Farewell to Software Development

So here I am, staring at this screen, thinking about what to say. It's been a long time since I blogged. It's been funny, in a way, that my blog was never really very technical. I always blogged about the esoteric aspects of software development. About personal improvement, about striving to become a better software developer, about questioning the status quo, about reevaluating yourself at every step of the way. And now, I find that those words come back to haunt me. But not in any way that I would ever have expected.

I've been unemployed since December 1st. I've been seeking employment since then, and the experience has been eye-opening. In the past, getting work was never difficult. I like to consider myself both a competent developer and a proficient interviewer. In the past, it's never been difficult to find work. Within the first three or four interviews I had an offer on the table--usually several, and I could take my pick from them. But this time, I'm finding myself faced by rejections for reasons that escape me. One company refused to hire me because I hesitated when asked to describe the difference between natural and left joins. They thought a senior level developer should have provided an immediate response, without hesitation. I thought a senior level developer would have thought his answer through, worded his response carefully, and not just blurted out the first thing that leapt to mind. Apparently, it was irrelevant that my answer was correct.

I'm also faced by the prospect that technology is passing me by. This has been a growing concern of mine for years. There's a conundrum we all face when we seek long-term employment with any company. You see, companies seek candidates who want to stay with them for years. The problem is, companies tend to be entrenched in a particular technology stack. They have a vested interest in maintaining whatever software they've developed with that stack, and once you've invested yourself in the maintenance of that software, you're pretty much mired in it for the long haul. Whatever tools and technology were used in its initial development tend to become a ball and chain that anchor you where you are for years at a shot. Technology moves forward, but the product likely does not. And you, as the maintenance developer, stay tethered to that product and its associated technologies as everyone else moves forward.

New technologies emerge all the time. There are so many technologies out there right now that no one could possibly grasp them all, let alone consider himself an expert in them all. And yet, interviewers expect you to have this commanding expertise in such a wide variety of technologies that their expectations can be considered unreasonable. A jack of all trades is master of none. The truth of the matter is that most of us will never learn a new technology until a particular project demands exposure to it. Only then will we learn it. And then, we'll only learn enough of it to get by. Few companies have the budget to send their development staff to seminars or their ilk to receive formal training. Few developers make enough money to seek out and pay for formal training out of pocket. And few companies that provide that training are motivated to lower their prices to make it accessible to dirt-poor developers hungry for the knowledge.

And so it's a vicious cycle. Technology moves forward. Developers are stuck with the old technology, and cling to their jobs because, in this economy, they know it could be really difficult to find new work. Further, they know any new work they find could be worse than the work they're doing now. It's a buyer's market. Wages have declined, benefits are being cut, and the work still has to get done.

Over the last few years, I've been stuck in this vicious cycle. But since December, as I've been interviewing, one thing has started to become increasingly clear to me: software development is leaving me behind.

It doesn't matter how much I love it. It doesn't matter how good I am at it. It doesn't matter how passionate I am about quality, good design, team cohesion, self improvement, or any of those things. What matters is that I am tired of playing this catch-up game, of trying to appease people with unreasonable expectations, of being expected to know everything about everything, and being held accountable when I don't.

I know my limitations. It's time to get out. It's time to leave an industry behind that is full of falsified estimates, rushed deliveries, power grinds to meet deadlines, badly defined requirements, insane amounts of finger pointing, and unreasonable expectations. The days when developing software was fun are long gone. Somewhere along the road, it became work. And for me, that's the day it died.

So I'll turn from that path, now, and find a new path. I'm not sure what it is yet, but with any luck, it will be far less stressful.

To all of you still in the quagmire, I wish you well and good luck. Software can be tons of fun, if you keep it in the proper perspective. Somewhere along the way, I suppose I just lost mine. Try to keep yours. But for me, this is farewell to software development.