Front end developer specialising in JavaScript and React. Experienced in all aspects of modern front end development. Passionate about making accessible, secure and performant software.
The degree is not important. I've met people with degrees and people without degrees and it has almost 0 relevance for how good a programmer you are. You mentioned the same thing.
Don't flame on me on this, I'm not recommending it, I'm just stating the facts. From a professional standpoint, it doesn't seem to matter if you're incompetent or fake. I've met developers who had been working for decades, were in their 40s and 50s, and literally could not do even basic things. They were definitely junior level, being paid extremely good money and hired on CV experience alone (obviously). As I said, I don't suggest accepting this and not improving, but at least you probably don't have to worry about your career.
Now onto the real problem. How long have you studied / practiced outside of your work over the last 7 years? If the answer is 0, then it's going to be very difficult to change your situation. But if you're willing to study and improve, you are guaranteed to improve. The choice is yours.
What should you study and improve? You should definitely go by what you consider to be priority. Need to learn a new package for C#? Cool, go read the docs or do a course on it and practice for a few hours.
Here are some suggestions:
Professionalism and mindset: Read books like The Pragmatic Programmer or The Clean Coder. These are really important because they teach you the mindset of "always care about your work" and "always try to improve".
Want to improve at programming in general (including architecture) - I highly recommend starting by learning clean code and programming principles. E.g. Clean Code by Uncle bob, or his numerous YouTube videos. I've also got my own programming principles series as well.
Now onto the real problem. How long have you studied / practiced outside of your work over the last 7 years? If the answer is 0, then it's going to be very difficult to change your situation.
I'll add on to that having a job that pushes your skills helps tremendously. Squeezing 2-10 hours of additional coding into your week outside of the job is great; but being forced to have 10-40 hours of learning is a whole other level.
Many companies merely want "code monkeys" who just type the code into the computer according to the spec and architecture dictated to them. No thinking just typing. That is the type of job that will keep you stuck at the same skill level and you should try to avoid it if you can.
Front end developer specialising in JavaScript and React. Experienced in all aspects of modern front end development. Passionate about making accessible, secure and performant software.
That's really a good point.
If you can't apply the things you learn in your freetime in your current job then it is difficult to keep up all those things.
On the other hand: The companies that offer this jobs mostly have a high expectation to their applicants. So this is a chicken and egg problem :)
Further you will never find a company or a job where you can always apply new things, mythologies and toolings
Thanks for your reply.
I really thought I would get some replies like "You are a lost idiot"
To be honest : Sure I have done some learning and practice within the last seven years. I have read:
Code Complete
Clean Code
Clean Coder
The Pragmatic Programmer
Clean Architecture
But I do not remember every aspect of these books.
And further: These books cover so many topics which leads again to the problem: What to learn next or what to go deep with?
Further I have build some Alexa Skills or some other simple programs in my free time. I have also started to get in touch with python as I like the simplicity of the language.
It's not the point that I do not know anything. The point is that I have the feeling that I do not now anything and that everybody around me is better in every aspect. This leads to the problem that I sell myself badly because I consider myself to be a dazzler. Maybe I also have Imposter Syndrome, who knows. Further the frameworks today are so damn big. Spring for example. That's just overwhelming to learn all this stuff. And if you have learned something then there comes another big wall of stuff to learn.
What should you study and improve? You should definitely go by what you consider to be priority. Need to learn a new package for C#? Cool, go read the docs or do a course on it and practice for a few hours.
Currently, I would like to focus more on Java and Spring. I've been thinking about changing my job back to C#, but that's nothing concrete yet.
I love my job. Really. I love it to be developer - but I don't want to be just mediocre. I want to become a better developer in every aspect. If possible.
Front end developer specialising in JavaScript and React. Experienced in all aspects of modern front end development. Passionate about making accessible, secure and performant software.
You're definitely not a lost idiot. Programming is serious work that not anyone can just pick up and do. It's easy to feel like you're really bad sometimes, but you've got to remember that as long as you can complete your tasks, then you're extremely valuable to the company. Also as you mentioned, you have similar skills to most of your colleagues, so it's not really that bad. It's just a feeling but it's probably not as valid as you think :).
As for getting even better, just keep up the learning. It might be slow, but you'll definitely get there. Any time you do something, you'll be able to do it better next time, and any time you read you'll learn something too.
Thanks - I'll try to do my best.
As I already said: Sometimes it's really hard and sometimes I doubt being a "good" developer and I doubt the decision to become a developer.
