It’s very likely you have not got burnt out
Apart from measuring the level of productivity, number of social interactions and wellbeing, post-COVID questionnaires usually address getting burnt out. It does not surprise me at all — a huge majority of companies was not prepared for such a rapid change, what may have resulted in employees feeling lost, bored or not willing to work at all.
“Being burnt out” sounds pretty definitive, like something that one should react upon immediately. Today I’m going to share some thoughts that I wish I had when I was heading towards this state of mind. If you are feeling the same, you might find some useful guidelines in the paragraphs below.
What happened?
It all started with a feeling that working days stopped being different from one another. Although it could have resulted from working with the same codebase for a long while, I felt that it was more serious. After a few months of a constant To Do -> In Progress -> Done cycle I decided to look for a solution.
First of all, for the past 2 years I’ve seen many developers trying to tackle their boredom and some of them changed their jobs. As refreshing as it may seem, in many cases it turned out to be a short term solution. After the first couple of weeks filled with excitement the problem would come back oftentimes. Since stability is an important factor for me, I have not considered giving it a shot. It doesn’t mean that changing jobs won’t work for you. My point is that analysing this issue a bit deeper may pay off.
First thoughts
After a couple of eye-opening conversations I managed to reach the first milestone. I realised that I was experienced enough to do my job without being surprised as often as I would like to be. I wanted those “a-ha!” moments to come back, I was used to them finding me, not me finding them.
There’s something in the IT world that I consider a bit inaccurate — using words like “junior”, “regular” and “senior” to measure someone’s experience or rather time spent being a software developer. I bet that you’ve at least heard of someone hired as a senior engineer who would made basic mistakes or not follow good practices. It’s a bit absurd, isn’t it?
Realisation
So back then I was a senior software developer “on paper”. Having said that, I started to wonder how could one describe such a skillset? Here’s what I discovered in the last couple of months:
Senior software developers are able to organise their time efficiently, look for new challenges on their own and develop themselves in what they are good at.
Let’s break this statement down into 3 points:
- Organise time efficiently
The more experienced you are, the more accurate your estimations become. You are more likely to avoid being stressed because of unexpected events. If you organise your time in an efficient way the likelihood of participating in fruitful discussions increases significantly. The same thing applies to developing good habits. - Look for new challenges on your own
Here comes the tricky part. No matter how I felt before — enthusiastic, happy, lazy or tired — new knowledge would keep coming. It made every day special in terms of becoming a better specialist. Now imagine loosing it in the middle of the pandemic. Have I got burnt out? Do I have a forgettable 9 to 5 job now? Should I start doing something different?
I was aware of a vast amount of things I could learn but what exactly should I do? Start practicing React, pick up Terraform or maybe focus on my English skills so that I could deliver better presentations? How do I determine what to pick up first and how to find some words of encouragement so that I’m sure that I’m heading towards success? - Develop myself in what I am good at
Here’s what I think — there’s such a huge dose of tech knowledge to absorb that spending your time on something that you don’t enjoy is pointless — that’s how you get burnt out. Let’s find out how one can determine what they are good at.
The power of feedback
If you want to discover your strengths and weaknesses, do yourself a favour — give feedback and look for one. If you’re not getting any — start giving it so this habit comes back to you at some point. It will, I promise.
It’s worth mentioning that collecting feedback is all about asking accurate questions. If you ask a general question, like:
“Hey, could you give me feedback?”
then you are likely to hear something like:
“I really enjoy working with you”
Which is kind, of course, but not very helpful. You’d probably like to find out what you are good at or what you could improve. My advice is to spend some time on making these questions as specific as possible so you get a detailed answer.
“If you would have to choose a single thing that I should improve, what would it be?”
“What, in your opinion, is my biggest strength?”
A big reveal
So, for the past couple of minutes you’ve been reading a blogpost about being a senior software developer but the text is not focused on engineering at all. Or maybe it is since nowadays it’s about a bit more than coding?
Now I know my motivation crisis was a result of becoming a more and more mature software developer (with pandemic trauma as a huge catalyst). I haven’t overcome it by either changing my environment, my attitude to work or waiting for the boredom to go away. In my case it was all about learning some missing soft skills. Have it made me a better software engineer? It definitely have.
Not burnt out, more aware
That’s why you might consider verifying whether your communication skills have not been neglected. Especially in comparison to how much time you spend on learning how to write a better code.
I know the temptation to focus only on the technology might be huge. However, if you have ever played any RPG you know that mastering a very limited range of skills makes your character much more liable to unexpected events.
Stay safe!
