Wrong Mansur

Repost🔁

Programmer here coming up to 20 years experience. What I have found in my little journey like brads:

1. You never feel like you are good enough. I have a couple of languages I’d say I’m a genuine expert in only because I’ve done it every day for years as a job...but some other languages or tools I’ve used sporadically before I still feel out of my depth when reading job descriptions and demands. I still have imposter syndrome even with all this experience...mad I know. Every new job I go to inside I’m saying to myself “damn...what the hell have I got myself into!!! You don’t know this...!”. You cannot be an “expert” in everything - that’s why teams of developers exist...every single job and team is different from the last.

2. Job descriptions that require “expert, excellent, outstanding knowledge of...<insert latest cool word here>” are not at all helpful - it makes overconfident people apply and those quiet and honest look away thinking they are not good enough...when they are perfect for picking things up and giving it a go. Most tasks do not need absolute expert level coding ability to automate or improve something. Look at junior roles...”must be an expert in...” - what are they talking about?! It’s a junior role! How can you be an expert with barely any experience?!

3. Forever learning and moving goalposts. In this world, you never stop learning - this is often the cause for burnout. When you are 20 years old, mucking about trying “neat cool tricks” and making random stuff it’s all fun and games. Fast forward 20 years...when your house, life and other lives depend on taking home a certain income...all of it is on the back of knowledge you’ve painstakingly built up...and you’re then told “sorry...worlds moved on. Gotta learn this new thing now to keep up to date..” it gets a bit boring.

Coding is no longer fun - it is a means to an end. It’s a job that pays the bills and that’s it. Those goalposts seem to move every damn year and you can never be in a position to truly know everything. It’s impossible. I want and need a roof over my head...I don’t need or desire to learn yet another thing to keep a roof over my head and food on the table. It’s no longer “neat or cool”...you get burnout. You just cannot keep running on that treadmill any more.

4. Many...in fact most simply do not understand how much mental power it requires to do coding for hours on end...for years, solving ever changing problems...understanding it all, picturing it in your head and thinking out how stuff should work correctly over and over...it causes burnout.

5. Having a life....seriously. It’s getting worse and worse. Every coding job seems to have this cult like vibe being offered and they’re looking for “fellow boot lickers just like the rest of our family here at bootlickers dot com”. I don’t want or need another family...I have my own. I don’t want to do adult face painting and faking we’re all having such a great time for some awkward company photo shoot. I don’t live and breath work either doing random coding challenges in my spare time...I just want to do my job and get paid for it. You don’t ask the secretary if she likes to practices picking up the phone every evening and having “wild cool chats at the weekend...if this sounds like you..we’d love to hear from you!”. Avoid the cringe cults. I saw an advert the other day saying “a free orange every Wednesday”...do you really want to work for a company like that?! An orange...!!! I’ll buy my own...thanks (I think).

205 viewsMansur, edited 17:51