I work with a lot of younger (Less than 35 years old) programmers, who are all highly creative people and avid gamers....
And we work with inventory management, point of sale and light accounting software. So that's what they make and spend their time thinking about.
And given such a boring mandate, there's a few things they've said they do to find interest in what they're asked to do:
1. As was said, novel problems are more interesting to most programmers than ones that are well known and easy to solve.
2. Ownership of the project is really important, as personal responsibility does a lot for your motivation. People are tasked with whole chunks of the software, so they're invested in it being good, intelligently designed and pleasing to customers. Working on a part of a thing that is a part of a thing tends to diminish how much you really feel like this is your baby.
I'd ask yourself why programming was your dream job. The ability to get paid to work with code? What is it about working with code now that you're not getting. How the hell does retail seem more interesting than programming to you? Was it the interaction with customers? The lack of "Please be doing something every second of your life" work ethic?
Jobs are overrated but necessary, most wage slaves will probably agree with that. I took my sweet ass time finding a "career" and I still have a hard time getting up some mornings. But I work for a very small company so I have to look everyone in the eye and we're all ultimately responsible for the success or failure of our company. So that does A LOT to make me get up and do my job and invest myself in it (not just the fragment of myself that can press keys and answer questions in monotone.)
Is your job not very demanding? Maybe you need to shoot for a position of higher responsibility. Or maybe you need to get out of business software and into the kind of software that utilizes your interests and creativity.
We've recently hired a few people either fresh out of college or nearing graduation...and your experience sounds similar to theirs. They're happy to be there, happy to get a paycheck, but they don't really feel the purpose and drive they expected. In short, they simply don't seem ready to do the career thing because it wasn't their true motivation. Their true motivation was to do thing they'd been raised to believe they should do: pick a field and make sure you get a job doing it. Well, you've done that. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED! Now what? And more importantly, why? Oh, there's no school or class or guidance counselors or even parents telling me what's expected anymore? Well shit. I'm not trying to be patronizing at all. It seems self evident but suddenly when no one is telling you what you should be doing anymore, a lot of people find themselves a drift in a sea of possibilities.
It took me many years after graduating college and fucking around doing this and that before I realized what I needed to feel normal was some stability, some responsibility, some rigor. A McJob to keep me grounded so I could start dreaming again. I went from doing what I wanted, when I wanted for several years and steadily becoming bored and cynical and miserable, to having a job and feeling the 9 to 5 grind.....and actually enjoying myself again when I did have free time. In a way it's like being back in school, pressure all around you, but the context is very different. As are the rewards and risks.
So maybe you're not at that point in your life where routine is a necessity. You're still young and feeling like life could be more dynamic and interesting than M-F, 9 to 5, bug lists and software meetings. That's cool. Maybe there's still some experience you've yet to have that your inner self feels it needs but hasn't articulated yet. Personally, I got mine. I got my couple years of zero responsibility, pure hedonism and indulgence that I felt my soul required after highschool, a goodly number of jobs and college. It was pretty sweet. But I'm done with that now and moving on into the next phase of me. And for those that did the straight high school --> college --> McJob progression....I can easily see where many feel like they didn't really have the "them" time they felt becoming an adult should grant them. Life from Junior High on until your career often feels like someone has been doing a lot of your thinking for you. For those that weren't born going "I WILL be a doctor!" or "I will travel to a foreign country and solve problems!", becoming an adult and getting an adult life can feel incredibly anti-climatic. Especially after years of following along with the big plan you've been sold since you were probably in 6th grade.
I guess what I'm trying to say is, don't sweat it. People often talk about the teen years being all emo, but there's a period of young adult ennui too. It's for different reasons, but in a way it still contributes to feeling displaced and unsettled, something you're kind of taught to believe magically goes away after graduating college. All I can say is, the 30 year old me would like to talk to the 20 year old me and be able to say "don't worry, it does get better. But it has everything to do with you and what you need right now."
Instead of changing jobs or doing something dramatic.....make a plan that doesn't involve work. Decide there's a fantasy or a dream you've always wanted fulfilled, like going somewhere you've always liked. Or saving enough money to buy something you've always wanted, like a badass gaming command center, a car, a house, something that doesn't involve a lot of money and consumerism, whatever. Get preggers with someone who is awesome.
Start making a life, 'cause you're an adult now! That's what this has all been about, becoming empowered to do the things you want to do! The college fund your family paid into for years/student loans you're paying for, the years of study, all of that has been so you could think of something you wanted to do and do it. Going to work is really less than half of what it means to be an adult, unless you choose to make it otherwise. Work so you can live your life, not the other way around.
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Topic: Dream job... kinda sucks... (Read 2033 times)