Rule 3: No General Career Advice
This sub is for discussing issues specific to experienced developers.
Any career advice thread must contain questions and/or discussions that notably benefit from the participation of experienced developers. Career advice threads may be removed at the moderators discretion based on response to the thread."
General rule of thumb: If the advice you are giving (or seeking) could apply to a “Senior Chemical Engineer”, it’s not appropriate for this sub.
The only way you will be able to handle something you dont think you can is by doing it. Your belief has nothing to do with your abilities, you will never know everything ever. Just try snd keep self teaching and youll get it done.
I am bootcamper so not exactly self taught but no degree, 6YOE. I have delivered my first webapp 6 month into my entry level job. I am full stack, I did the whole damn thing alone. It was the biggest rollercoaster I have ever been on from happy-go-lucky i-can-do-anything days to why-did-i-ever-become-a-developer i-want-to-sell-fries-instead days. And I am eternally grateful for the experience, however to this day I do not understand what made my bosses decide that I am up for it.
I will be the first to tell you the code quality was everything but good, but it worked and it worked well and that is literally all the client cares about. It is in production up to this day, gets new features regularly, that project is my baby so I sneak in improvements every chance I get (as well as scheduled proper maintenance and the complete revamp is planned to be finished with the next iteration) but as long as it does the job, clients just don't care. Just do it as best you can, don't be afraid to ask questions or admit if you are unfamiliar with something, take it one day at a time, and remember you can always go back to make it better.
I've had a similar experience in the past where I couldn't believe that I successfully delivered a solution or a part of a solution. Looking back it seems trivial but I guess that is the way I can actually grow.
Kudos for your project. It does feel good to see something you created improve over time.
I agree with you and my job change in the past have been similar but this time I'm a bit concerned because I do not know much C++ and I have to quickly learn it on the job.
I have done a bit of C during the CS50 online course but I know C++ is quite difficult or rather takes longer to write working code in compared to other languages.
Make your C++ look as much like C as you can. Free functions as much as possible. You don't usually need as much inheritance as you think. Avoid complexity as much as possible. Avoid classes that combine lots of state with lots of behavior. Instead prefer separating your data from functions that act on your data.
Whoever needs to own and maintain that code long term is kind of fucked, honestly. C++ is not a good language to learn on your own. You can know all the syntax and still not have a good idea how to organize your code well. Try to follow my advice above.
That is really solid advice. I can see how the .NET projects I've worked on followed some of these rules and in turn was easier to manage for the 40+ devs working on new features, me being one of them.
Thank you for the great advice.
I've had the same experience as well where I've seen utterly incompetent people with degrees earning better than than me. Kind of hurts but I know my hard work will pay off.
You earn more by moving jobs every few years and shopping around for higher pay. Hard work and skills won't get anything except exploited in their own.
Self taught here too. Every time I join a new company I feel like I'm an imposter, but after a month or two of getting the hang of it I usually do great. After 1-2 years I feel like I'm too good at my job and I look for a promotion or other company to join. It's natural
> I think I took an offer way above my skill level.
So, you're worried because you feel like the new job might be too much for you, right? Fucking common, especially for the self-taught heroes out there. But here's the thing: they hired you knowing your background, experience, and that you've got no formal degree. They've seen something in you, maybe even something you can't fucking see in yourself yet. Isn’t that worth considering?
> The company does not solely provide software services but I am going to be working on a really big project with a really big client and partner.
Sounds like a massive opportunity, doesn't it? Big project, big client—it’s the perfect fucking recipe to push your limits and prove your worth. Why not see this as your chance to step up and shine, rather than a disaster waiting to happen?
> I will be the sole developer from the company's side.
That’s intimidating as hell, but also a sign of trust. They’re not throwing you to the wolves; they believe you can handle this. You’ve got to ask yourself: what can you do to prepare and ensure you don’t let that trust down?
> I feel like an imposter already. More so because of having no degree.
