My daily job as a developer other than programming is about finding the right balance between different things:
- Buzzword driven development vs rock solid boring things.
- New technologies vs something already adopted inside the company.
- State of the art implementation. Something that can work in an hour.
And many more. I am sure you will have your own list. What I noticed during these years working for different companies, with different teams and in different states is that there are a lot of kind of developers, we are full of companies and projects to develop.
You should really look for the right place for you, but you need to know what to look for.
What I am trying to say that people, colleagues, companies can help you to find your balance be proactive on this research. Speak with your manager or with your colleagues about what you are happy to do or not you will find interesting answers if you are working with people with your same mindset. You will probably come up selling and buying tasks and issues from member of the teams because they like more what you are doing and vice versa.
Sometime you will even have the sensibility to grab a bored task just to have it done and leave your colleagues free to do something more fun.
This is the kind of work that I like. I am almost sure about that now. A place where shit needs to be done and you have an active word on how, it doesn’t need to be a decision, sometime I don’t know what’s better for the company or for the project, but can’t be always a black box that come from the ground and needs to be done. I am not an check list implementer and dealing with my colleagues and other people is an active and very good part of my day.
When it’s time to have fun because things are going well and even when you are the unique different voice out form a meeting. Find the right place where you feel free to say your opinion, be wise and mature enough to know that your opinion can be good or bad can’t be always the one to follow.
The right balance between all of these things, across teams, companies gives to me the feel to be in the right place.