I’m 27, majored in Computer Science, studied and learned programming for 6 years, now I regret it.
Originally, I was a music major (music is my passion) going into my sophomore year, I thought it wasn’t going to be worth it. So I decided to switch to something “practical”. Back then I sort of knew the economy was trash (it’s even more trash now), so I knew I had to make a serious decision in investing the next 3 years in learning a useful skill to get a stable job. BUT my deal was I had to make the switch in something I really liked, I liked math, computer science/programming was like problem solving and math related so I chose CS. Took my first class in programming and I was interested in the subject. In the beginning of my CS journey, I was all over the “tech code world”, I loved it. But by the time I was a junior, that fire-y love for CS was dying down (I would explain why that is but it’s too much information, It’d be a novel).
That’s when I began to start being real with myself (I was a chronic overthinker, isolated myself a lot). Thoughts of “will I even keep up with this CS lifestyle?” , “am I capable of working hard for something I’m not even passionate about?”. Mind you I DID NOT pick CS for the money! (originally I vehemently didn’t want to go to college.The college that I went to didn’t even have the specific thing I wanted to do in music which was music composition, but you know traditional parents. I was going to go either way.) If I was going to switch majors I had to pick something I was going to genuinely enjoy, but unfortunately, it didn’t turn into another passion I hoped it would, just like the passion I had for music. I realized programming was just going to be another miscellaneous hobby in my life, not something I would, or want to, grind, poor blood sweat and tears for to get a job. To get a job and work full-time as a software developer, do it for who knows how long and barely have time to do the thing I really freaking want to do???? Now at 27 I finally admit that I’m not really loving that idea…..
Also, no my parents were not against me majoring in music. If anything they wanted me to go for something I really wanted to do, which I am blessed to have that support from my parents. But when I switched to CS, they were super on board, because “there will be a lot of tech jobs hiring”...HA! Obviously, fast forward to 2026, we have vibecoding, which made me think 6 years years of learning programming down the drain…..but I know I can still use AI as a tool to help me blah blah blah. You gotta keep up with the new tech, learn new skills, pivot rah rah. All I know since I have a freaking CS degree (btw I BARELY finished college. Thats why it took me 6 years to graduated for my Bachelors, it was hard!), I need to get a job, economy is poop, hire me dang it!
I’m regretting hard on this….If I were to hop on a Delorean and go back to my sophomore year college self, I would tell me NOT to switch my major! I swear I would!
So now I am following my dreams for a realistic music career while also (somewhat) chasing a software dev job. I prefer working part-time as a software dev. But regardless I ain’t quitting music. I’ve put my passion on hold for almost 7 years now and if I continue to put it on hold for the sake of chasing something I low key I won’t succeed in, I’ll go psycho. So now I’ve decided to stop coping and accept I wasted 7 years of my life for CS and I am now going hard on my music….
I mean I guess I’ll still use some of what I learned in CS, but instead of practicing leetcode and being sucked into a black hole of tutorials on youtube just to prepare myself in “getting” a company job somewhere, I'm going to work on projects I want to work on. I don’t know, I’ll make a game or something……bye
TLDR; Switched my major from music to computer science. Spent 6 years studying programming. Now I regret it and want to follow a music career.