I'm much earlier in my career than you are but have had serious thoughts about leaving the industry altogether for similar reasons. The interview processes are absolutely toxic these days, much of the industry seems like an outright scam (crypto, AI, etc.) and the trend is to casually waste resources.
Part of my motivation to go into writing code in the first place was that I noticed software getting worse and more user-hostile in the 2010s and I wanted to change that. Turns out the people making software worse think the stuff that makes it worse are "best practices" so you're fighting an impossible battle and nobody is going to dare allowing you to advance into a leadership position or often even get a job in the first place unless they think you're a true believer in the BS.
I also have no interest, at this point, in writing code unless I'm paid to do it. It's hard to find motivation to write code when I mentally associate it with all of the corporate BS and the grifting con artists of the tech industry. The one saving grace was that the money was good and it was possible to switch jobs for more money or because you're tired of 1 particular company's BS. Now, even that isn't possible anymore so what's the point?
> Part of my motivation to go into writing code in the first place was that I noticed software getting worse and more user-hostile in the 2010s and I wanted to change that. Turns out the people making software worse think the stuff that makes it worse are "best practices"
Yea, this has been the biggest change I've witnessed during my career. When I got into computers and programming, it was all about empowering the user, helping the user solve their problems, and providing the user with the tools that make the computer do what he wants it to do.
Now, the software industry is mostly about empowering the software company (and its "partners"), solving the company's problems, and making the user's computer do what the company wants it to do. From the software company's point of view, the user is seen as either 1. an annoying middle-man who just happens to (for now) possess the computer and/or 2. a cow to be milked for money, attention, engagement or time.
Part of my motivation to go into writing code in the first place was that I noticed software getting worse and more user-hostile in the 2010s and I wanted to change that. Turns out the people making software worse think the stuff that makes it worse are "best practices" so you're fighting an impossible battle and nobody is going to dare allowing you to advance into a leadership position or often even get a job in the first place unless they think you're a true believer in the BS.
I also have no interest, at this point, in writing code unless I'm paid to do it. It's hard to find motivation to write code when I mentally associate it with all of the corporate BS and the grifting con artists of the tech industry. The one saving grace was that the money was good and it was possible to switch jobs for more money or because you're tired of 1 particular company's BS. Now, even that isn't possible anymore so what's the point?