Employer ruined my love of coding, where do I go from here? /u/Fluffiest_of_dergs CSCQ protests reddit

Almost a year ago, I finished my work on a 6 month contract creating a large addon to a system in use by NicheManufacturer, and I haven’t been the same since.

Because of the NDA’s and how specific this all was, I’ll keep things vague.

I usually work time limited contracts and positions to keep things fresh and interesting. The contract and company seemed decent enough, so I decided to take it on. While management was terrible, the people working on the floor were great and very nice, and going through their processes, use-cases etc. were probably one of the best talk-to-the-users experience I’ve ever had. I really wanted to make their lives easier because several of the flows/processes they had to go through were frustratingly awful and took MUCH more time than they should. The overall system was appalling too.

So I get to work, pouring in blood, sweat and tears for these people because I really liked them and wanted to make their lives easier. 2 weeks before deadline, I finish development. By then, it was fully tested and vetted by the users, and ready to be implemented straight into production. Users are happy, I’m happy, management is happy.

Or so I thought, because management tells me the next day that they won’t be using it after all and that my contract is completed, but that they’ll of course still pay for the remaining two weeks. There wasn’t any real explanation as to why, just that they wouldn’t be using it. And that’s what broke me.

All that work.

For nothing.

Afterwards, I just felt numb. I’ve been coding since I was 19, I’m in my thirties now, and never have I experienced anything like this. I’ve had a burnout before, but that felt NOTHING like this. For the last 12 months, I’ve had zero desire to code. None of my hobby projects have been touched since then, and the one contract I had since just felt awful.

Because I had to code.

And I would much rather just have been washing dishes or something.

So, I ask you all, any advice on what to do from here?

Almost a year ago, I finished my work on a 6 month contract creating a large addon to a system in use by NicheManufacturer, and I haven’t been the same since.

Because of the NDA’s and how specific this all was, I’ll keep things vague.

I usually work time limited contracts and positions to keep things fresh and interesting. The contract and company seemed decent enough, so I decided to take it on. While management was terrible, the people working on the floor were great and very nice, and going through their processes, use-cases etc. were probably one of the best talk-to-the-users experience I’ve ever had. I really wanted to make their lives easier because several of the flows/processes they had to go through were frustratingly awful and took MUCH more time than they should. The overall system was appalling too.

So I get to work, pouring in blood, sweat and tears for these people because I really liked them and wanted to make their lives easier. 2 weeks before deadline, I finish development. By then, it was fully tested and vetted by the users, and ready to be implemented straight into production. Users are happy, I’m happy, management is happy.

Or so I thought, because management tells me the next day that they won’t be using it after all and that my contract is completed, but that they’ll of course still pay for the remaining two weeks. There wasn’t any real explanation as to why, just that they wouldn’t be using it. And that’s what broke me.

All that work.

For nothing.

Afterwards, I just felt numb. I’ve been coding since I was 19, I’m in my thirties now, and never have I experienced anything like this. I’ve had a burnout before, but that felt NOTHING like this. For the last 12 months, I’ve had zero desire to code. None of my hobby projects have been touched since then, and the one contract I had since just felt awful.

Because I had to code.

And I would much rather just have been washing dishes or something.

So, I ask you all, any advice on what to do from here?