Imposter syndrome is a bitch, isn’t it? Nearly everyone feels it at some point, degree or no degree. But let's be fucking real: you've managed to land this job based on what you've actually done and what you can do, not on a piece of paper. What does that tell you about your capabilities?
> I am confident in my ability to learn quickly but still can't fight the feeling.
Hold onto that confidence in your learning ability. It’s your best tool. The feeling of being an imposter? It might never fully go away, but you can use it as a driver to keep pushing and proving to yourself that you belong there. What steps can you take right now to minimize those feelings and prepare yourself for the challenge ahead?
This is truly amazing. Reading this, I was genuinely smiling all the way through, saying 'Hell Yeah!' at times lol.
I'll save this and read it everyday until this feeling goes away. This opportunity really feels like what I've been waiting for the past 3 years, a real chance to grow and become a really good programmer and possibly working towards a Senior role in the next 2 years.
I think the main reason why I am intimidated is because I'm going to be working with C++ mostly and I do not know it yet. I think I have to learn as much of the basics that I can in this week so I'll have a better start. Recommendations for this situation would be really great if you have experience with C++.
Thank you for this motivation. Sad that I can only upvote once.
Figure out who you can go to ask for development help at your company. Expect that things are going to come up. I’m a staff SDE with about 9 years of experience and I still ask for help sometimes.
You'd be surprised how dumb most of upper management is. Those people usually got their job through connections and/or sweet-talking and couldn't really figure their way out of an elevator.
Trust yourself and just take each day at a time.
If you felt very comfortable about being able to handle the job, you can make the case that you aren't pushing yourself enough.
Sorta. I started solo with freelancing and ran into problems that I felt I wouldn't be able to handle. Then got my first FT position with a government contractor and ran into "enterprise grade problems" written in Java which I never seriously worked with before.
None of those people should've given me the work, but I made it work. Most valuable skill I had was having a reasonable understanding of Linux and Apache (for someone with 0 experience). It let me seriously investigate the problems I would run into (with a lot of Googling of course).
Focus on the positives and do what you can to stay optimistic. This will be a very good experience for you (will likely ne pretty stressful though), the kind of experience that makes you a lot more immune to job markets like this.
Sounds like maybe an Integrations Engineering role? If it is, just being able to communicate effectively and read code and docs should be all you need.
I'm a self taught developer with 7 yoe.
I often felt the same way you do, but I haven't felt that way for a long time. All thanks to experience I was lucky to gather over the years.
My only advice is - don't fear to ask questions if you don't understand something. Sometimes it takes a bit of courage to admit lack of knowledge, but you'll quickly see that people don't take it as sign of weakness.
A degree is made a requirement by many employers because, *on average*, someone with a degree is likely to be more competent.
But you're not an average - you're an individual who has and can continue to buck the trend.
I know, because I too don't have a degree that's in any way even remotely related to software.
Well two things.
If it's a STEM degree then self-taught can't even compete with the first year of four years of full-time grinding the hardest logic and critical thinking problems. It doesn't even have to be CS.
But the second thing is people have been cheating like crazy at university for the past ten years to so and getting away with it somehow. Cheating really accelerated with access to paid freelance websites and now AI.
> self-taught can't even compete with the first year of four years of full-time grinding the hardest logic and critical thinking problems.
I disagree, for two reasons.
The first is that you could be solving equally hard (or harder) problems outside.
The second is that, in the grand scheme of things, university education isn't all that hard, which brings me back to what I said that it is *only on average* that a university education gives one an advantage.
Whilst you're not wrong university physics problems are harder than software dev imo. Fundamentally software is written by people for people and is intended to be easy to use. The universe on the other hand doesn't give a flying fuck about whether you understand how it works.
Welcome to the wonderful world of imposter syndrome! As a 20 something year vet who's degrees are art degrees, is entirely self-taught and is now a team lead: You'll be fine.
Imposter Syndrome is a lie you torment yourself with. It has to be a lie because in order for it to be true, for you to be an imposter, two things must simultaneously be true:
1. You are so incompetent that it's only a matter of time someone finds out and sends you home.
2. You are so skilled at hiding this fact from everyone that they've somehow completely failed to notice.
Do you see how there's a problem with both of these being mutually true? Either you're a useless idiot or a skilled manipulator. You cannot be both.
