This makes me consider changing career paths.

My entire programming career.

I knew I was about to get laid off so I stopped caring and started answering questions on stack overflow all day every day instead of working.

10k rep later I got a new job via stack overflow careers that pays twice as much.

Moral of the story? Be efficient... even when you are not.

I got laid..

So,

I bagged the job! All of that hard work paid off!

Google Docs can apparently read minds now

Exactly

When you're trying to explain a concept as simple as it can be to your non-dev family and friends, but they're just quietly staring at you.

Seriously without Stackoverflow I would be unemployed.

HR: Sorry, we're a family here but we have to let you go.

Engineer: Okay.

The End.
----

*DELETE FROM employees WHERE 1=1;*

!!!rant

I GOT THE JOB!

I enjoy coding. Whether it's a language I know or learning a new one. The problem is that I can't actually focus on a language to master or decide on a career path.

The lose

Two years ago I moved to Dublin with my wife (we met on tour while we were both working in music) as visa laws in the UK didn’t allow me to support the visa of a Russian national on a freelance artists salary.

After we came to Dublin I was playing a lot to pay rent (major rental crisis here), I play(ed) Double Bass which is a physically intensive instrument and through overworking caused a long term injury to my forearm which prevents me playing.

Luckily my wife was able to start working in Community Operations for the big tech companies here (not an amazing job and I want her to be able to stop).

Anyway, I was a bit stuck with what step to take next as my entire career had been driven by the passion to master an art that I was very committed to. It gave me joy and meaning.

I was working as hard as I could with a clear vision but no clear path available to get there, then by chance the opportunity came to study a Higher Diploma qualification in Data Science/Analysis (I have some experience handling music licensing for tech startups and an MA with components in music analysis, which I spun into a narrative). Seemed like a ‘smart’ thing to do to do pick up a ‘respectable’ qualification, if I can’t play any more.

The programme had a strong programming element and I really enjoyed that part. The heavy statistics/algebra element was difficult but as my Python programming improved, I was able to write and utilise codebase to streamline the work, and I started to pull ahead of the class. I put in more and more time to programming and studied personally far beyond the requirements of the programme (scored some of the highest academic grades I’ve ever achieved). I picked up a confident level of Bash, SQL, Cypher (Neo4j), proficiency with libraries like pandas, scikit-learn as well as R things like ggplot. I’m almost at the end of the course now and I’m currently lecturing evening classes at the university as a paid professional, teaching Graph Database theory and implementation of Neo4j using Python. I’m co-writing a thesis on Machine Learning in The Creative Process (with faculty members) to be published by the institute. My confidence in programming grew and grew and with that platform to lift me, I pulled away from the class further and further.

I felt lost for a while, but I’ve found my new passion. I feel the drive to master the craft, the desire to create, to refine and to explore.

I’m going to write a Thesis with a strong focus on programmatic implementation and then try and take a programming related position and build from there. I’m excited to become a professional in this field. It might take time and not be easy, but I’ve already mastered one craft in life to the highest levels of expertise (and tutored it for almost 10 years). I’m 30 now and no expert (yet), but am well beyond beginner. I know how to learn and self study effectively.

The future is exciting and I’ve discovered my new art! (I’m also performing live these days with ‘TidalCycles’! (Haskell pattern syntax for music performance).

Hey all! I’m new on devRant!

I got a job. Will be working on IoT, Machine Learning and stuff. Feeling so happy 😁

First paycheck of career!

New career opportunities have surfaced.

Career Day at my school :D

How to know if being a developer is the right career path for for you?

Devs online be like "I started learning to code when I was 2 years old and submitted my first application at 5, since then I've made a few simple apps and pull in 2 million a day, not much but it pays the bills"

So discouraging to come up with a novel idea for a simple product and spend a lot of time just to realize you're absolutely lost and severely lack the knowledge to even produce a working product of any sort. All the while some kid makes something "simple" 10x more complex than what you failed to do, and in like a day nonetheless.

How do people just pick up so much knowledge so quickly? How do they just figure out information they couldn't have possibly known like it's intuition?

Life is hard man.

How I discovered I was a developer:

The company had hired a pair of computer science graduates and we had been commissioned to build a magento store. Weeks went buy with limited progress, and missing functionality was met with protestations from the devs about unreasonable demands.

At this time I had been taken on as a designer / casual front end developer (though the focus was on design). I knew HTML, CSS and some very limited php and js.

We were severely over deadline, and seeing the desperation on people's faces I suggested looking into it.

I read the magento docs, got an install up an running, configured an installed plugins, integrated the theme using the complex multilevelled XML/phtml architecture magento uses and even got some of the more complex js functionality working using JavaScript.

In two weeks.

I'm now the lead developer

Welp my game dev career is over.

Recently I've been working on a side project and I've been working on it a lot over the last week, with lots of late nights.

My girlfriend said to me the other day, "do you not wanna give it a rest for a bit, you'll be starting your new job soon, you'll get fed up of it".

I then explained to her that, programming is on of those few careers where you'll continue to do programme and do side projects, even after a full day of it, and I couldn't imagine it any other way.

I can't wait to start work.. but then I also don't wanna lose out on project time 🙁

I love coding, solving challenges or making something. But the current state of most of the jobs in the industry is sad, specially in this part of the world. I am stressed out and depressed when stuck in a never ending daily grind.

There are days when I seriously consider the idea of leaving the industry and start my own restaurant or cafe. It feels like coding for fun and doing something else for a living could be better.

Am I overthinking this? Are there any other people who are feeling the same?

Whiteboard coding interview. A quick way for me to lose the job opportunity in 5 seconds.

Hadn’t realized my career was so easy

My dev career in one image

Decided to go through my LinkedIn connections and disconnect from people I don’t know who don’t go to the same coding academy (we’re a pretty tight-knit bunch).

Went from 905 connections to 276.

Husband: “Please tell me you kept recruiters.”

“.... oops?”

A company called me for a job interview for my internship. As they saw my LinkedIn, they said I had a great skill set built up as I was studying Software Engineering and working aside as a freelancer.

After a short talk they mentioned my international business management (IBMS) minor that I have taken and criticized me that I took a wrong path of my career, told me to rethink my position of my studies and said they will not take me into consideration for the position.

That left me puzzled. Like what was the reason of that call, just to criticize my decisions?

Can't remember the company name that called me here in The Netherlands.

My colleague and his modeling career

Tomorrow I will have the first job interview in my career. I'm so excited. See you 😃

No work experience: I'm gonna be the best programmer in the world. My code is beautiful. This is my passion.

After 1-2 years experience: just f@#$!ng work pls so i can go home goddamit i hate my life im hungry f@$!% everyone.

Why management people thinks that a career path for any senior developer is to be a "leader" and be good in business side. Its like saying "hey you are a good programmer, let me take away that work you love to do and do stupid human resource management instead"

Just wrapped up week 1 of my first job out of college and it was absolutely incredible! I just had to tell somebody!

What do you wanna become? / What are you?

1. PHP Developer
2. Python Developer
3. Node.Js Developer
4. JavaScript Developer
5. Java Developer
6. Android Developer
7. Other (please mention in comment)

So I just received an email from a developer, saying my client hired him to take care of their website from now on. This client counted on me since 2012, so I felt a little... Betrayed. Even though this client was not big and a little difficult.

It's weird. I am trying to transition to something better in my professional life, but I'm not feeling confident of what I'm doing. Sometimes I feel my professional life is ruining. Uncertainty sucks.

Additionally, my desktop decided to stop working today and won't turn on. Oh well.

So, I'm a CS student in a third world country. I love coding and I think i'm pretty good at it.

