Mind burst
Hello guys,
First of all, thank you for taking the time to read this.
I'm a software engineer with two years of experience. I joined a startup here in Morocco when the product barely existed, there was no clear vision, no real foundation, and the team had no idea how to bring it to life or make it accessible.
Since day one, I was highly motivated and eager to grow. Over the past two years, I single-handedly designed and built the entire application from the ground up, transforming it into a complex, reliable system, despite the extremely limited resources we had.
But now, I’m feeling completely burned out. The workload has become unrealistic, with constant pressure to ship new features and fix a flood of bugs, many of which are a direct result of poor planning and weak management.
To be clear, I love software development. I’m passionate about building clean, scalable, and reliable apps and systems. But the compensation is not reflective of the value I bring, and that’s starting to take a toll.
That said, I can’t just quit. I still have one year left before graduating, and I depend on this job to finance my studies. Finding a new opportunity here in Morocco is also incredibly difficult, as most companies require a degree, and there are very few well-funded startups hiring without one.
If any of my senior brothers or sisters have advice to share, I’d truly appreciate it. Thanks again for taking the time to read my story.
11 Replies
What can I help you?
What you're feeling is completely valid in your situation. What you're experiencing is unfortunately quite common, at least in my experience.
The story goes like this:
There is a company that has a thing to build, that company is a startup, young or small business that lacks the know-how to build a proper team in-house and resources to hire an external software house.
They decide to hire an inexperienced, but talented person (or a few people) or a few people.
Initially it seems like a mutually beneficial setup: the company gets talent at a price they can afford, and the new employee has an opportunity to gain experience, learn and grow.
Unfortunately, as the product is built cracks start to appear - the company does not know how to manage IT projects properly, the scope changes constantly and once the product is shipped bugs start to appear.
By this point typically the employee is strongly attached to the company - typically emotionally and/or financially, while the whole project hinges on a single person.
What can you do being in such a situation?
First of all - talk to your management about this. They should realize that it is in their best interest to keep you happy. This is the only way in which things have the option of improving in the current company.
Take a break - from your post I feel that you are right on the edge of complete burnout. I don't know what the law is like in your country, but you definitely need take a couple weeks off. And I mean off - no slack messages or phone calls from the company. Go hiking, learn to scuba dive or anything else, that is not a mental task.
Talk to a professional - while I do not know you and don't want to make any assumptions, these kinds of situations often exploit your inexperience - both in working culture and emotional. Talk to a mental health professional, a counselor, therapist, psychologist. It really helps.
I'm looking for an advice or an opportunity outside of my country to quit because in Morocco there is literally no hope, startup funding is not even a thing here and opportunities are only for people who have a degree even if you had the experience of 4 people the hr won't even talk to you, anything you give is very very appreciated even good words, and thank you again for taking time to read this.
Are remote jobs abroad an option for you?
In Poland, while uncommon, it's not unheard of to have students work for a US company for example.
I really appreciate your advice brother I will try and take a break from this for the moment and see ho2 things would go, I really really appreciate your advice much.
I've been in a similar situation in the past. Hopefully you can get out of this relatively quickly & smoothly.
Yes absolutely I was looking for a remote job for so long but you know the current state of the market is cooked so I didn't continue searching, either ways I will finish on-site studying at January, and from there I will have to do an internship for 6 months and there I can get my degree, in Morocco you have to spend 5 years in a school of engineering.
Hope so, I really appreciate your understanding of my situation.
In Poland it's 3.5 years to get an engineering degree, extra 1.5 if you want masters.
Though I never finished my engineering thesis, got wrapped up too much in work.
Yeah the system there is far better then north Africa's system, engineering schools here are literally a joke.
I wanted to do the same too and quit because I felt I was just wasting my time, but that would be suicide in my case. If you don't have a degree you don't have a job.
I suppose you can always work a job that is not related to engineering, right?
Might not be desirable, but still better than burning out
Yeah but that would hold me back from learning and growing more, also colleges here take up your entire day so you can't work part time jobs, I mostly work at night, anyway the job market in Morocco in general is pretty fucked up.