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Ask HN: Technical skills versus people skills

1 points by J-dawg ↗ HN
I'm a mediocre Javascript developer without a CS degree. The typical imposter who probably doesn't deserve to be in this industry at all.

I've recently been working with some really good freelancers and the gulf between me and them is embarrassingly obvious.

Frankly I can't imagine ever being as productive as them, or able to think architecturally the way they can. I feel like I'm wasting everyone's time by even being on the team. These guys spend more time reviewing one of my shitty pull requests than they would spend writing it themselves.

But one has to pay the bills somehow, and I've got 30+ years of work ahead of me. I've started thinking about moving sideways into some kind of product owner / scrum master role. The problem is I have quite poor people skills as well. I'm quite shy and have no leadership experience.

Has anyone else been in this situation, and how did you get out of it? Did you focus on becoming a better programmer, or did you manage to improve your people skills? Or did you quit the software industry altogether?

2 comments

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itamarst
1. People skills are programming skills. E.g. debugging often requires you to understand what someone else (or you in the past) were thinking.

2. CS degree really doesn't matter.

3. In general, you can get better at any skill you choose to practice, as along as you practice it well.

4. "These guys spend more time reviewing one of my shitty pull requests than they would spend writing it themselves." That's one of the reasons for code reviews, to help people learn from each other. Learn enough and you'll do things faster and better. Every time you read code review and say "ohhh that's what I should've done, argh" you're learning. It's not fun, but it's learning.

5. Have you read any resources on impostor syndrome? You may find them useful: https://adainitiative.org/continue-our-work/impostor-syndrom...

6. Everyone starts somewhere. And when you start you're worse at everything. Eventually you learn, and get better (https://codewithoutrules.com/2017/03/05/failing-at-your-new-...).

ix-hispana
Learning to code is easy. Javascript is easy to work with. Especially nowadays with lots of great learning materials online. Those freelancers weren't born knowing Javascript. They trained. That's how you git gud at things.

Head over to freeCodeCamp and get coding. It doesn't matter if it's too easy at first. Race through it. The good thing about freeCodeCamp is that you have to make a full-fledged product, it's not just examples. Don't listen too much to the sales pitch and don't take seriously the important-sounding words like "become an engineer", etc. Just get coding and complete a project. It's very important that you make something from start to finish on your own. That's the whole point of this bit, really.

When you have finished a project, head over to egghead.io and get the two React courses by Kent C. Dodds. The introductory one is free. The advanced you'll have to buy. It's worth it.

You have three months to do this. You will be more employable -and confident- by May.