It seems like there’s a lot of cynicism/critiques of the industry around here so I’m curious to hear:

What made you work in the industry? What gets you excited at work? What are you passionate about?

I just started as an intern at a startup but what I really like so far:

-The creativity of solving a problem exactly how you want and designing/implementing what you see as the best possible solution given your constraints

-The fact that people are so passionate about what they do that their exists things like hackathons and OS projects (it seems kind of crazy to me if you compare it to other professional industries like civil engineering/law)

-Constantly learning new language features/frameworks/technologies every day (some people complain about this but I really enjoy trying random libraries, seeing new takes/paradigms on old problems, or stuff like nerding out tweaking a web app build chain)

-Getting to do really technical work like backend development and then jumping over to more artsy creative stuff like front end within the same day (what other kind of job lets you do that?)

-Overall a lot less BS "Do it this way because that's how we do it" than other old industries I've worked in, more room for debate and discussion over designs as people generally want the best solution to everything

-Most people you work with are pretty smart

-The satisfaction that stuff you designed and created goes out into the world and is actually useful to someone

-Having a really tight team that knows your system to the point where solving problems/brainstorming feels like you’re some NASA mission control crew

-A good whiteboard session

-People don’t seem as afraid of change/new ways of doing things

Maybe this is just the naive experience of an intern, but so far I’m blown away by how fun this kind of job can be.