51–60 of 89 posts
Is there something wrong with the education system and culture that teaches, if you're not perfect, you're a failure?
Honesty, at 22, you haven't failed, you've barely started. Come back at 40 and 60.
Relax, mate, I’ll all happen.
Picking an arts degree wasn't you first mistake. It was a consequence of earlier mistakes. Your mistake was thinking you could go into, say, a CS degree and have nothing to learn. I'm sure if you did a 100 Intro to Programming course you'd breeze through it but programming != CS. The worst thing you can do in college, at a job or even in life is to go into a situation thinking you have nothing to learn. That's just a…
> Your mistake was thinking you could go into, say, a CS degree and have nothing to learn. Thousand times this. I'm 33, programming since 8, working in the industry since 18, and can confidently call myself at least a senior, with a lot of leadership experience. And yet, I routinely go through CS courses from Stanford, MIT and CMU on YouTube (intro to databases by Andy Pavlo right now), and really envy people who hav…
More generally, (at least) two things obtain for the serious IT practitioner:
- One never graduates from being a student of the subject, even after the 'I Love Me' wall is fully covered in diplomae.
- One always lives in a glass house, even if Duff's Device makes sense at a glance.
I wouldn't take that too much to heart. It's best to stop comparing yourself with others. I think you live happier.
Almost no one failed at 22; failing that young can basically only mean you are in jail for 20+ years or with a needle under a bridge. All the other 'failing' will be a faint memory in 10 years, if you remember it at all (besides from posting this blog post, which, personally, I would remove). You did not fail: you just started trying things.
Picking an arts degree wasn't you first mistake. It was a consequence of earlier mistakes. Your mistake was thinking you could go into, say, a CS degree and have nothing to learn. I'm sure if you did a 100 Intro to Programming course you'd breeze through it but programming != CS. The worst thing you can do in college, at a job or even in life is to go into a situation thinking you have nothing to learn. That's just a…
> Your mistake was thinking you could go into, say, a CS degree and have nothing to learn. Thousand times this. I'm 33, programming since 8, working in the industry since 18, and can confidently call myself at least a senior, with a lot of leadership experience. And yet, I routinely go through CS courses from Stanford, MIT and CMU on YouTube (intro to databases by Andy Pavlo right now), and really envy people who hav…
I learn something every day. Try to read a paper a month (although it's more like 4 a year nowadays). I still regularly read books and like the OP go through courses from the top unis.
Unlike OP: I've had no trouble learning on my own (thanks to the amazing courses available online). Actually, I do a lot better. Sure, I hit roadblocks - but surpassing those roadblocks is where I learn the most.
Maybe it helps that I started on the 8-bits and spent a couple of years in my 20's studying for a BSc in CS (partially via the Open University, but mainly by reading/practise/Coursera/MIT).
Based on the non-English text on the page, I will guess the author is Turkish. I have no idea how the Turkish university system works, or if they even went to school in Turkey, but, going back for another couple years and getting a CS degree might be the simplest thing they could do right now. That solves the marketable degree issue, might get the parents back on their side, and, with a little bit of hard work and luck, can definitely lead to a solid career in software development.
If that's not a great possibility, then, filling up that empty Github with useful, original projects, then using that as evidence they can work with Android, Rails, Django, or whatever, could just be enough to get a junior developer job. That solves all the issues, except for the bit about not having a marketable degree, but that becomes a non-issue after the first job, from everything I've seen. I'm not sure if the situation is different in Turkey, but there is definitely room out there for an ambitious, self taught developer. I'd estimate this plan should take between 6 months and 2 years, with a median estimate of 1 year, to execute and end up in a junior dev job.
If the author thinks they've failed because they haven't been able to land a software development job, this isn't failure, by any means. At 22, a delay of a couple years is a blip, not even a real setback in the grand scheme of things.
The one thing I'd caution them is that if they choose to go the full self-taught route, do not neglect their CS education. That includes stuff that looks like math that you might expect you'd never use. Whether or not these courses look boring or overly difficult, most CS classes will contain things you can use on the job. At the very least, they will teach you the language of CS, which is helpful as a shibboleth when talking to software engineers.
Just remember: CS is nearly unique in that there's literally nothing in the CS curriculum you can't easily and effectively teach yourself, on your own. In that way, it somewhat resembles math, but, in CS, you get the benefit of being able to test your understanding by writing code.
On either of these paths, I'd also advise working through a selection of LeetCode problems at some point. They're not very real world type problems, and you may never use anything you learn from LC directly on the job, but, being familiar with LeetCode will definitely help when interviewing.
There are, of course, many other things the author could choose to do that would lead to a good career, but, given what they've written, it certainly seems like software development is the path of least resistance, and, it's certainly achievable in a fairly short time with sufficient dedication.
Oh, and, BTW, if you have trouble getting in the door to a corporate job when the time comes, a couple contract/freelance projects can really help. Companies like to be able to see that you've written code professionally, preferably on a team, and, without SWE internships, you might need this little extra boost to your resume to get things kick started.
Why are we seeing so many whinny early-20-something 'I failed, I'm doomed' posts on here recently? Is there something wrong with the education system and culture that teaches, if you're not perfect, you're a failure? Honesty, at 22, you haven't failed, you've barely started. Come back at 40 and 60.
I hear you, it's a frustrating and hopeless-feeling experience for sure. All of us older people are coming in to say it's not a big deal. They're right, in the grand scheme of things, because they've had the extra years to realise that. I have, too. But you haven't and it's a raw feeling, so I don't want to be dismissive of that.
Nonetheless, there's a lot of support in the comments here, and it's worth a read to see what you can relate to.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why would you say upfront that you don't have a degree? That's not wise IMO. If they ask, sure, don't lie. But better avoid that question and sell yourself without focusing on issues. And when you're sold, got work offer, now they won't really care.
Because their job posting say they want you to have a degree. Applying for a job and just ignoring that requirement and making a remark like "yoU dIdN't ask!" in the interview is as good as lying in a lot of people's eyes. They asked in the job posting. Honesty is the best policy. If they are willing to interview you with that knowledge up front then you're more than halfway there.