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

Personally I find I still frequently write pretty atrocious code on the first draft, and it's only by stepping back from the problem after demonstrating to myself I understand it well enough to solve it at all that I can begin to write a more graceful solution. But deadlines and reality being what they are, I think the majority of us are embarrassed by our past code a majority of the time.

So don't be too hard on yourself, but also frankly don't worry about shoe-horning yourself into "A Career" either. They're kind of a recent invention and the whole concept might need a few more iterations. You could spend a few years as a Product Manager, an Engineering Manager, a Highschool Teacher, or a Business Analyst, leveraging your past experience to gain competency in a new niche.

I want to emphasize of self-awareness you have is commendable and not universally present: If you can realistically assess your own current skill level and then apply yourself to improving, you could be an above average software engineer before you know it. And right now it seems like so so many companies just can't get enough software engineers, so it's a pretty safe place to practice learning how to learn while also earning a decent income.

* Read “Clean Code” and try to apply the principles even in toy projects. I only have five years of experience but this is the most profound book so far in my career, and it’s one that is good to re-read every so often to keep it fresh and apply :)

* If you’re at a mid size company now with other engineers judging your work, then this is a great opportunity to review their PRs and see how they’re going about their business. You have a decade of experience and I’m sure you’ll both have suggestions and learn something. Hop on a video call and pair with someone senior or staff at your company.

* Do you have any ideas that you wish you could bring to life? Even a small ToDo app or something like that. If you can plan the requirements, design the application architecture, and choose a good set of libraries and tools to aid you, you will feel a huge surge of confidence that you have the ability to create. This is important. This would also aid you if you decide to become a PM because if you’re in charge of making a vision come true, what better than to be technically aware of what’s really going to make that vision a reality.

Just a couple things that helped me. All the best, and remember we are both student and teacher til our last breath so don’t sweat it if someone is younger/older at different stations in life.

You can definitely be a PM, most I know have no coding experience. Its an entirely different skillset. Maybe not a PM but a PO or management role if that suits you more. If it helps, my current manager realised after a few years of coding that he'd never be a great programmer (whatever that means to you) and went into management. Turns out helping other people be great programmers is a lot more satisfying to him and the background in programming is a huge asset for him. If you are a PM and you have more than just a superficial knowledge of programming, that is a huge asset.

As far as coding, I have nowhere near your years of experience, but focusing mostly on quality, clean code and really learning how to do stuff like write meaningful tests really helped me. Read Clean Code and A Philosophy of Software Design. Go find some people at your company who clearly have no issue with these things and pick their brains.

I don't think you're lost, just not sure about what you want to do with the rest of your years. Take a break and figure that out. You're clearly willing to learn so if its better coding, go learn, if not go do something else.

You should congratulate yourself, with your mindset you have it in you to become one of the very best.

I also have 10+ years in software development and have switched companies several times. Every place is very different in terms of how their architecture is set up and what's expected in a software solution. I've been at my current job for only about six months, but there are a lot of nuances and things that have thrown me off in implementing various features and fixes.

In some cases, I'd start questioning whether or not I'm taking the right approach or if I'm even the right one for the role. Though, some of these things I would bring up with my manager who would either give me advice on ways I could understand their setup better or would give me reassurance that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with what I've been doing. I'd suggest you talk to your manager, too, because I get the feeling that we're in the same boat.