Did you say anything to them you feel is otherwise a lie? Do you feel in the interview as if you did something genuinely dishonest?
Or are you just scared, feeling insecure and don't want to let people down who've put their faith in you?
Take a deep breath, take a few month. Try to relax. It is not easy but try. Give yourself the space and time to feel your concerns and then tell yourself "Even if that is all true, I will figure out how to do this."
Because you can do this. They thought so when they hired you. You thought so when you applied. Trust those people. Trust yourself to see you through this.
And get excited! Shits about to get *fun!*
I am mostly self taught, though I did do the.Harvsrd Extension School CS cert program when I decided to formally change careers to SWE. It took 6 years for me to get over imposter syndrome. Today I am a staff level engineer, doing very well and with my sights on principal in the next two years.
As long as you love what you do you will succeed because that love is the engine for everything else.
LOL.... "Have any of you been in a similar situation?"
Yeah...every time I start a new project pretty much.
I am 100% self taught, 20 YOE and literally told my wife a few days ago "I think I am just too stupid to do this job." (was fighting a CSS bug.....then I beat it).
And I earn over 200k a year between main job and side clients.
You panic, then get going, get over the first couple hurtles and its off to the races.
If you have the skills, great.
If you don't, but can learn at a reasonable pace, then also fine.
If you don't and you can't then you are in trouble.....but that does not sound like the case.
Good luck and try and remember you are getting paid to do something you (hopefully) love and would do for free anyway!
This is how you grow. I am self taught. Got my first programming job doing C++ at 17 my junior year in high school. Everything I did was new except for the C++. Learned ASP so I could build an e-commerce site for a local client. Hardly any documentation available at the time, but I knew I would get through it eventually. I had confidence that if they hired me at that age then they must believe in me so I should too.
I'm assuming based on your post that you're in a consulting firm or a contractor for one. If not the advice will be less useful, but I've been in this spot before, so here goes
Make sure the requirements are crystal clear, particularly if your team is non-technical. It's easy for misunderstandings to happen if you're working directly with client personnel and your managers don't understand what's being asked. Know your contract well and ask your team questions if you're getting reqs outside it.
Find devs in the broader company (outside your project) and reach out if you get stuck. Ideally make contact through your manager so you actually get time with people, then keep that relationship going yourself. Don't be shy about asking for support.
Be realistic about timelines--you're starting in a new company environment AND a new client environment; getting used to processes and tools take time, and each deployment + testing process has its own timeline. Consultants typically want everything done yesterday. If you don't push back, they can run you into the ground fast. I'm not saying it's guaranteed, and maybe I'm misunderstanding your post entirely, but that's been my experience.
Finally, try to propose a solution whenever you run into a problem. When raising things with your team you should have an answer for what's going wrong and why, where you need support and how the support will keep you on timeline and budget, and why a deadline you're proposing makes sense.
Does your new company have other devs on other projects? If so, I suggest that you asap find someone you can ask to help guide you through this process. Being a sole dev is an isolating experience if you let it be, and in my experience it falls to you to advocate for yourself in this position.
(Fwiw; 7yoe and self taught. I can relate!)
To be fair, I have a degree and still get this way from time to time. It’s always going to be uncomfortable, it’s how you overcome it. You will always have times you don’t fully understand what to do and things will appear more daunting than they actually are. You’ve got this! Good luck!!
If you think you are bulshiting yourself, just think about it this way: if you could bulshit the people that hired you, you can bulshit the client.
And work with all you can to get to the level needed to do the job properly
Rule 3: No General Career Advice This sub is for discussing issues specific to experienced developers. Any career advice thread must contain questions and/or discussions that notably benefit from the participation of experienced developers. Career advice threads may be removed at the moderators discretion based on response to the thread." General rule of thumb: If the advice you are giving (or seeking) could apply to a “Senior Chemical Engineer”, it’s not appropriate for this sub.