As I'm kind of poor, I'm pretty much constantly looking for any job I can take, and I've already done a dev gig at a software sweatshop here doing mostly PHP, JS and Android/Java... the dev experience was cool, but money was absolute crap ($1.5USD/hour at the current rate, working 9h/day Mon-Sat, did it while in vacation). Better than min wage in my country but still, looking at the numbers I see from programmers all over the world... it was practically working for free. The real problem is almost every dev job here is similar, so I was looking into going remote but every opportunity I see is for seniors/people with 2-3 years experience or more.

Can you give me some tips on getting a remote job as a student/recent grad with little experience? What would you do in my position? Any input is greatly appreciated!

The best mentors I had were the people at the company where I started working.

I was doing my master thesis, bored like hell writing about someone else's idea. I decided to drop out and do a 10 week apprenticeship at this company. They had been my mentors in a university project and thought it would be nice to see what I could learn from them. I wasn't wrong.

During that time they taught me Ruby, JavaScript, Angular, Node and Git. They taught me about coding standards and how to write better, more maintainable code. They inspired me to keep learning and also to share my knowledge. In the end I didn't stay there, but they helped me get my first real job.

If it weren't for those 10 weeks my career would have been a lot different. I wouldn't be the developer I am today without them and I'm forever grateful.

So, as I figure out my post-high school life and delve into the world of coding, I finding myself with a question for you seasoned veterans in the field.

Regardless of what I like more, what makes more sense in the current climate of the industry - specializing in back end or front end, of going more full stack?

When you forget to uncheck the "RegExp" button in the "find and replace" dialog, and it's too late to undo your changes.

I got the job! Here we go to the "I have no idea what I'm doing" phase of life again. Thanks guys and gels. 😂

Today, I had an interview with a development company that they request all developers to wear suits for work! From 10 to 7 o'clock, and no stable income salary, they work based on projects LOL!

I just decided to take some time off from work, and use my savings to survive next months. I have been dealing with work related problems for a few years now, and since last year I was sure I needed time to recover my health and improve my skills, to get better job opportunities.

I was trying to balance my life and my time, working a bit less, trying to rest, study, and so on. I was hopeful I could achieve my goals just fine with some adjustments. But now... I just don't care.

Last Thursday my mother was diagnosed with cancer.
Two weeks ago, my only brother lost his job.
The same happened with my bf, few months ago, and he needed to move to another state to get a new job.

There is so much going on... Sometimes I just feel like panicking.

It's sad to fear the future, and deal with so much uncertainty.

It's hard to deal with work and money issues. It's even harder to deal with serious health issues.

I hope things will get better somehow, but I needed to vent this. Sometimes life can be a bitch.

> at my previous job as mechanical engineer at an HVAC company
> was given recurring monotonous task
> decided to start a sizeable side project to automate it
> people got pissed at me because it worked too well, i.e., took their jerbs
> decided automating things was more fun than actual current job; also, people should be more hyped about continuous improvement
> switched careers into web-development

i.e., my most successful project was the one that changed my life for the better.

This happened when I finished highschool.

I was looking for a programming related career at university, and I had two options: Computer systems engineering or Software engineering. I commented this to my mom.

Me: Mom, this university offers Software engineering. The thing is that the campus is 1 hour from the city and it’s a new career, so I don’t know if it’s a good idea or not.
Mom: Why Software engineering? Don’t you want to be a developer?
Me: Yes, that’s why I was thinking of taking Software engineering
...
Mom: Is not “Software” what is inside the computer? (Inside the chasis on desktop computers)

I started laughing so hard 😂 and, of course, I ran away

I wrote my first line of code at 12. I fell in love with it and continued. I'm 25 now and I'm a software engineer. I don't even have time or energy to work on personal projects anymore. Writing code isn't a hobby anymore. It's a means to survive. Why/how did this happen? When will building things be fun again? Before landing my first job as an engineer, not once did I consider salaries, equity, atmosphere, nor any of the other amenities (or lack thereof) of code as a profession. But, I don't even know when any of that fell into the picture and they've managed to suck the novelty out of a really cool pastime. I'm essentially a well-paid robot. Who did this? What's happening? What can I do to find the freedom I once had? When did I become just another cog in a machine? Should I try my hand in business, bent on making a lot of money so I can retire early and have time to experiment again? Is that unrealistic? Should I buy lottery tickets every paycheck? We only get one life and I realized this. I'm panicking because I know I'm not enjoying myself and that I'm not on track to leave the world better than it was when I was born into it. So much loss. I'm grateful, but this is not cool at all. I want my hobby back.

Noticing a bug once or twice but not being able to reproduce it after that gives me anxiety. This job is detrimental to one's mental and physical health. Serious question. How to unfuck yourself?

Web, Desktop, Mobile, Front, Back, Ops, Data, etc. Why is there so many cool possibilities ? ! I can't decide.

Working on what you love may be the most dangerous trap i have ever been told.

Why? You may work on what you love, but for a person that you don't. This will be the most thing that you will encounter on your career. I have been programming since i was 11 and my passion was sucked by my jobs.

And that's why all of my other hobbies will ever become a job, no matter how much people think i am good at it, the only reason i am good at my hobbies is because i don't do it for a living.

You can work on what you love, but don't expect expressing yourself at your job.

There is the Entrepreneurship route, where, instead of sucking your own passion, you should be sucking your employees passion, if you are doing it right.

AHH! There's so many cool things to program and so many ideas! not enough time to learn. Right now I'm trying to create my first mobile game in Unity using C# and a note taking app for Android with Java, it's melting my head!

I hate the old people in my company. FUCK THEM!

First I'm telling you a bit about me, so my story makes sense. I'm currently employed as IT-Tecnician in a Helpdesk as 1st & 2nd Level Supporter. I'm working for the current company since 2 years and already sweat too much Blood and Tears for the Old farts.

Now to the Story:
I'm currently planing to make a three year study as IT-Business Engineer, because I was orginally a Real Estate and Account Manager. That is the highest schoolar degree I can currently get in IT with my background. After that I would get the pass for BSc or CAS.

Two years ago when I took the Job I told them, that I would like to start my study in the next two years. Back then they agreed and told me, they will support me.

After that I got a very good reputation in the company and also took part in projects, coded plugins and evaluated requierments for programms. I got still payd with a low Supporter income for my work.

In february this year I told them I want to start my study in May. They boss told me I should do a way lower degree for two years and go into infastructur segment. I told him that my wished degree would be higher and also include infrastructur. Boss told me, that I will need to prostpone my study a third time to autumn.

The reality is, that they want to underpay me as supporter and keep me without a degree. I should keep working on projects, which a high degree tecnician does and gets better payd. In everyway thats unfair and just a hit into my gut. They try to ruin my career and keep me cheap.

The joke is, the boss is over 50 years old and is egostic as fuck. He just wants to profit from my knowledge and wont pay me for it.

I already got the knowledge and just need to have a higher IT degree, so I get payd a fair sum for my work.

My only option is to quit the company or stay as a lowly supporter.

Even my other coworkers asked me, why I'm still a supporter with my knowledge. When I told them my story, they all shugg there heads and told me, I should get the degree.

I see a lot of people with shitty interactions with recruiters, but I have the chance to work with one to get into what I want to do (net ops incident response) if I call this recruiter.

Backstory: friend applied for a position, got offered this morning (not going through a recruiter) AS recruiter called him for another position within same company. Friend explained situation, but said someone (me) might call recruiter to talk.

Job would increase salary by minimum of 25% and is much closer to what I want to do. Even if I'm still on call, it's a larger team and I'm interested in the stuff.

How do I not get screwed by recruiter? And am I am ass for applying when I know it's < 1 year and I'd be leaving my team down 2 people (so at half capacity)? And do I care?

Story time!

I moved from React Dev to fullstack like halve a year ago. Three months ago I became project lead and now I will start to become a team lead.

