Hello seniors. I'm kinda stuck here and could really use some career advice.
I'm an SDE-1 working as a backend engineer.
Maybe it's just me, but lately coding itself isn't that satisfying anymore. Especially with AI getting better every month. I still love building software, that's not the issue.
What I find myself obsessing over now is everything around the code. systems... networking... Distributed systems.. infrastructure... architecture. Even the business side of why certain technical decisions are made.
The problem is... none of this feels very accessible as a junior. Most of my day is implementing features. Which is expected. But I can't shake the feeling that if I keep doing only that, one year from now I'll just be a much faster coder.
If you were starting today, how would you intentionally move towards this kind of work? Not "learn X technology", but how would you shape your career? Teams? Roles? Side projects? Open source? Something else?
I know experience can't be rushed. I'm just trying to make sure I'm walking in the right direction.
Would genuinely appreciate advice from people who've already been through this.
ps: Please help this post reach more experienced people 😅
