Sorry for the mini-rant, I’m just a bit lost at the moment. I don’t know whether it’s worth looking at changing careers, trying to stick with it or something else I haven’t thought of. I’ve been working in the industry for 14 years and feel like I’m old and jaded. I got a bit burnt out a couple of years ago working 70-hour weeks and haven’t been able to bounce back since. Now, whenever I’m coding, it just feels like an enormous effort to get anything done. I’ve tried to work on different projects and things that are more in line with my interests, but that hasn’t really seemed to help. I’ve worked in various management roles over the years and have been drawn more towards that side of things at the moment, mainly because it isn’t coding. I feel like I’m average at best as a manager, but I have ASD so there are a few aspects of it that I really struggle with. I feel like I could work on these aspects, but it will always be draining and it will never be easy the way coding used to be. The other problem with management is that most people want you in-house for that, whereas I enjoy the freedom of contracting.
Has anyone come back from being burnt out to love what they do again? If so, how did you manage to do it?