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Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

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Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#141
post #22

I'd argue differently. Congrats for having the courage to recognize your problem. The analogy that comes to mind is I've been playing basketball in my local town, and now I've gotten promoted to play in the big city. I now feel like a small fish in a big pond. If you enjoy software engineering, I'd say, double down. Now that you're at the medium software company, seek mentorship and coaching from others. In addition,…

> Now that you're at the medium software company, seek mentorship and coaching from others. Agreed. My abilities as a developer increased tremendously at one of my jobs, and I can attribute 90% of that to a single person at that company who mentored me and helped me grow. (Hi, René, you probably don't read this.) You can read all the articles and books you want, but actively pairing with someone on tasks and getting…

interesting... I have never been in an environment where pair-programming was practised..

makes me think how much I could have improved...

Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#144
Slightly offtopic, but don't get hung on job titles.

I'm a mid-level software engineer in a large company, and I'm in my mid 30s. Certainly I'm in the older side of this tenure bracket, but I'm far from the only one.

This is the thing: my current position has far bigger scope and impact as a mid level than senior+ roles have at other companies. Also, we regularly interview people in their 40s for mid level roles.

Bottom line, if you want to improve you'll need to let go of personal ego and what others might think. It's certainly uncomfortable, but it's also the best way to improve.

Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#145
Honestly just don't be a jerk. That's half the battle.

As long as you listen when I tell you hey this is how we can fix this. I actually left a job because of exceptionally bad code , if your attitude is to get defensive when you obviously don't know what your doing , that's an issue.

Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#146
Seniority is in the eyes of the beholder.

But what you say makes little sense. You think you're not senior enough because you can't debug piece of garbage?

> I've also thought about transitioning to a PM role

Maybe you're just tired of working with code. That's alright after 10 years. And it's ok to want to try management. I can recommend reading this https://charity.wtf/2017/05/11/the-engineer-manager-pendulum...

Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#147
post #85
post #22

I'd argue differently. Congrats for having the courage to recognize your problem. The analogy that comes to mind is I've been playing basketball in my local town, and now I've gotten promoted to play in the big city. I now feel like a small fish in a big pond. If you enjoy software engineering, I'd say, double down. Now that you're at the medium software company, seek mentorship and coaching from others. In addition,…

I really appreciate your (and everyone) help. I've always knew I was behind some things but this real world experience slapped me in the face and now I'm trying to readjust. My manager has already been aware of my lack of knowledge but I'll talk to him to know if they still want me there. If I keep my job I for sure will be asking for more help at the start of a new project.

> I'll talk to him to know if they still want me there.

Why would you think they don't want you there? This is not a helpful mindset to have. Here are the facts:

1) You passed the interview process.

2) They made you an offer.

3) They've continued to invest in you as an engineer by giving you feedback on your weak spots and where you can improve.

If you were really that far behind, they would have realized that in the hiring process and you would /not/ have received an offer. So let's start there. They definitely still want you there. That is why they hired you.

Second, let's talk about your "lack of knowledge," "being behind some things" and "real world experience" that "slapped [you] in the face" -- based on your mindset it looks like you are viewing this as a negative, or as proof of failure. Why is that the case?

You have 10 years of experience solving problems and getting paid for it. Now, you are solving different kinds of problems, so you're developing new muscles. It's expected on their end (and should be expected on yours) that there is some kind of /ramp up/. Talk about what ramp up means. Figure out your manager's expectations, and figure out what resources you have available to engage in ramp up. I guarantee you this, there's ramp up at any new medium-big company anywhere you go. There's tribal knowledge, spinning up on the industry vertical, etc -- all of this is incompressible, doesn't matter how good of an engineer your are.

If your manager is any good, they likely know about this and will appreciate you being aware of this problem as a logistics problem, not a moral problem. So think about it that way. Stop thinking about "whether they want you there" -- start thinking about "what blockers are in your way towards being productive" and start building a game plan with your manager. Worst case scenario, you're not able to accomplish it, but at least you gave it an effort and approached it the right way. That's a much more mature, proactive and effective approach than self-sabotaging yourself with feelings of inadequacy. I have a hunch that you won't fail if you do this, though. Just thinking about what you want to get accomplished and the nitty gritty details of how you get there and collaborating with your manager to get to a plan you're both happy with is /a lot/ of work -- once you've done that, if you work at a functional organization, the chances of you succeeding are very high!

Give yourself a pat on the back, while you're at it. Getting to a point where you're still being challenged after 10 years of experience is a /good/ thing! It reflects well on you and indicates your desire for growth. In all likelihood, your company saw this motivation in you and that's why they hired you. Look at the positives and opportunities here, and I'm sure you'll do amazing.

Good luck!

Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#148

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, actually... it could be a good practice, if the values are used in multiple places.

What's the good practice advantage over just using " http://www "? If we later change over to use https, it's not like I'd think public final static string HTTP = "https"; was any kind of improvement.

Yes, I'm struggling to thing why you'd ever want to construct URLs that way - I'd stick them in configuration with parameters if required.

Edit: Glad someone noticed it was "http" - which is one of the details I do remember correctly.

Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#149

It's not clear from your post (and you don't have to make it clear, of course) whether you're getting fired from your current company or not. Merely failing one task won't get you fired and if you have the self-awareness demonstrated above to realize that you haven't yet learned what you need to become senior, gives you a clear path (and one that won't even be that hard if you've been selling and making software for…

Wait, what was wrong with the #define solution? Just the name of the macro? Didn't he do what you wanted?

Re: Ask HN: I've realized I'm a bad software engineer and I'm over 30, what's next?

#150
Question: did your bad habits never bite you before? If they did, what did you do about it. If not, that’s either unfortunate or you didn’t notice.

The only case where I would expect you to change this trajectory is one where you legitimately had no need for best practices before now. In some contract work, this may be the case.

Otherwise I would say PM is a better path for you. In fact if you’ve gotten this far, I’d imagine you put a lot of emphasis on the deliverable itself and ensuring it works right, which is all a PM cares about anyway. Your description of yourself is far more technical than most PMs I know.

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