A software engineer is going viral on TikTok after getting honest about her job’s biggest downsides.
A user named Anjali (@anjali_tewani_), in her mid-20s, often posts about different facets of her high-paying career in tech.
However, she’s now revealing why money isn’t everything in a job like hers.
“Is this job worth it?” the TikToker captioned her video, which now has almost 200,000 views.
In the video, Anjali begins by acknowledging the advantages of her chosen career. Not only does it pay well — the average American software engineer makes over $88,000 per year, per PayScale — but it also offers plenty of security and lots of opportunities to work from home, a factor that has become increasingly important to workers.
Anjali goes on to detail some of the more negative aspects of her job, including mental burnout.
“It’s mentally taxing,” she says. “A lot of times, after a full workday, I don’t feel like I have any brain capacity left over to work on side projects or do anything super productive.”
Anjali’s point is personal, but it reflects a wider concern. A recent survey found that 83% of software engineers suffer from burnout at work.
The TikToker went on to note other challenges, for example, the fact that many companies put prospective employees through a long series of complex interviews. In addition, Anjali says, the work isn’t always as glamorous or exciting as it might seem.
“You may be working on something that sounds cool from a high level,” she says. “When you’re actually debugging or implementing a specific feature, it can be tedious and arguably boring at times.”
Then there’s the physical toll. As Anjali notes, most software engineer jobs require employees to be seated for long periods. Prolonged sedentary work has been known for its adverse effects on almost every part of the body, from the legs, veins and back to the heart — let alone the question of mental health.
“If you don’t make a conscious effort to stay active, your body will betray you,” Anjali says.
The video drew plenty of praise from TikTokers. Both engineers and non-engineers chimed in to shed more light on the everyday realities of a job that may look attractive to outsiders.
“Another con is you have to constantly keep learning new things. And some are not fun,” one user wrote.
“It destroyed my hobby of programming for fun. But I got rich,” another added.
“The cons don’t seem that bad at first, but they really are the worst, if you don’t make it a DAILY habit to take good care of yourself,” another wrote.
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