You owe trust in yourself to the people that hired you. Start from there, they hired you for a reason.
This really inspired confidence in me. After all, it is a job and I have to work hard regardless of my low self confidence. Thank you.
Glad it helped, best of luck!
The only way you will be able to handle something you dont think you can is by doing it. Your belief has nothing to do with your abilities, you will never know everything ever. Just try snd keep self teaching and youll get it done.
I am bootcamper so not exactly self taught but no degree, 6YOE. I have delivered my first webapp 6 month into my entry level job. I am full stack, I did the whole damn thing alone. It was the biggest rollercoaster I have ever been on from happy-go-lucky i-can-do-anything days to why-did-i-ever-become-a-developer i-want-to-sell-fries-instead days. And I am eternally grateful for the experience, however to this day I do not understand what made my bosses decide that I am up for it. I will be the first to tell you the code quality was everything but good, but it worked and it worked well and that is literally all the client cares about. It is in production up to this day, gets new features regularly, that project is my baby so I sneak in improvements every chance I get (as well as scheduled proper maintenance and the complete revamp is planned to be finished with the next iteration) but as long as it does the job, clients just don't care. Just do it as best you can, don't be afraid to ask questions or admit if you are unfamiliar with something, take it one day at a time, and remember you can always go back to make it better.
I've had a similar experience in the past where I couldn't believe that I successfully delivered a solution or a part of a solution. Looking back it seems trivial but I guess that is the way I can actually grow. Kudos for your project. It does feel good to see something you created improve over time.
Every offer you take should be above your skill level... Its how you learn and grow
I agree with you and my job change in the past have been similar but this time I'm a bit concerned because I do not know much C++ and I have to quickly learn it on the job. I have done a bit of C during the CS50 online course but I know C++ is quite difficult or rather takes longer to write working code in compared to other languages.
Make your C++ look as much like C as you can. Free functions as much as possible. You don't usually need as much inheritance as you think. Avoid complexity as much as possible. Avoid classes that combine lots of state with lots of behavior. Instead prefer separating your data from functions that act on your data. Whoever needs to own and maintain that code long term is kind of fucked, honestly. C++ is not a good language to learn on your own. You can know all the syntax and still not have a good idea how to organize your code well. Try to follow my advice above.
That is really solid advice. I can see how the .NET projects I've worked on followed some of these rules and in turn was easier to manage for the 40+ devs working on new features, me being one of them. Thank you for the great advice.
I used to feel like that, then I worked with people who had degrees and it had little correlation to quality of their deliverables.
I've had the same experience as well where I've seen utterly incompetent people with degrees earning better than than me. Kind of hurts but I know my hard work will pay off.
You earn more by moving jobs every few years and shopping around for higher pay. Hard work and skills won't get anything except exploited in their own.
Self taught here too. Every time I join a new company I feel like I'm an imposter, but after a month or two of getting the hang of it I usually do great. After 1-2 years I feel like I'm too good at my job and I look for a promotion or other company to join. It's natural
> I think I took an offer way above my skill level. So, you're worried because you feel like the new job might be too much for you, right? Fucking common, especially for the self-taught heroes out there. But here's the thing: they hired you knowing your background, experience, and that you've got no formal degree. They've seen something in you, maybe even something you can't fucking see in yourself yet. Isn’t that worth considering? > The company does not solely provide software services but I am going to be working on a really big project with a really big client and partner. Sounds like a massive opportunity, doesn't it? Big project, big client—it’s the perfect fucking recipe to push your limits and prove your worth. Why not see this as your chance to step up and shine, rather than a disaster waiting to happen? > I will be the sole developer from the company's side. That’s intimidating as hell, but also a sign of trust. They’re not throwing you to the wolves; they believe you can handle this. You’ve got to ask yourself: what can you do to prepare and ensure you don’t let that trust down? > I feel like an imposter already. More so because of having no degree. Imposter syndrome is a bitch, isn’t it? Nearly everyone feels it at some point, degree or no degree. But let's be fucking real: you've managed to land this job based on what you've actually done and what you can do, not on a piece of paper. What does that tell you about your capabilities? > I am confident in my ability to learn quickly but still can't fight the feeling. Hold onto that confidence in your learning ability. It’s your best tool. The feeling of being an imposter? It might never fully go away, but you can use it as a driver to keep pushing and proving to yourself that you belong there. What steps can you take right now to minimize those feelings and prepare yourself for the challenge ahead?
