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How do I profile myself as a programmer?

1 points by b0rsuk ↗ HN
I'm currently unemployed. I think I'm a pretty good programmer - I practice a lot, I pay attention to detail, I rewrite my programs to be tidy and strive to learn more about programming, I enjoy analytical thinking and finding creative solutions. However, I feel my weakness may be relatively slow work speed. I'm a bit of a perfectionist, too.

For example at school I had a reputation for solving math problems slower but with fewer errors. Modern workplace puts emphasis on deadlines, shipping the product, and job interviews often involve a timed challenge. I had a job as a programmer once, but I never worked in a team and couldn't compare myself to others. I absolutely don't mention "slow work speed" at job interviews, I don't know how I could convincingly say it's an advantage.

How do I find out if I take too much time to write programs ? What can I do to improve my work speed except keep practicing ?

3 comments

[ 4.0 ms ] story [ 23.2 ms ] thread
smt88
I can't answer all your questions, but I will say this, as I had to learn it the hard way: getting faster by getting better is great. But you also need to get faster by being more comfortable with imperfection. Perfect code doesn't exist, and most businesses need code that's far from perfect.

Find out the source of your perfectionism and work against it. Try writing some MVPs -- give yourself a week to build something and pretend you have to ship it on the last day.

You can also scratch the perfectionism itch while improving your speed at the same time. Good static typing helps immensely with this. Good hinting/linting/debugging will also help with both.

savethefuture
Ignore all that workplace bs, just apply to work somewhere and prove yourself to them by example or previous work. Forget about everything else about how you work slow. On the job training is the best kind of training, you will learn what is required to do the job, and time management will be a part of that training.
b0rsuk
I don't see this submission under "ASK HN:". Am I missing something ? Instead, it's listed under "New" and "Threads".