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Burned out – how to find motivation again?
I am roughly six years into my career (EU based). I studied software engineering/computer at university. I have a mix of startup and corporate experience and managed to do well the past couple of years earning EUR 200k/year which is more than double the average for senior engineers in my area. At some point, the money just made things more stressful. I didn't feel like I could keep up the same pace as others.
I just resigned from my current job due to fatigue and having no love left for working. I have a decent amount of savings (a few years worth of living).
I feel like I've never truly been a great engineer - always the worst engineer on the team. I've managed to rise quickly due to being good at hiring/recruiting engineers, team building, and interpersonal skills / org work.
I feel like I'm not particularly "talented" as an engineer and my talents are more in the domain of people coordination/mentoring/product/org work. I'm constantly stuck between wanting to become the engineer I always wanted to be and moving more into the domain I have natural talents in.
I'm probably going to give myself a runway of a year to figure out what I want to do. I'm considering trying to join some open-source projects but unsure where to start.
Has anyone ever been in a similar situation and found a way through the maze?
- anenefan 3y agoVouched as it seems like a legit problem. I've not been in quite in your situation, but have had points in my life, where either failure / accident and illness, forced a hard look at what I was really capable of and a change to the direction I was heading. (I though am a bit boneheaded and in hindsight I should have sincerely given serious thought to where I was headed in my younger years - opportunities in life don't generally wait, I still kick my 25 old self when I considered myself too old to spend four years getting qualifications in a completely different fields.) You say you may set yourself a year to find your way, if you do though, don't be surprised if it's more. You've know you have certain talents and I would guess you'd actually be happy to work in a position where the job matches your particular skill set. Dreams and aspirations are nice, and many people feel like they have failed if they don't achieve some defining level ... beating that feeling of failure can take years, but working in an area where you can feel at ease and content, so long as the job pays well, is really an accomplishment.
- TheDeepWoods 3y agoThank you for your honest take!