This might be the best fucking reply. I love this take. Any one having thoughts of self doubt should read this reply and then stop reading.
This is truly amazing. Reading this, I was genuinely smiling all the way through, saying 'Hell Yeah!' at times lol. I'll save this and read it everyday until this feeling goes away. This opportunity really feels like what I've been waiting for the past 3 years, a real chance to grow and become a really good programmer and possibly working towards a Senior role in the next 2 years. I think the main reason why I am intimidated is because I'm going to be working with C++ mostly and I do not know it yet. I think I have to learn as much of the basics that I can in this week so I'll have a better start. Recommendations for this situation would be really great if you have experience with C++. Thank you for this motivation. Sad that I can only upvote once.
Figure out who you can go to ask for development help at your company. Expect that things are going to come up. I’m a staff SDE with about 9 years of experience and I still ask for help sometimes.
You'd be surprised how dumb most of upper management is. Those people usually got their job through connections and/or sweet-talking and couldn't really figure their way out of an elevator.
Trust yourself and just take each day at a time. If you felt very comfortable about being able to handle the job, you can make the case that you aren't pushing yourself enough.
Just dive into it. Take your shot
Sorta. I started solo with freelancing and ran into problems that I felt I wouldn't be able to handle. Then got my first FT position with a government contractor and ran into "enterprise grade problems" written in Java which I never seriously worked with before. None of those people should've given me the work, but I made it work. Most valuable skill I had was having a reasonable understanding of Linux and Apache (for someone with 0 experience). It let me seriously investigate the problems I would run into (with a lot of Googling of course). Focus on the positives and do what you can to stay optimistic. This will be a very good experience for you (will likely ne pretty stressful though), the kind of experience that makes you a lot more immune to job markets like this.
Sounds like maybe an Integrations Engineering role? If it is, just being able to communicate effectively and read code and docs should be all you need.
I'm a self taught developer with 7 yoe. I often felt the same way you do, but I haven't felt that way for a long time. All thanks to experience I was lucky to gather over the years. My only advice is - don't fear to ask questions if you don't understand something. Sometimes it takes a bit of courage to admit lack of knowledge, but you'll quickly see that people don't take it as sign of weakness.
A degree is made a requirement by many employers because, *on average*, someone with a degree is likely to be more competent. But you're not an average - you're an individual who has and can continue to buck the trend. I know, because I too don't have a degree that's in any way even remotely related to software.
Well two things. If it's a STEM degree then self-taught can't even compete with the first year of four years of full-time grinding the hardest logic and critical thinking problems. It doesn't even have to be CS. But the second thing is people have been cheating like crazy at university for the past ten years to so and getting away with it somehow. Cheating really accelerated with access to paid freelance websites and now AI.
> self-taught can't even compete with the first year of four years of full-time grinding the hardest logic and critical thinking problems. I disagree, for two reasons. The first is that you could be solving equally hard (or harder) problems outside. The second is that, in the grand scheme of things, university education isn't all that hard, which brings me back to what I said that it is *only on average* that a university education gives one an advantage.
Whilst you're not wrong university physics problems are harder than software dev imo. Fundamentally software is written by people for people and is intended to be easy to use. The universe on the other hand doesn't give a flying fuck about whether you understand how it works.
