It’s 2024, and six months have already passed. I have been coding and building websites since 2017. I won’t bore you with all the details, so let’s jump into the main part: why I should rethink everything.
Career
As I mentioned, my professional career started in 2017. I was pursuing Chartered Accountancy after 12th grade, but due to some issues, I had to drop out, one reason being my interest in programming. I started learning on my own from the internet and got my first job in Chandigarh as a WordPress developer. Since then, I have been partially successful in transitioning to other technologies like pure backend or frontend.
One reason for my partial success was that I was able to make good money, at least for me. I got new contracts and projects as a freelancer because of my problem-solving skills and ability to create nice user interfaces without using pre-built templates.
Some might think there’s no problem-solving in WordPress, but speed is a major issue for WordPress website owners who rely heavily on plugins. I limit plugin usage by custom coding features, which became my selling point. Even though I lacked experience in PHP and never formally learned it, I managed by reading WordPress docs and looking at code.
In 2023, I joined a web shop full-time, earning 1 lakh every month. My expenses were less than 30%, and I saved the rest, but I chose to invest in personal side projects, which amounted to nothing and wasted every penny.
After three months, I got sick of the work because I wasn’t doing anything special for the past six years. I left the office to freelance for the same company and focus on side projects, but this cycle of working for three months and then leaving to work on side projects repeated without success.
Eventually, I ran out of money, and freelancing work was at its lowest. The company I worked for shut down because the owner couldn’t handle running both it and a therapy center. Then the marriage happened, and now it’s July 2024.
Although I got some freelancing work on Upwork, the platform is worse these days. I couldn’t focus on a full-time job even when it was enough for my living because of my business mindset, which never succeeded. I always thought I would succeed this time but always failed and burnt tons of money.
I also tried stock trading and investment but, being impatient, never tasted success. Now, whenever I look at job posts, I feel I can’t do anything. Even for JavaScript developer positions, they ask for skills I never heard of or never used. I stayed back from applying because I probably worked on some of those things but never knew the professional terms.
This is the main drawback of working too much with web shops and then looking for product-focused companies like most startups these days. Now, I’m 26, workless, and cannot apply for jobs because I don’t know everything they ask for.
I can apply for entry-level jobs, but in India, they don’t pay much, and I won’t be able to survive on that alone. So, it’s not worth it. If I look for a job outside India, basically remote jobs, the same technology gap exists, and I don’t have a degree. I’m just a high school graduate and nothing else.
Now, I’m in too much debt and can’t even focus on learning because every 30 days there’s a huge EMI to pay, and I can’t ask for help every month. My stress level is at an all-time high because of these things. I’m losing my hair every day. Life is at its worst spot right now, and it has been since mid-2023. But I have to take some action because there’s no option to leave everything behind.
The Plan
Frankly speaking, I’m not sure what the plan is, but I have to do something because I never planned for my life to be what it is today. I have started learning new things, focusing on React.js and Next.js. There are lots of entry-level jobs in these technologies, and I can get very good in a short span if I just do it every day. If I get a job, it will super boost my progress, reaching a level in three months that might take a year if I do it myself.
I could write a lot more about this stuff, but this is the summary of everything going on.
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