I just wanted to tell everyone, thank you for the motivation and encouraging words. I cannot be happier.
How do I know if I am good enough?
11–20 of 36 posts
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#12I felt this way before taking my current job, but I took it anyway. It turns out that you can learn way more way faster when you're working in a team on a real project. There's _a lot_ of stuff that your teammates can teach you in five minutes that would take a day of Googling and experimentation to learn yourself, especially when you're a beginner.
What if there was not a team? Just one person.
Even then I would approach it with confidence. You can learn things very quickly by doing, especially when highly motivated and especially if you can budget some extra time (perhaps unbilled?) to account for the learning curve.
I would only turn down work for fear that you are not capable if you know it is truly beyond your ability for the forseeable future or if the deadline is too constrained to permit yourself to recover from mistakes or delays from learning.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#13Take the job, get intimidated when you realize you are completely out of your league and get fired within 2 months.
In other words; Your worst case scenario is 2 months paid experience learning more.
I know, it IS scary but trust me that will pass.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#14Just dive in, take the opportunity. What's the worst that can happen? When I started as a junior html developer I'd written exactly one website, a really poor 1997-era personal homepage. I didn't even know what a html table was, I'd never done forms, etc etc. It was a really junior role, but I figured I could learn what I didn't know on the spot. I stayed at that company for 4 years, and left with the job title "Seni…
>What's the worst that can happen?
Ending up on a pip which ruins your career.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#15I felt this way before taking my current job, but I took it anyway. It turns out that you can learn way more way faster when you're working in a team on a real project. There's _a lot_ of stuff that your teammates can teach you in five minutes that would take a day of Googling and experimentation to learn yourself, especially when you're a beginner.
What if there was not a team? Just one person.
Then you get more pressure. You want fit where you are, don't want to let anybody down. And from the inside you get second breathing and try try try, and one day you see that you are far away from your start.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#16Oh, easy, there's a standard screencast on this. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-DIETlxquzY And it works, the man went on to become a United States Senator.
You can supplement that video with Courage Wolf:
http://www.iggdawg.com/pics/misc/chew_it.jpg
This wolf went on to become the alpha pack leader, not unlike Al Franken.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#17Get involved with programming-related user groups and meetups in your area. The first time you hear a dumb question from a guy earning six figures at a Fortune 500 company, you'll realize we all have a lot to learn.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#18Thank you for asking this. I am in a very similar position and just recently threw myself out there for a rails job. After showing off some small and simple projects I've done, I was told that I need to learn more (specifically: TDD). So, I'm reading and trying out everything I can and will repeat the process.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#19Another thing: that thing with comparing yourself to others never stops. I still compare myself to other programmers and think "wow, I'll never reach their level", and I just graduated from Oxford with a masters in computer science. I'm not bragging, just saying that whatever level you're at, there'll always be other developers to look up to and aspire to. You should never let that discourage you.
>...whatever level you're at, there'll always be other developers to look up to and aspire to. You should never let that discourage you.
In fact, it should be considered a great form of encouragement! I'm a very green developer (1 year experience), and the fact that there exists individuals orders of magnitude more impressive than me at my craft gives me great hope for future growth.
It's a challenge, an inspiration, and direction all wrapped into one.
Re: How do I know if I am good enough?
#20Something I've learned in the last few years is that I can almost always think of a reason why I will be unable to accomplish any goal. Which is to say, if I only pursued goals I was sure I would accomplish, I would never pursue anything (which is effectively what I ended up doing for a few years, without really noticing the hole I'd dug for myself.) My current MO is to not deny myself preemptively and to just go ahead and pursue the goals I want to achieve. As it turns out, it's OK to try and fail. It's even better to try and succeed. I'm not haunted by failures in my life as much as I am haunted by roads not traveled.