For example: If I look at such repositories github.com/kgrzybek/modular-monoli... - Damn! I would never get this done this way. And that's one thing that scares me a lot regarding requirements or expectation when applying for a new job. But that's my problem. Need to handle this somehow with my brain ;)
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The degree is not important. I've met people with degrees and people without degrees and it has almost 0 relevance for how good a programmer you are. You mentioned the same thing.
Don't flame on me on this, I'm not recommending it, I'm just stating the facts. From a professional standpoint, it doesn't seem to matter if you're incompetent or fake. I've met developers who had been working for decades, were in their 40s and 50s, and literally could not do even basic things. They were definitely junior level, being paid extremely good money and hired on CV experience alone (obviously). As I said, I don't suggest accepting this and not improving, but at least you probably don't have to worry about your career.
Now onto the real problem. How long have you studied / practiced outside of your work over the last 7 years? If the answer is 0, then it's going to be very difficult to change your situation. But if you're willing to study and improve, you are guaranteed to improve. The choice is yours.
What should you study and improve? You should definitely go by what you consider to be priority. Need to learn a new package for C#? Cool, go read the docs or do a course on it and practice for a few hours.
Here are some suggestions:
Professionalism and mindset: Read books like The Pragmatic Programmer or The Clean Coder. These are really important because they teach you the mindset of "always care about your work" and "always try to improve".
Want to improve at programming in general (including architecture) - I highly recommend starting by learning clean code and programming principles. E.g. Clean Code by Uncle bob, or his numerous YouTube videos. I've also got my own programming principles series as well.
Hope that helps. Good luck!
I'll add on to that having a job that pushes your skills helps tremendously. Squeezing 2-10 hours of additional coding into your week outside of the job is great; but being forced to have 10-40 hours of learning is a whole other level.
Many companies merely want "code monkeys" who just type the code into the computer according to the spec and architecture dictated to them. No thinking just typing. That is the type of job that will keep you stuck at the same skill level and you should try to avoid it if you can.
Yeah that sounds awesome, great suggestion.
That's really a good point.
If you can't apply the things you learn in your freetime in your current job then it is difficult to keep up all those things.
On the other hand: The companies that offer this jobs mostly have a high expectation to their applicants. So this is a chicken and egg problem :)
Further you will never find a company or a job where you can always apply new things, mythologies and toolings
Thanks for your reply.
I really thought I would get some replies like "You are a lost idiot"
To be honest : Sure I have done some learning and practice within the last seven years. I have read:
But I do not remember every aspect of these books.
And further: These books cover so many topics which leads again to the problem: What to learn next or what to go deep with?
Further I have build some Alexa Skills or some other simple programs in my free time. I have also started to get in touch with python as I like the simplicity of the language.
It's not the point that I do not know anything. The point is that I have the feeling that I do not now anything and that everybody around me is better in every aspect. This leads to the problem that I sell myself badly because I consider myself to be a dazzler. Maybe I also have Imposter Syndrome, who knows. Further the frameworks today are so damn big. Spring for example. That's just overwhelming to learn all this stuff. And if you have learned something then there comes another big wall of stuff to learn.
What should you study and improve? You should definitely go by what you consider to be priority. Need to learn a new package for C#? Cool, go read the docs or do a course on it and practice for a few hours.
Currently, I would like to focus more on Java and Spring. I've been thinking about changing my job back to C#, but that's nothing concrete yet.
I love my job. Really. I love it to be developer - but I don't want to be just mediocre. I want to become a better developer in every aspect. If possible.
You're definitely not a lost idiot. Programming is serious work that not anyone can just pick up and do. It's easy to feel like you're really bad sometimes, but you've got to remember that as long as you can complete your tasks, then you're extremely valuable to the company. Also as you mentioned, you have similar skills to most of your colleagues, so it's not really that bad. It's just a feeling but it's probably not as valid as you think :).
As for getting even better, just keep up the learning. It might be slow, but you'll definitely get there. Any time you do something, you'll be able to do it better next time, and any time you read you'll learn something too.
Thanks - I'll try to do my best.
As I already said: Sometimes it's really hard and sometimes I doubt being a "good" developer and I doubt the decision to become a developer.
For example: If I look at such repositories github.com/kgrzybek/modular-monoli... - Damn! I would never get this done this way. And that's one thing that scares me a lot regarding requirements or expectation when applying for a new job. But that's my problem. Need to handle this somehow with my brain ;)