just looking for some advice really as I don't know where to turn.
I am currently working for a fairly large tech company, working as an application software engineer. I've been here for a couple of years since I graduated from a CS masters. This was after working in a different sector for a few years when I decided that I needed a career change that would challenge me.
I was first placed into a data engineering team, which I learnt stuff from but got very bored, so I moved into my current role, working on Java microservices. I was hoping that this change would be a lot more "code-y" and that I'd find it really exciting and learn a lot more. But almost a year down the line and I'm still as bored and unmotivated as ever. I barely get anything done in a day because the work I'm doing is boring, and when I get stuck I get bored too. When I was studying I loved coding and solving problems but now it doesn't excite me anymore. I've thought about starting a side project in my spare time but, again, I don't care enough to want to do that.
At work I tend to get involved in "extra-curricular" things like organising socials, holding interviews, working with outreach programmes and I always seem to prefer spending my time on these things. On the other hand, sometimes I will actually find myself working on a coding task that I enjoy and get on with. It's not black and white which is why it's confusing.
I have several theories for this and I constantly bounce from one to the other, meaning I'm never sure what to think or believe about my situation. My theories are:
- I'm not "meant" to be a software developer. I know that I thrive in situations where I have a managing/coordinating/organizing role - maybe this is where I should be.
- My team is not conducive to mentoring/team work so I feel like I progress at a very, very slow rate. I work in a team that is distributed across locations and my access to mentors, especially in my own office, is limited. This means that I don't get the support I need to thrive.
- There's something wrong with me that means I will never be satisfied and the actual problem is that I have severe concentration issues.
I'm almost 30 now and I feel scared of starting over again but I know something has to change as I'm getting deeper and deeper into this rut. I just don't know which way to turn.
My actual question(s):
What can I do to get more mentoring and support from seniors/team-members in order to progress in my role or should I just change companies to somewhere where I had more support? Would it help to change roles, to something like a project manager role?