HN Explorer

Ask HN: What advice would you give a middling developer?

1 points by coldtrait ↗ HN
I've enjoyed working as a developer whenever I had a full time job, but I've rarely felt the need to work on side projects whenever I was employed full time. I was laid off a while ago after finally getting a job that I was finally happy with, and I haven't been able to get back into the job market full time. I found a freelance/part-time gig that uses some very old tech that I can at least use to tell recruiters that I am working on something.

I've not been good enough at leetcode interviews and I tend to choke and freeze during them. I've been trying to practice but it's hard to progress beyond a certain level.

The job market now is terrible and there's the AI-replacing-devs doom and gloom going around.

I feel like a lot of folk here are truly passionate because the discussions here seem to be very technical and hobby-oriented, whereas I have rarely felt the need to build something outside of work. These days I do try but end up nowhere, primarily because I can never find a problem/idea worth pursuing.

Maybe I'm not cut out for this job because of these reasons, and even if I were to consider similar jobs in the field like product management and so on, those seem to be more saturated and likely to be automated/AI'd away in the future.

Any advice would be helpful.

7 comments

[ 3.8 ms ] story [ 31.8 ms ] thread
wryoak
What made you happy about the job from which you were laid off? I think it would be worth exploring that more to figure out what you should do next.

It’s also ok to never program outside of work, to have no side projects… it’s probably healthier, in fact. You’re on a website where your field’s overachievers are at their loudest, but most people turn it off when they clock out for the evening.

coldtrait
That job was a mixed bag honestly, I was happy because it was the first decent product tech company that I worked for. This came with better pay, good perks like a Macbook etc and exposure to good engineers. Product was good, tech stack was new and interesting to me. Maybe these sound like superficial reasons but I think I can fit anywhere as long as the work is interesting and is in the optimal zone of difficulty.

But that job involved a huge learning curve and I struggled initially because the tech was new and there was a bunch of times when I pushed bad code to prod etc. Also a senior engineer who was on my team and who should have been my go-to for any help was a 100x developer archetype wasn't very open to helping with issues I had (mind you these weren't basic issues I faced but things I struggled to find answers for). Anyway that did lead to a lot of anxiety and self doubt which I faced during that time.

The interview did not use leetcode, but a take home assignment and discussion, which I could appreciate.

uberman
If you pushed bad code to production, I feel that was at least 50% on your 100x mentor.
coldtrait
That seems to be the general consensus, that they are process failures rather than individual, but still really wrecks your morale.
pavel_lishin
If you want to become a better programmer, which might improve your specific interview skills, consider writing software to solve personal problems. If nothing else, it'll give you something concrete to discuss with your interviewers.
JohnFen
I don't really have advice for your larger problem, aside from perhaps looking for work outside of the software industry proper. All sorts of other industries need devs, and not all of them are looking for (or willing to pay for) "10x" devs.

I did want to comment on this, though:

> there's the AI-replacing-devs doom and gloom going around.

There is a lot of talk and fear on this, yes. But personally, I think this is greatly overblown. AI may change the way devs work, but we're very far from it replacing them in any significant way.

That's at least one worry that I recommend you put out of mind. Even if it is a risk, it's not a near-term one.

coldtrait
You mean a software engineer position that's not in tech? That's basically what I used to do before, worked in automotive for a while. I was always open to that and still am, the market in general is bad so I don't imagine that the few tech jobs that exist in non-tech focused industries are doing any better.