For a while, I’ve been quite demoralized about my job. I just can’t take pride in what I do as a web developer anymore. I don’t know if that will ever change. I can’t help feeling that a lot of dev jobs out there, whether highly or poorly paid, are kind of pointless in the grand scheme of things. I apologize for being so blunt: I just want to convey where my mind is at the moment. I struggle to see my own work as useful, and it’s seriously affecting my self-worth.
It’s bothering me to the point where I’m seriously considering a career change. The alternative I keep returning to is medicine. I feel drawn to work with a clear human purpose, in which my knowledge could directly help someone. Between self-study and late-night deployments, I already work long hours anyway. Part of me thinks I might as well redirect that effort toward something that feels like a net positive. However, I may be idealizing a profession I haven’t experienced firsthand.
If I were younger, I would go for it. But I have to be realistic about my age, finances, and the skills I’ve already acquired. I live in a European country where medicine is a six-year degree and tuition itself is manageable, but I don’t know if I can afford to put my life on pause for so long.
In hindsight, I can’t help but wonder whether coding was really a self-imposed limitation born from familiarity and fear. As a teenager, I spent an awful lot of time on my computer, so I grew up within that world. Maybe I shortchanged myself by not considering other life paths. Meanwhile, I increasingly feel detached from and disappointed by the direction of the modern web. AI tools are one of the few silver linings: ChatGPT and Claude have genuinely improved many parts of my life.
I’d be very grateful for any thoughts or advice. For the sake of my privacy and well-being, I won’t be responding to comments, but I will read and carefully consider all of them.
With that in mind, I still advise NOT going into the field if you already have a stable career with above average income. It will take at minimum 10 years, of doing little else, before you will become a fully independent physician. Although some of this time can be shortened if you choose to become a PA/NP (sorry I don't know their equivalent in Europe, they are essentially clinicians with shortened training with some but limited individual practice autonomy).
If you work in a hospital every day is stressful. It is increasingly thankless although you still bear the brunt of responsibility and liability. You are also interchangeable.
I don't know if this helps explain my perspective of it's just a weird analogy, but being in a hospital feels like working in a grocery store now. You're told the margins are slim and you need to move produce (patients) faster out the door so that more produce can come in. A lot of the times the produce is not safe to sell but the managers pressure you to do it anyways. You could ask the managers (who were mostly at one point produce managers) to sell it but they would never. But if that apple you sold was mealy or at a rotten core its going to be on you.
There are a large number of healthcare related jobs, such as nursing, psychotherapy, physical therapy and such that you can get into with less training and that you might even like better.