Holy shit I'm growing fast

Aspiring Android developer here transitioning to a new career in programming. Stumbled across this great community! Sup guys! OK now back to some Saturday afternoon coding ✌

This is my first post here, really need some advice.

I recently left a job in a corporate, soul sucking, hell hole for a job in a slightly smaller company for more money.

All good at the time - I got a weird feeling at the interview but ignored it as I was desperate to get out of where I was.

But, since I started my new job a couple of months ago about 20 people have left - some redundancies, some just hate it. Their tech stack is old, there’s no talk of R&D or doing anything new. They just churn out the same dodgy code for each client. Management are trying to bring in a new low code solution that won’t actually do what they need. I definitely get the impression that they view development as a cost that needs to be reduced. The work environment is noisy as it’s open plan and we share it with sales and marketing.

There are a couple of good points, I like my team and there is currently no pressure on me to complete my current project.

So, do I stay, try and keep out of the politics and use my pressure free time to improve my skills. Or get out before I get sucked in to the bullshit that goes along with incompetent management and continual cost cutting?

My most personal rant to date...

The company I work for operates in an industry that might experience the next Kodak moment. The industry is really feeling the knife against it's throat at the moment. The company I work for is a dinosaur, so to say. And almost everyone within fight to continue staying as a dinosaur.

I am the sole dev of said company, and I am so alone. Not just literally, but also in thought and action.

I've been flagging the possibilities and dangers of the digitizing aspect we're experiencing for the last six or eight years (yep, I've been around for quite some time), but I feel that I'm not heard. I am that grumpy, sour manifestation of everything digital that they hate so much. At least that's what it feels like.

I am so fed up with this situation. But my options are limited. There aren't many dev jobs around, and those who've tried to hire me offered a salary reduction of about $12K, which is quite a lot. I've been offered jobs in other parts of the country, but I have family matters to tend to, so I can't move at the moment. I've looked for companies offering a job where I'm not required to work from the office, but in my country these seem to be far apart. I could go freelance, but I am too scared to do so. A stable income is neccessary to put food on the table for my family.

Sigh,

A perfect on-boarding doesn't exist!

#wk129

Tagging every commit as a new release.

Working in a non-tech company as a dev is like having a non-genuine engineer certification.

OMG, more changes requested by a client for their website. Co-worker is wondering why they're doing these requests and is asking my boss if the design confirmation process has been skipped.

I'm a junior developer, and this is my only experience so far. I don't know shit how to deal with these stuff. I just wanna focus on development right now. Have a proper team to guide me. Be in an environment where I can get strong technical learning. I don't know how to deal with all these politics yet.

I wanna walk out but I can't. I can't be selfish to my wife and let her be the only source of income, seeing as she even has it worse and wants to get out of her workplace too. I've done it before, can't let it happen again.

Sorry for the drama. I gotta vent out.

a very polite recruiter in linkedin after our connection asked me why i choose this kind of career. I answered this and i hope i did not ranted a lot :)

i was trying to figure out what profession would make me more happy than others. I was always felt comfortable with computers, i was installing cracked games, exploring folders to paste the cracks etc. later in school when i learned the first algorithms like bubblesort i was knowing that i liked it. I also like working in silence while searching for solutions. That is the first part, the second is that i made a search about what industries would give me a safer future and international opportunities without having to be stuck in my country only. By working and getting more experience i felt in love with my job and trying to learn everything i missed and give to my boss or customers professional results with quality. I like it as a lifestyle, it combines a magic feeling of spells with the logical procedures of science. So why not? it combines all my loves together: creative thinking, technology, mental work, internet, music at the workflow, job demand, opportunities, and money! I hope i helped you my friend i am at your service for every question you have :)

If you didn't became a developer what would you be? What's your plan B?

Mine is to be a psychologist.

About starting your career at a medium-bigger company that's well-established, versus starting at a smaller company.

That's my point of view:

It's always wiser to begin at a company that's more established (you will also be sure that you will get paid on time). I started at a well-established company, and I managed to buy gear, travel, do stuff, and then I realised that I wanna do more, not only live to work 😎.

Smaller companies are kinda risky, think of it, their goal is to reach the level of a well-established company, which is some levels lower than that. On the other hand, if you do well at a smaller company, your next goal will be to work for a bigger company, which will surely be nicer, more professional and will pay better. So you will have managed to et there with all the skills in your pocket already, which will come in handy later!

Bigger companies are excellent if you have a family (wife and kids), they provide stability, that's the most important thing, but I believe that in order to get "settled" in a company like that, you should at least have tried something else first, like doing your own thing or get challenged in more complicated gigs that require you to up your skills.

In the end, it's all sun and fun, with you code editor by your side 😉. I'm interested to see your opinions.

I label myself as a graphic designer. I can't even make a decent-looking logo for my portfolio. I know I don't need one but it's annoying.

Deployed to production two days ago, errors still coming out and ALL of them have been my fault :(

I feel really shitty and I feel like I have no brain, maybe dev is not my career

Any advice to overcome this frustration? I really need to read your advices, guys :(

Got my first real tech job today working as an on-campus computer resource assistant for my university's graduate school in education! Finally making a step in my career path and doing something I will enjoy for a change.

Several years ago I joined the company I currently work for, as a software support person, with the intention of eventually moving toward the development team.

After a few years doing that, I gradually realised that working in the development team for our products didn't seem that appealing after all, so I went for a more technical support role (essentially debugging all the really complicated problems and reporting the bugs to the devs) which I find fascinating - trying to solve these puzzles is an interesting challenge. It can take days, sometimes weeks to get to the bottom of something really inexplicably weird.

As part of this I get to do some internal dev work on the teams projects (nothing that gets used directly by external users though) and have learned loads of things from my boss over the years (even before I joined this team).

It has its frustrating moments of course but I am definitely glad I didn't follow my original intentions of just being a developer on our main products.

Sometimes what you think you want isn't actually what's ideal for you :)

I got a call from a recruiter yesterday. The employer wants to get me in for an interview. It's for a fairly big company and I'm beginning to feel really nervous. I hate the place I'm at and I need this job. Not just for money but also to retain my sanity.

The interview is with a development manager, I wonder what kind of questions he/she will ask. Ahhhh how do I prepare for the unknown? 😱

What would you all be doing if you didn't have programming?

Personally, I'd be getting a sports science degree, or working on some sort of degree dealing with sports. My other option would be something with music.

!rant

The dilemma of "doing what's best for your career" and "doing what's best for you."

I'm young and relatively inexperienced. Sure, I can write decent code when I know what I'm doing but I'd like to do something special one day but I'd also like to be wealthy enough in my own right to never have to worry again.

The struggle of trying to fight against the urge to use the rest of my twentys to better my career drastically is hard. My health would suffer though.

!rant

I know it's not that impressive in the dev world, but I'm finally making six figures (the lowest six figure value possible but STILL) and I can't really brag to my friends about dollar amounts so HURRAH. Accepted the offer yesterday, and I'm quite pleased about it.

Annoyed that it took so long (I'm 29), but I did have a two year long career break for a family medical issue/travel/quarter life crisis, so so it goes.

So I'm about to finish The Design of Everyday things by Don Norman and I have Clean Code coming up next.

But what are some good programming books that are tech agnostic?

Frist time poster & 22 y.o. junior dev here.
I just wanted to get advice in which direction I should start my career.
I just finished my education last year as a Software Engineer and am now undecided if I should more go into Front- ore Backend.
I‘m currently doing mostly Python as a allrounder but am really intrested in React.
Is there a big difference in sallary (if that maters, I‘m from switzerland) or career oportunitys? How do I figure out the correct way I should go?
Thanks you so much for your help!

coolest thing I ever built?
My career..
except it's not cool, and not sure if it's a career at all.. not so good on a thing, just some knowledge here and there..

now I am sad about my life

I hate it how people want to swotch over to software development just because it pays well, irrespective of whether they like or hate it.No wonder the industry is getting shitty devs,#MakeSoftwareGreatAgain

!rant

Just got a response from a firm I interviewed with for a junior Rails developer position, they want me to work on a demo project as a next part of the interview process.

