I had a similar experience; after only three years into my career I was very disillusioned with the career choice I had made, because although I loved programmi

I had a similar experience; after only three years into my career I was very disillusioned with the career choice I had made, because although I loved programming, everything else about the job was not matching up to expectations (although we did have cubicles). So I made the decision to leave industry and get a PhD so I could become an academic and teach. By the time I finished that, I had seen enough of what academia was like and became very disillusioned with the prospect of continuing on that path, because although I loved research and teaching, everything else about the job did not match up to expectations (although we did have private offices). So I went back into industry. I've had a range of different software jobs, some good and some not so much. Fortunately I've ended up now in a job that is super interesting and that I love. However - and this is the important point I want to make - I only got this opportunity because of the work I had done during grad school (and released publicly). What I learnt is that is that in order to get the really interesting jobs, I had to choose my own projects, outside of paid employment, and spend tons of time and effort on them to build up the experience necessary to find a full time job working on them. That's something I continue to do today, with a view to making myself eligible for other interesting jobs in the future.