problems. It gave me answers. It gave me the clarity that wasn't trapped, that could escape. But one of the most important things was didn't hate the job. just lacked contrast. had the same environment, the same routine. Everything was the same every day. What it didn't fix was the need for structure. When was traveling, enjoying myself in the van, meeting people, just traveling such beautiful country. kind of liked the routine of software engineering. would open my laptop and just be like, let's build hobby project." And every day logged on to my computer, opened up my VS Code, and just got went for it. No pressure from employees, no deadlines, nothing. Just my own time, building exactly what wanted. And had lot of fun. learned lot of stuff. really delved into using AI to build stuff quick. And built some really cool hobby projects that I'm pretty proud of. In sense, built my own routine again. had the routine of coding every day. And it made me realize didn't actually hate coding. actually wanted it again. And stepping away made me realize, yeah, actually do want this soft engineering life. actually couldn't imagine doing anything else for job. don't even I've never had another job. It's just been writing code. But the biggest thing learned from all of this, maybe wanting more doesn't mean wanting something else. Maybe just wanting to do the same thing but in different way. didn't quit because hated software engineering. quit because wanted to test that belief. And it turns out do want it and I'm actually really good at it. So I'm back in different environment. I'll update you in my next video where am. But am coding again. can say that I'm having salary. Am in London? Am somewhere else? We'll see. But I'm really happy to be back. it was nice to take this time away and just think and reflect and just know exactly what want to