This might be my first dev position coming through!

*Not a rant, but a very long vent*
I'm 20 and facing the worst dilemma I ever experienced.
Been working at a company for more than half a year, got the job thru a friend and started as an intern to take care of customer problems, crap they do to PC's, printers that wouldn't work, answer emails and phone calls about our point-of-sale software.
Soon everything started to change, on one day my boss asked my what I knew about coding, all I could answer was about some really basic stuff that I learnt on a previous semester at college, just some very basic coding stuff we got for C, how for loops works, conditions, that kind of thing. Soon I was being asked to code a client management software for our company, I was starting to grasp a little of this wonderful world, soon I could write some more complex code in C#, even did a program that in 30 seconds did a 3 day's worth of work, and then I got assigned to develop a mobile POS application, earned a raise, and man, is this wonderful.
I feel that I really found my place in life, found something that makes me jump out of bed every morning.
But here comes the dilemma part: I'm enrolled in a mechanical engineering school for two years now, and it's my second place already (been enrolled at a agronomy school before that) and I'm starting to feel out of place, in all the classes I'm taking, I cant help but feel that this isn't for me, I don't see myself doing that for a future, but I don't know if jumping to another boat would make it any better or just worse, I don't know how good are my odds at a tech oriented course are, I don't really know what to do with the rest of my life.
Guess I'm just afraid of doing something stupid and regret it later, don't know if I should listen to the voice that shouts to me to do whatever I want to with my life or the one that assures me of a stable path... Don't know if anyone will read this much, but if so, thanks a lot, just wanted to put it out of my shoulders and maybe get to know anyone that has been here. I'm new here, but I feel already at home. ☺

I am an Indie game developer. I've been working solo for two or three years now and teaching myself. I can work in 3D modeling applications as well as program in c++ and do blueprint in unreal engine. I know most of the pipeline and the suite.

I'd like to transition to doing game Dev full time or at the very least do programming as my job. I have no degree.

I'm looking for contracts or whatever I can get and I'd like to get suggestions on how I should go about quitting my shity night shift job at a factory and finally work in tech.

I've got a couple contracts going on right now that I am not sure if they are going to last. I would like to know how I should go about finding more and or what things I should do in order to get residual income so I can focus on my own projects.

I have several of my own games in the works and I'm developing some tools for the marketplace. Advice?

What can I do when my boss tells me to guide the “Senior Software Engineer” while I am just a “Software Engineer”?

Also, the SSE just asked me to help him/her with his/her project coz he/she forgot the skill that he/she was hired for.

I opened this up to my boss, he just told me to guide and not spoonfeed her.

So, questions:
I really find it unfair that we have different job titles, how can I tell my boss that the SSE doesn’t really have the skills to proceed with the project?

Second, do I also need to define and establish the criteria for Lead, SSE and SE within the company? (My boss scheduled a meeting for this exclusively)

I think it's funny when RH people email me offering positions to work with Java and that's it, no more details. Java can be used to build virtually anything, from web apps to systems for spaceships. Can they give more details?!

Hi all,

This might be a long post so bear with me. I work for a company and there was a project for a huge client. I'm junior in skill (been programming for about two years) but my job title doesn't reflect that. Anyways, I got the design about a month ago but I was on deadline for two other projects so I couldn't pick it up until last week Wed. Ironically, that's when the final design was delivered & told me it was due next week Wednesday. I built it as fast as I could. Finished mobile but for some reason, this last part for desktop just wasn't working out and it just so happens to be the most crucial part of the piece. (I was also sick the entire time and didn't sleep for the last two days nor did I eat). I was supposed to demo it yesterday but I still needed to make a few updates and the project coordinator took me off the project & gave it to a dev with more experience. This has never happened to me before. I'd go as far as to say this is my first big fuck up. I've always delivered on deadline and I'm taking this pretty hard. Has anyone been in similar situations? What do I do? Any advice?

When you are looking for the perfect job in the perfect place... but in the wrong time...

Money or career?

Started my first job as an associate software developer. It feels great.
At this moment life is perfect.

I'm thinking about making an linkidin account. I'm mostly a privacy centered person so I don't have any social media. Should I do it because it can maybe help me in my career? I'm currently at my first junior dev job.

Love to hear your opinions.

We get paid higher because programming is hard! Shut up normies! You won't understand it.

node.js jobs in my area == null

Ask me in a few months after my bootcamp! I hope to have my first dev job! Scary and exciting at the same time 😳

Sometimes you have to deal with the fact that you're smarter than your project manager.

I remeber being classified as the nerd at school. Picked on because i wasnt socially normal or part of the croud. Programming became my love and a few years later. Im doing very well and now those that use to think it was fun picking on me see me as the guy they need inspiration ideas and help from because im doing well for myself and im considering helping them.

It sucks being a good guy.. I cant get myself to turn others away that needs help

I'm at a career fair! Wish me luck, devrant!

Do you know one major thing (among others of course) that has made devrant feel like home for me after swearing off social media for a long time?

Common ground with users dealing with absolute, insane incompetency at work (I have it real bad at my job).

This doesn't so much make me angry or frustrate me as it makes me sad.

Everyone has varying levels of intelligence in infinite disciplines. Someone could make you cry because they play violin so beautifully but they can't tell you 4 + 4 because they are completely dense, but boy are they genius with that instrument.

Everyone is GREAT at something, that's capitalism's strength! Everyone can excel! I'm lucky enough to truly in my heart believe that programming, data and game development is my true calling...and I personally think I'm amazing at it.

It breaks my heart when people fall into or pursue something that clearly they just don't have enough passion for or regardless just don't have the skill for.

They become toxic to themselves, their employees/coworkers, their industry.

Sadly, power is given to people who simply aren't capable and power is bad on so many levels (aka fucking psychopaths gaining too much power) but it's also bad when people who don't know what they're doing or care get power.

People, I implore you...the secret to happiness and fulfillment in life is finding what makes you happy and what you're passionate about and good at and gripping it until you die.

Most people don't find it....but DON'T stop looking! It took me until my 30's to figure it out. My best friend in her 20's took her life because she couldn't find purpose...don't just be an asshat, incompetent manager in an industry you don't know a fuck about. Love what you do and help others excel.

This is how I get when I'm drunk, sorry. You guys will learn, lol.

How did you realize that you are no longer a junior dev?

Big company vs small company pros and cons?

Here is a story about 5 years of my life.
My studies had little to do with web. I did embedded systems (architecture and software) but quickly realized that I couldn't see myself living my life in my homecoutry and that my degree would be worth little to no more than shit elsewhere in the world. That was on my 3rd year in uni.
I liked coding so I decided to pursue computer science, then web development. For that, your degree mattered little.
From then on, when I wasn't in class I was doing some coding.
This allowed me to get short (2 months) internships in Mobile and web development, 4 in total.
Doing so I had made it so that my professors would allow me to do my graduation project in web and mobile dev. That project having ended, I secured a long (1year and a half) internship in Mumbai India doing web for a big consulting company. Having finished that I headed to Belgium for my current job. All with having no to little financial resources except what I could come up with.
"I'm proud of all the efforts it took to make it" is what I think sometimes but what is it that I made? I realized my first objective which is to be on the international job market, but now that I genuinely love software I realize that I didn't really make anything I can be proud of working as a consultant. And having worked on many things but not a lot on practically anything, it's getting hard to do something else.
I'm hoping for devranters insight on how I should proceed.