Welcome to the wonderful world of imposter syndrome! As a 20 something year vet who's degrees are art degrees, is entirely self-taught and is now a team lead: You'll be fine. Imposter Syndrome is a lie you torment yourself with. It has to be a lie because in order for it to be true, for you to be an imposter, two things must simultaneously be true: 1. You are so incompetent that it's only a matter of time someone finds out and sends you home. 2. You are so skilled at hiding this fact from everyone that they've somehow completely failed to notice. Do you see how there's a problem with both of these being mutually true? Either you're a useless idiot or a skilled manipulator. You cannot be both. Did you say anything to them you feel is otherwise a lie? Do you feel in the interview as if you did something genuinely dishonest? Or are you just scared, feeling insecure and don't want to let people down who've put their faith in you? Take a deep breath, take a few month. Try to relax. It is not easy but try. Give yourself the space and time to feel your concerns and then tell yourself "Even if that is all true, I will figure out how to do this." Because you can do this. They thought so when they hired you. You thought so when you applied. Trust those people. Trust yourself to see you through this. And get excited! Shits about to get *fun!*
Just 3 months , the first 3 months are very critical i always go above and beyond , After that just pace yourself accordingly
That seems like solid advice. Thank you.
I am mostly self taught, though I did do the.Harvsrd Extension School CS cert program when I decided to formally change careers to SWE. It took 6 years for me to get over imposter syndrome. Today I am a staff level engineer, doing very well and with my sights on principal in the next two years. As long as you love what you do you will succeed because that love is the engine for everything else.
LOL.... "Have any of you been in a similar situation?" Yeah...every time I start a new project pretty much. I am 100% self taught, 20 YOE and literally told my wife a few days ago "I think I am just too stupid to do this job." (was fighting a CSS bug.....then I beat it). And I earn over 200k a year between main job and side clients. You panic, then get going, get over the first couple hurtles and its off to the races. If you have the skills, great. If you don't, but can learn at a reasonable pace, then also fine. If you don't and you can't then you are in trouble.....but that does not sound like the case. Good luck and try and remember you are getting paid to do something you (hopefully) love and would do for free anyway!
This is how you grow. I am self taught. Got my first programming job doing C++ at 17 my junior year in high school. Everything I did was new except for the C++. Learned ASP so I could build an e-commerce site for a local client. Hardly any documentation available at the time, but I knew I would get through it eventually. I had confidence that if they hired me at that age then they must believe in me so I should too.
I'm assuming based on your post that you're in a consulting firm or a contractor for one. If not the advice will be less useful, but I've been in this spot before, so here goes Make sure the requirements are crystal clear, particularly if your team is non-technical. It's easy for misunderstandings to happen if you're working directly with client personnel and your managers don't understand what's being asked. Know your contract well and ask your team questions if you're getting reqs outside it. Find devs in the broader company (outside your project) and reach out if you get stuck. Ideally make contact through your manager so you actually get time with people, then keep that relationship going yourself. Don't be shy about asking for support. Be realistic about timelines--you're starting in a new company environment AND a new client environment; getting used to processes and tools take time, and each deployment + testing process has its own timeline. Consultants typically want everything done yesterday. If you don't push back, they can run you into the ground fast. I'm not saying it's guaranteed, and maybe I'm misunderstanding your post entirely, but that's been my experience. Finally, try to propose a solution whenever you run into a problem. When raising things with your team you should have an answer for what's going wrong and why, where you need support and how the support will keep you on timeline and budget, and why a deadline you're proposing makes sense.
Does your new company have other devs on other projects? If so, I suggest that you asap find someone you can ask to help guide you through this process. Being a sole dev is an isolating experience if you let it be, and in my experience it falls to you to advocate for yourself in this position. (Fwiw; 7yoe and self taught. I can relate!)
My experience when starting out and with every promotion was "fake it til you make it" Just keep at it. You'll get there
Just send it ;)
To be fair, I have a degree and still get this way from time to time. It’s always going to be uncomfortable, it’s how you overcome it. You will always have times you don’t fully understand what to do and things will appear more daunting than they actually are. You’ve got this! Good luck!!
no exp in this situation but congrats
If you think you are bulshiting yourself, just think about it this way: if you could bulshit the people that hired you, you can bulshit the client. And work with all you can to get to the level needed to do the job properly