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

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

#161

Post by sokoloff » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:00 PM UTC

stagger87 wrote: post #149

sokoloff wrote: post #91

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?

The 17 was a scaling factor for a graphics transformation (and sometimes was doubled to 34).

Let's imagine that we later decide we want to make a change and have it be a little bigger. Do we change it to:

  #define SEVENTEEN 23

Instead, if it was:

  #define MENU_SCALING_FACTOR 17

then such a change would be sensible (which was the intention). I admit to having some sliver of culpability here (though the verbal explanation of why we'd prefer to pull the hard-coded numbers out of being sprinkled all over the codebase I assumed would have sufficed).

This seemed to border on /r/MaliciousCompliance, but I know he was actually trying his best (and was pre-reddit, of course).

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

#162

Post by zild3d » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

stagger87 wrote: post #149

sokoloff wrote: post #91

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?

i think he meant you should #define whatever this 17 value represents

e.g. #define width 17

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

#163

Post by fecak » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:01 PM UTC

I write resumes for a living (yes, that's a thing) and have advised many HN'ers on career topics. When you're working by yourself you generally don't have any useful point of comparison as to 'how good' you are, and perhaps more importantly, you don't have anyone to learn from. Both are potential problems.

The best way to get some feedback on how senior you actually are is to do some interviews - practice interviews and interviewing.io is one way to do so in a no-risk setting, and the feedback you'll get will give you some ideas on things to brush up on.

As for long-term career, if you've managed to take home a paycheck for 10 years as an engineer you must be doing at least some things right. Finding a role with a team that truly invests in their employees and finding a mentor might be useful. In your case I wouldn't accept any job where you're the most senior person - if there is nobody at the company better than you, find another company.

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

#164

Post by mekkkkkk » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:02 PM UTC

I've been doing a bit of evaluating/recruiting new hires, and I'd say that noone in their right mind would expect someone to be perfectly adapted at the start. With your background in mind, you probably feel like you have been studying alone for ten years, and are now going through the exams. The truth is that there are multiple right ways to pass this exam, and which one is correct depends on the workplace. It takes a few months to get in pace, and if they are sensible, they understand this.

My advise would be to talk to your team lead or closest superior and explain what you feel. It might seem awkward, but it's in everyone's best interest. Get some clarification on what the expectations are, and ask for an honest assessment. My wild guess is that it isn't as big of a deal as you think it is.

If you decide to stick around, my suggestion is to read a bunch of code that has been written at that workplace. Take a cup of coffee and go through a repo or two and get a sense of how people like to structure/reuse/centralize/test/style/document their code base. Then try to imitate it for your next task.

Best of luck!

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

#165

Post by yrgulation » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

“the code was all filled with hardcoded values, wrong structure, difficult to debug bugs and similar things”

to me it sounds like you are catching on quite fast. so why not just read a few books on best practice for the language you use, and within a year you will be in a much better position.

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

#166

Post by prox » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #41

epm7384 wrote: 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…

Also try to identify on three levels : how is your understanding of structure, how is your understanding on the functional level and how is the understanding on the syntax level (in the context of the company you are working for)

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

#167

Post by arethuza » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:05 PM UTC

marcandre wrote: post #159

arthur_sav wrote: post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

What next? `ZERO = 0`, `ONE = 1`, ...?

Pretty sure I've seen that as well (different codebase though) - that kind of thing happens when you have a code style rules that says "No literals in code, always define constants" and people take it literally.

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

#168

Post by dntrkv » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:06 PM UTC

brandall10 wrote: post #78

We hired someone like this last year who was a lead in the last role at a small firm, had senior titles over a couple roles prior. This person is smart and well-liked and called out their concerns early on, so we're working with them and have seen considerable improvement in the half-year since they were hired. So I'd say it really comes down to your environment. If you have a good, supportive culture, I would have a…

> So I'd say it really comes down to your environment. If you have a good, supportive culture, I would have a frank discussion with your supervisor

This is key. At one of my first, real software jobs as a self-taught dev, I realized just how terrible my code was. It was a small company and the CTO would review all of my code. Sending PRs for the first 6 months or so was excruciating for me. I would just sit there and wait to hear him call me over to his desk and begin asking questions about what the fuck my code is doing. But he kept at it, and by the end of the first year, I finally felt like I knew what I was doing. I still had a ton of doubts in my abilities, but I wasn't embarrassed about having my code reviewed. I stayed at the company for 3 years and afterwards jumped to a major tech company.

Up until that job, I generally worked by myself and never received much input from others. I'm guessing OP is in a similar boat.

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

#169

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:06 PM UTC

stagger87 wrote: post #149

sokoloff wrote: post #91

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?

[deleted]

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

#170

Post by spacemanmatt » Wed, Mar 31, 2021, 4:07 PM UTC

etothepii wrote: post #106

pavel_lishin wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

Pairing, pairing, pairing, and more pairing.

This. Suggest and attend stand-ups. Treat them like professors' office hours. Encourage and nurture people who are very good to give you things you can do, maybe with some help, but which are real tasks that are useful in the end.