I am Graduate student of applied computer science. I am required to select my electives. Now i have to decide between Machine Learning (ML) and Data Visualization. My problem is Machine Learning is very theoretical subject and I have no background in ML in my undergrad. In data visualization, the course is more focused towards D3.js. Due to lack of basic knowledge i am having second thoughts of taking ML. However, this course will be offered in next Fall term. And i am also studying from Coursera to build my background till that time.

I know there is no question here but I need a second opinion from someone experienced. Also, please suggest any other resource that I should look into to build my background in ML.

Got a high paying job, with great benefits, and a big name, straight out of college. I was hired as a software engineer. Comfy, relaxed, and flexible.

The problem comes where it was not the job I was expecting. It has been almost a year and the only programming I've done has been 1 small copy pasta project. I am worried because I am bored and feeling my coding skills fade away. I'm still a novice programmer and feel like this impacts future career opportunities not learning useful skills for outside of this company. I'm going to grad school to do what I really want but still have the 2 years.

Do I stay or do I make the stressful change again? Other fun thing is I just relocated a distance to an area with not a lot of opportunities so would likely involve relocating again.

Mobile App Development vs. Web Development as a career? It doesn't matter. Do your job well. Sometimes, you can't control where they put you.

I feel like I got my current job as my first dev job so I would know what NOT to do and what to avoid for my next job.

Dear devrant community, I have a question...

For perspective, a few years ago, we had an incident, where one dev was looking for other employment, he did not say anything, he was just looking, and ended up accepting an offer, handing in his resignation and all that. But there was another dev doing the same thing, but he informed management that he was thinking of leaving, and would be attending interviews... Personally I note difference in treatment of the dev that was honest, he was slightly getting phased out and getting the cold shoulder most of the time combined with weird kindness that was cearly not sincere, where the other dev was given a hard time for not saying anything about them looking for other opportunities, and treated as though they betrayed all the trust they had earned and no longer deserved to be trusted....

My question is, what, in your opinion, is the right thing to do when you are looking for a new opportunity? Do you tell management, or is it actually none of their business?

Have a question about my career:

So far my career out of uni has been like this:

8 months in first place working as C# .NET dev, creating native desktop apps for windows. job was shitty, was not getting any best practices skills so I left.

12 months in 2nd place working as android dev in a startup. was working all alone and had to rebuilt my app up to 5-6 times to learn best practices. startup didnt care about android app at all so I left and now doing just some small freelance work for them.

3 months in new startup as android dev.Today I was told that its decided to focus on iOS and do all marketing (also uplift of new design) only on iOS. basically for next 3-4 months they don't plan to do much on android side. they saw that I showed some interest in backend and now they are asking me to talk with two other senior guys about starting with some small tasks for me on backend.

Our backend is mainly using python. Also backend guys will be pretty busy for next few months because they will have to deliver many new features in next few upcoming months. I've talked with one of them and he said that this is a bad idea to force frontend to start working on backend. However I feel that he's sort of gateekeping and probably just doesn't want to help me with getting up to speed.

In my defense, my knowledge doesn't end with C# .NET desktop apps and native mobile apps for android.

I have hobbie projects (gameservers) where I worked on websites (php,html,css,javascript,mysql) and also was taking care of a java based gameserver which is hosted in a linux vps.

Also I've had a small hosting "company" where with available tools I've managed to automate VPS(virtual private server) ordering, web hosting ordering and domain ordering. Basically I owned a dedicated server and did everything using whmcs, cpanel and proxmox virtualization.

I trust myself in learning this backend stuff and doing whats required, however I learned everything by myself and I won't follow all of these best practices.

Should I accept more responsibility on backend or should I continue focusing on android?

Hmm. Seniors have the half working experience as I do and I am the only not senior one in Dev team.

I adapt code only to "taste" good for code reviewers, but they allow themselves to commit without caring and just saying :"oh unit testing is boring"

Enough with the kindergarten. Time to prepare myself for the next job.

Then I don't want you. (Just my opinion.)

So I got the Google Foobar challenge while I was in highschool. I completed up to level 3 of it and got into contact with a recruiter. They said to contact them when I was in college. I then stopped doing the challenge due to school keeping me too busy. I've heard that level 4 is the hardest level and requires high level programming and math concepts to be able to do. Should I complete it now or wait until I have done more difficult courses in cs?

Sometimes I feel I should switch to android from web even though I don't know anything about it but just feels that it's interesting morebthen web.

But then again I have those thoughts that jack of all and king of nothing is pretty hurtful in career building. Isn't it?

Just came across a few rants blaming coursework, which doesn't have anything to do with programming. To them I wanna say two things:

1. Programming is modelled on everything other than programming. So it helps to know a bit about that 'everything'.

2. The famous author James Altucher has had 14 careers in 25 years. Not 14 jobs. 14 careers, including photography, authorship, entrepreneurship, finance planning, and more.

So stop bitching and eat your frog/broccoli.

Got promoted to a managerial position recently. How you guys with a similar experience have transitioned from coding all day long to leading fellow coders?

I will major in AI. No, I will major in Big data, wait, I want to major in cloud too. I think I should first complete the courses I enrolled on cloud academy or the tens of courses in enrolled on Udemy on all the domains possible first! So many technologies, so many dreams!

Hello! I’m from Nigeria(Africa) and I have two Job offers in Lithuania and Netherlands as an intermediate level dev (software engineer, no senior or junior attached). I am still early in my career, 1.8yrs professional experience. Which would you advise I take and why? Assuming you don’t know how much pay is. Thanks!

I turn 21 in a month, and I still have no idea what I want to pursue as a career after university or how to get there.
Sure its two years away but I feel behind already.
Also how does one go about getting an internship in the UK?
I've yet to speak to anyone from any dev industry and it's beginning to concern me.

Recent discussion with ele gave me an idea to post this question here.

Which type of company should a fresh CS graduate work for? A corporate or a startup or a SME.

My advice for newbies is on SME for first few years. Then decide on your own based on your personality and career goals for future years.

If by some cruel act you're forced into working on a live environment, just make sure you're absolutely sure that your test code is definitely the code that's going to run... Not some horrible script that rolls back the clients database a year ;)

Has anyone ever deployed something to production and it had to get rolled back due to bugs? How did you handle that?

**random rant**

So next week I have a technical interview with TripleByte and I'm supposed to spent the next 2 days sorta preparing. Just woke up and had this thought tho:

What's the point? Yes I think I could try to get a better job but been trying for years (banking tech area) but now it feels like I'm at a "local optimum" sort of a sweet spot. Team/company could be smarter/more efficient but...

I've got my own place in a city that's also near NYC. It takes me 20 minutes to get to my current office, fairly flexible with the 9-5 work day, I can work remotely. I get enough money.

And then finding a new job === technical interviews about stuff you will rarely use and usually with no feedback like a pass-fail test where they only tell you if you pass or fail (and for me it always feels skewed towards fail the moment i walk since I'm deaf).

But at this point, I feel more like "you need to convince me to work for you". In my head, the plan is mostly to just have a nice chat and wing the technical questions just to see how good i am without any prep (i.e. poring thru Cracking the Coding Interview or Big O concepts, sorting...).

I got a question at an interview today asking what type of developer do you want to be and what's your long term technical goal. Right now I'm a senior software engineer at a pretty well known solid mid sized tech company. I work across the stack but I really don't know what type of developer I want to be.

Which way technically are you directing your engineering career? How and why did you decide this is the type of work you want to do?

Hello everyone !
I am a self taught programmer. Currently in last semester in electronics engineering. I want to become a software developer but can't decide the right career path for me to take. I like back end, Android, Data structures and algorithm, Parallel programming, Machine learning and computer vision, and even security. I am afraid I will remain the jack off all trades and won't be the master of any. This way I won't be doing any good in my career. Any advice as what to do ?

I don't feel ready to search for jobs. I don't feel that coding is for me.

There is this guy that wanted to study physics and changed to System Information. He is more logical and rational than me. I'm too "emotional" to code, I get stressed easily when something isn't working.

I'm doing this because I wanted to challenge and prove myself that I could be more. I could have been a teacher, but I thought that it wasn't enough for me and I wanted to go further.

Every day I'm outside of my comfort zone and I don't know where this path will lead me and I'm scared and at the same time, I'm hoping for a happy end.

Maybe my brain is not made for coding, maybe it is more on the database side. But I'm sure of one thing: this year I'll give my best and everything at my current internship to get better at coding with Android Studio, Windows Form, Angular and React. My results will determine if I''m a good fit for coding.

Remember one thing: not everyone can easily learn how to code, but you will never know if you don't try it. Go out of your comfort zone in your life and you will meet a whole new world.

Hey guys, I've always loved and adored what programmers and developers do, so I really do need your advice on this...
After around nine years in the journalism field, I'm considering a career shift into development, for many reasons including that the journalism field seems to be going down in my country, so I started where most recommendations would tell a beginner to start, learning HTML... Now, is it a good idea for starters to change my career into this magnificent and enormous field? I know it won't be easy, but is it possible to be something in that career?

When I think of myself as a 41 year old junior developer (2nd career shift), my mind immediately goes to "40 Year Old Virgin" for some reason ...

!rant

I'm a computer engineering student.
I'm very much interested in Systems and networking.
That's why I was thinking of persuing cyber-security as a career option.
But I'm not quite sure if that is a good choice.
Also I don't know how to proceed in order to achieve excellence in cyber-security.

It would be a great help if you guys could help me.

Thanks :)

When I began my career, I always thought everyone in the IT-sector loved their Jobs (except a few people who didn't fit in of course) - 10 years later I've met a lot of people who hated their jobs but didn't just quit it (no kids, no wife, no responsibilities at all) - what do you guys think about this?

Personally, I'm looking for a job where I can put my heart into and which has got a meaning for me (haven't found it yet and I don't expect to do in a short time) because everything else makes no sense to me.

When you immediately regret your career decisions.

Who all got Uber challenge while riding uber?

How did you choose your career?

!rant

How did you all get into development? I've heard some pretty non-linear career trajectories from friends of mine, but I'm not sure if that's normative for developers as a whole. Your thoughts?

How many of you have asked for a raise? How many have gotten it? How big was it? Did you leverage another job offer? How long did you work until you got it?

When can you say you know a language? And when can you say you're actually good at it?

Im in IT for nearly 7+ years now. Until now, I worked for companies in germany that give a damn about the projects their doing or somewhat else - the only thing they consider is money (what Im absolutely able to understand, a company needs to pay its employees, etc).

I worked for three companies now and every single one of them was the same alime. I started to get depressive because I always thought there must be a company that takes proud of the craftmanship itself, instead of burning every one of its employees when its needed.

I love to work in IT, but I hate it to work for those kind of companies.

I began to study Computer sciences at a university and now in order to enhance my range of possibilities, and as there is only 1½ year left, Im asking myself what I want to do. I want to work AS a developer or something like this in IT but I also dont want to hate my job - so, what would you recommend to someone like me?

A few questions from a highschool student looking to go into a programming job post-secondary.

Did you go to college, university or jump right into it? Any regrets?

How did you get your first job?

I'm a little paranoid because while I'm great with programming and math (high 90 average) I am horrible with classes that require taking apart stories like English or history.

Why do you think there are only few females in the tech industry? Why are there few female who choose the tech career? (Honest answers, highly appreciated)

hey guys, i was recently appointed to be devops engineer in a company. i did want to be a software developer though but they chose me for devops because my lack of java knowledge and a bit knowledge of linux and stuff.
my question for u guys is that... is devops good? for future career as well.
i m quite afraid to be honest, wouldn't want to have made a bad career decision. 😅😅
i must admit i have always enjoyed programming and hence i am worried in devops.

I got a phone interview!!! Hope it goes better than my last one :') that one was for a web developer position and they asked me about stack vs queue and memory allocation. Idk why but I sure as shit didn't get the job.

A noob here, please don't judge too hard.
My major is maths and philosophy(mainly doing logic in philosophy), and even though we had python in maths, it's so basic I don't even think I can say I learnt anything (sololearn on my phone taught me more lol)
Does anyone have experience of transferring to IT after or during a maths degree? Not rly asking for advice, just want to hear life experiences and maybe learn something!

I like the fact that there's so many interesting things that you can learn in the tech industry. On the other hand, I really feel this pressure to know so much just to be able to pass a job interview and get a good job that you want.

I can't think of any other industry right now where the interview process can be quite an ordeal. I mean, sure, there's some general tips on how to pass an interview, but for this industry, you can literally find courses JUST for doing software engineer/developer interviews.

Interviewing with three companies. First one extended an offer. I'm expecting an offer from at least one, possibly both, of the others (On-site with Second was yesterday and expecting an offer tomorrow or Mon, phone tech interview (they also had a tech screen) with Three was today and I /rocked/ it, expecting an onsite invite for next week).

The problem with being a badass is that the choice paralysis is SO OVERWHELMING. All three have features that I like and how do I choose.

I think I'm being overly influenced by the weekly massage, onsite barista, free nice breakfast/lunch, and ideal location of Second (the domain is finance, they have $$$). Oh and fucking 25 vacation days and amazing 401k matching. I mean how would I say no to an offer? But what if the work is actually beyond me? But they have seriously cranked their benefits package up to 11.

First is an in house product with external clients. The domain I don't find super interesting, but it has amazing Glassdoor reviews, seems like a decent environment, and really seems like a place to progress and grow as a professional. It is also the lowest salary of the three (both others are through Hired, so I know what they are offering).

Third is a consultancy where I'd really get to keep my skills relevant. Seems mad fast paced, which is a bit intimidating, and I don't know how well I'd handle the context switching of being on multiple projects at a time.

I mean, all of this is counting my chickens before they hatch. But I have a really good feeling about my chsnces with Second, though I suppose I still have a chance to botch my onsite with Third.

Ahhhh. Dev Rant, how did you go about choosing between offers that can't be evaluated on a single axis?

Lets make a rant before going to bed

Who had the marvelous idea that a developer's proeficiency could be measured by years?

So at my new job Ive been waiting for credentialls, server access software installation, etc ( i know i know but thats for another rant ) and all that idle time has given me opportunity to crawl in the company's sharepoint page which has the career path for a software developer, since Im a student Im listed as trainee, but after that I have to wait 3 years + certifications to be considered as senior and then be able to hop to next hierarchy level Software Designer and then another three years to be able to become a software architect. So my point, as I was seeing this I thought "I dont wanna wait 6 years to become a software architect, Im going to be better faster in order to become needed and make them promote me faster"

The thing is Ive always wanted to become a softwsre architect and learning that I have to wait 7 years to be considered a proeficient architect just makes me mad.

Pd: One of the requirements for a senior developer is knowing Lines of code time stimation

Teacher or Developer ?
1. Teaching: more free time, less salary
2. Developing: less free time, more salary
But I need both time and money, now what ?

Should I switch from Electrical Engineering to Comp Sci?

I am about to start my second semester at college. I took programming 101 and realized I might like coding more than engineering. All the classes I have taken are inside the Comp Sci. Courses in my university so I would not be losing time if I switch now.
Also I started messing around with Android Studio with some friends and that made me realize how easy comparison it is to make a good portfolio and have sideprojects.
Any insight would be greatly appreciated.

If these aren't great mentors I don't know what is. They first took me into their company with no prior experience as an intern for six months working remotely a paying internship at that and they paid for my internet. Six months ends and they offer me a junior web developer position in the company, buy me a mac and and a second screen and still paying for my internet with an increased salary. And the team works like clock work all the time with everyone giving a hand to whoever is struggling with whatever not to mention they're very patient... I love this company FUCK!!!

Is it just me or feeling the imposter syndrome, and blogging about it is super trendy at the moment ?

!rant

Today I got an interview for a cool job: Comissioning engineer with focus on PLC-programming.

So nervous, but so happy at the same time.

I updated my resume.
My new career objective is to score enough ++ so that I can afford a tiger pet on my devrant avatar!!

I highly recommend my colleagues to read this book quickly, quickly!

!!!Question here!!!

I am enrolled in a full time course (bachelor of Engineering, Computer Engineering), currently in second year, will be in third by June 2017, and I have a job offer from a Japan Based Company, so it legal to do the job while being enrolled in a full-time course? Also, if I drop from the course and focus on job, so will that be good?

The package is really good, but the degree is important (at-least in India), I want to know about other parts of the world also.

I am inclined towards joining the job, but then it frightens me as the culture here is (degree is important, talent is not!), but I have faith in myself, after watching many motivational videos on youtube, I feel like following my passion, but then I need to be practical as well.

What to do, what not to do? I need your help, please let me know what are your views?

So I am on a vacation for a month and a few days before it ends. My boss calls me and tells me "why don't you take one more week" then he told me that's when he will be back to work as well because he is traveling. When I told him why he said he wants to talk to be before getting back to work.
When he found me sounding worried, he said don't worry there is nothing you are missing we just want to align our plans and give you updates on the period you were gone for.

When I asked him what if I wanted to get back to work sooner, he said I prefer if you wait till I come back

And now I am super worried and paranoid, advice please 😥

Hi everyone!

New to this app, and new to my PHP programer job .

Which types of projects/tutos can I do to increase my level quickly??

Greetings from France!

I realized that at my current workplace I'm no longer learning anything new or of interest. So I need to up the ante, spend some time learning stuff by myself and maybe change jobs in a few months.

You don't want a career in programming.

Trying to understand how i hate work but still in love with computer science

For all the professionals - I really do not find my course in Software Engineering challenging and I even finished first in my class last year. I have been programing in java and javascript with spring and angular but now I am focusing on android. Do you reckon I should stay and finish my degree or just make a portfolio and apply for a job in the industry? Thanks in advance

I’m really getting fed up with the situation I am in!

I was brought in as a development lead, which in my eyes and from the sound of it leading on the technical delivery, inspiring and leading technical development decisions and generally leading my team (one additional dev) in the delivery of work items and user stories which the PM or Business analyst produces..

Then it “evolved” into what felt more like a development manager where I was reporting to senior management on KPIs and stuff, I sucked it up and did it.

Then they brought in two new people which they call application specialists. These people spend all their time managing existing off the shelf applications, communicating with the vendor, running user groups where they work with our users on moving the product forward and planning the configuration and enablement of new functionality.

Because they are “developing” the application (in the same way a child develops, or the same way a story line develops and evolves) they fall under me..

So now I spend a split amount of time developing software and also managing what I can only explain as project managers, product owners...

Oh but then it gets better!! Now they want me(as well as our info sec lead and our infrastructure lead) to be a kind of all round delivery lead, gauging the requirements of a project, reporting in its risks to senior management, resource planning, everything a PM does! And also be the technical person delivering these projects!

Honestly, it’s seriously starting to take the fucking piss!

I am a technical programmer, a pretty good one if I say so myself, the developer reporting to me is good but needs hand holding which I am ok with! But would never be able to deliver an element of a product by himself in line with what we expect in quality of code..

Why would anyone think you take a person built and only interested in doing a technical role and make then a generic all round manager of a project??

I know why they did it! It’s because there are other managers in our department paid the same “level” as me, but because of their management responsibility’s , I however feel I am paid this much for my technical experience and abilities, thy are just blanket covering everyone the same at this level.

You would never get a manager at this salary scale with the technical skills they need, and you would never get a technical person with the skills interested in doing that type of management at this salary scale!

I’m just a mug and they know it!

So fucking angry!

Implementing tons of ridiculous/almost impossible features you disagree with cause you're just a powerless employee who needs the job..

You still do it anyway.

For US salaried developers here, a young soon-to-be employed graduate has a question...

When it comes to salaried work, is it just a matter of work "close to 40 hours but really just get your work done" or should I be trying to fill a seat for 8 hours a day even if I don't have anything to work on? And if I'm non-exempt (elligible for overtime over 40hrs), is it reasonable for me to be here 9 hours a day, or should I be capping it off at 8?

I know these are questions for my employer but it's gonna be a bit before I actually start work and I'm curious.

I'm 22 years old and 1.5 years into my first Startup Job. (and second Dev job)
I feel kind of uncomfortable now and I would like to ask your opinions.
I'll start with the work related description of my situation and later add a bit of my life situation.

I develop as hobby since I can think. I'm pretty engaged and love to do things right. So I quickly found myself in the position of the de-facto lead fullstack Developer.
Although, to be clear, were only a few devs - which are now replaced by not so many other devs. I feel often like the only person able to design and decide and implement in a way that won't kill us later (and I spend half of my time fixing technical debt).

I mostly like what I do , because it's a challenge and I feel needed. I learn new things and I am pretty flexible in work time. (but I also often work till late in the night, sacrificing friendship time)
But there are so many things I would love to do and used to do, but now I have no motivation to develop outside of my job.
I don't really feel that what my company is doing is something I find valuable. (Image rights management)

I earn pretty well - in comparison to what I'm used to: 20€/hour, Brutto 2.800 / month for 32 hours a week. In Berlin. (Minus tax and stuff it's 1.800€). It's more than enough for what I need.
But when I see what others in similar positions earn (~4.000), I feel weird. I got promised a raise since nearly a year now. I don't feel I could demand it. I also got the hint that I could get virtual shares. But nothing happened.

Now what further complicates the situation is that I will go to Portugal in April for at least half a year, for joining a social project I love. My plan used to be that I work from there for a few hours a week - but I'm starting to hesitate as I fear that I will actually work more and it will keep me from fully being there.

So, I kind of feel emotionally attached - I like (some of) the people, I know (or at least believe) that the company will have a big problem without me. (I hold a lot of the knowledge for legacy applications) .
But I also feel like I'm putting too much of myself into the company and it is not really giving me back. And it's also not so much worth it... Or is it?

Should I stick to the company and keep my pretty secure position and be financially supported during my time in Portugal, while possibly sacrificing my time there?
Should I ask for a raise (possibly even retroactively) and then still quit later? (they will probably try to get my 1 month of cancelation period upped to 3).

Also, is this a risk for my "career"?

Hey I have a career dilemma, was wondering if anyone experienced that and if anyone could give a tip on how to resolve it maybe.

TL;DR: I'm a Front End dev, who wants to become an expert in everything but obviously can't. What do I do? How do I choose what to learn?

Longer version. I started with Front End. Now i'm doing alright with Vue, React, bit of Angular, and other related to the stack tech. Then I started learning python because of a project I was doing (personal client). Didn't go far with this one. I still find it interesting esp. in the machine learning context, which I also want to do. Now I'm studying .NET, because of a project I'm currently doing at a company (full time, I'm doing ReactJS front end there tho). And I'm also studying for GCP exam, because I wanna know how to deploy solutions to the cloud. But one also needs to secure them, so I'm looking at some courses on Cybrary, in a search for appropriate courses.

I feel overwhelmed and unproductive. I feel like i need to specialize just in one field with some general knowledge about other areas. So I feel like I have to select what I do/learn carefully.

Any thoughts? How did you plan your career? What kind of goals did and do you set for yourself? Are you happy with those now once you achieve them?

I'd love to hear some stories. :)

There's a tech job fair happening today, and I either have to leave work early or just not come to work at all to be able to go there. I really wanna get a new job, and I might regret it if I don't go there. Should I not come to work?

I was just thinking about this.

How old was everyone when they first go into IT? Something along the lines of when you wrote your first program or script, or when you first started a programming course, etc. And what was the reason?

I was 22. First proper start was through an Intro to Information Technology course as part of my current degree. I was working a dead-end, depressing callcentre job. I was thinking what my life was going to be like, so I made a concious decision to start my degree and make something of myself. It's, of course, a bit more detailed but I am more interested in what others have to share.

Career fair update:
At the fair I bee-lined right to a company I'd talked to at a hackathon before. The person I talked to there was extremely enthusiastic, and called me a "really strong candidate," and even talked about providing housing for the summer near the workplace!
I'm contrast, AMD's interviewer looked extremely uninterested. Pretty sure they just grabbed some random engineer who didn't want to be there.
Microsoft had a line so long that the fair ended before most of the people even got to talk to Microsoft. Needless to say, I didn't even bother.
Qualcomm seemed cool, that went alright.
Overall, really happy with how the fair turned out, and really excited with how likely this job looks for me.

Hello devs!
Please help a fellow dev make a big career decision.
I am a person who is fascinated about AI.
So after working as a gameplay programmer, I have decided to switch my role as a R&D engineer in the same company. I will get to work on cool stuff in the ML and AI domain. But I have got this another job offer for a full stack developer role and the salary is supposed to be three times of my current package. It's great company but the only thing is that they do not have ML and AI in their tech stack. It has been only a year since I graduated, So I wanted to know what would be a good path. To follow what you like or to follow general software development with a great salary hike (which I am sure it would take many years to reach that amount in my current company). Also there are very few companies that offer such a good pay. I want to know that if I go with the salary option, Would it be possible for me to get into the AI domain at a later stage? I would appreciate if you share your experience as well.

Considering moving to a new city for a job. Don't know many people in the new city besides a couple family members.

Thoughts? Stories of moving for a job? Funny jokes?

Hi all devRanters (if that is a thing),

I'm currently in grade 10, and I'm looking forward to a career in computer programming. I find that sometimes Maths is very intimidating, as such, I want to ask all of the devs here: is Maths really that crucial to the job? Or is it merely a requirement to go to university and get a CS degree?

Thanks in advance!

Do any experienced developers have tips on beginning to freelance. I normally get sub-contracted work for back-end gigs, however I'd like to start landing fullstack clients of my own.

All advice welcomed!

When is it worth moving for a new job opportunity? Any of you guys work from home for a company cities or states away?

I'm in a dilemma.

I started this job about 9 months ago and it's really not what I expected. I'm the sole developer in my department that handles applications built around our customer database.

Well it's pretty boring and there is a lot of technical debt with the source code since usually 1-2 people are taking care of it so they never had proper conventions. And we have super old applications running on legacy solutions like cold fusion 🤢

I also receive a lot of problem tickets that never contain enough information to actually do anything and the people don't realize I have no idea what they do or what their business processes are.

The upside is I'm paid very very well for this job > 100 in a place where cost of living is cheap. And when there's no work to do I can work on side projects.

It's really not fulfilling work and idk if I should stick it out. I also don't know where I would head next. There's not very many companies working on cool stuff. Maybe remote work?

Anyone else have a similar story?

Looking to sharpen and pursue a SysAdmin/DevOps career, looking at online job offers to get the big picture of required skills and I say FUCK. It would take me a lifetime.
Azure, AWS, Google cloud platform.
CD tools: Ansible, Chef or Puppet
Scripting ninja with Python/Node and Shell/Power shell.
Linux & Windows administration
Mongo, MySQL and their relatives.
Networking, troubleshooting failure in disturbed systems
Familiarity with different stacks. Fuck. (Apache, nginx, etc..)
Monitoring infrastructure ( nagios, datadog .. )
CI tools: jenkins, maven, etc..
DB versioning: liquibase, flyway etc.
FUCK FUCK FUCK.
Are they looking for Voltron? FUCK YOU FROM THE DEEPEST LEVEL OF MY DEEP FUCK.

I want to switch careers from 3.5 years of IT and cybersecurity to development. I have no CS degree and am 22 years old.

Do you think companies treat someone like me differently compared to some college graduate with no tech experience? Or that the only experience that matters is dev experience?

I checked something and the school I want to apply to for Computer Management (basically the paper I need to prove I’m a dev) requires me to do PE.... Like, come the FUCK ON. How am I gonna learn stuff (and get retold the same shit I know since I’m 10) about PROGRAMMING if I’m doing SPORTS?! WHY?! I can barely get up the damn stairs without my knees fucking up and being out of breath.... fml

I have a question, and I need your opinion.

I'm taking a Multimedia course, but it has more subjects besides web dev and app dev.
So, becouse I really want to learn more, I'm taking the FreeCodeCamp course.
I'm enjoying it, and making a web project alongside it (with the help of the bootstrap documentation of course)

My question is:
Is it any good for my future?
Do you think it's a good place to learn development or is it a waste of time and I should learn somewhere else?
What do YOU think?

I don't want to be wasting my time on something that's not going to provide me with good knowledge...

So today in school I decided on my career choice. So I've decided on becoming a data scientist because I can still use my programming and I very much do like looking at data and researching things as well as program obviously :) so if there are any data scientists or data miners out there do you have advice?

Guys, how did you decide your area of specialisation ? Like working with web apps , or network security or Machine Learning and AI , sys admin etc . I find all of them interesting but never end up knowing them in depth.

When you find a cool job in the language of your dreams and it says "Senior Developer" but you have no "work" experience with language...

What do you tell non-tech-savvy ppl that you do? So far I've narrowed it down to: "I'm a programmer of sorts...". "I make websites" just doesn't cut it anymore. With others I'm safe to say I'm a full stack developer.

Hey ya'll, I was wondering if you could give me a career advice. I'm a front end dev with about 3 yrs of experience, and would like to do more cloud architecture/devops. How would I go about it, considering that I've only used aws, gcp, and azure for my hobby/side projects? Should i get certified? Who would hire me?

I'd really appreciate any advice/tip!

wordpress jobs everywhere or nothing. :(

Do you teach your kids to code? Do they enjoy it? I think it'd be a great way to help Give them the tools to be successful early on. :)

So, hello. :)

I'm on my second semester of my IT degree. I'm in "Analysis and development of systems". I aways loved the world of technology, and more especific development.
The thing is, right now I work on a bank, but I'm starting to hate that thing. Stress 24h a day, and I'm doing something I don't like.
I've married a few months ago, so now I have a family to maintain, the main reason I'm waiting to get a degree before starting on my IT career (maybe it could help on getting a new job or even freelancing).
Now, I need a little help. A lot of you looks like to be working on this for some good years. What are your advices? Do I need a degree to start on my career? If quitted my job right now, even without experience on the programming world (professionally), would it be worth it?

I have little experience with freelancing, I don't think its enough to work full time on freelancing development. Should I try it? What you guys think? Or should I just drop out on work and star investing on my career?

Hi, everybody. I'm a software tester, and I'm dreaming to be a developer. Was dreaming... Week ago I have lost my passion totally. About 1 year or more, everyday I woke up at 4:00 at the morning to start coding, reading books, solving problems in Android development, and now I feel that I've lost my passion. I feel that mobile development is disgusting. I'm trying to start with Machine Learning, JavaSript frontend development, Python, Java and Spring and everywhere I realise that I have to learn a lot to get a job. I see a lot of ways, but I really don't know what way to choose. I'm lost. I want to die.

Best career choice? Probably that I abandoned my previous "career" and became a developer.

Tips on improving ++ to comments ratio? What do you consider a good one? What kind of a ratio is needed to get a decent job and a loving duck?