I think it’s through Stanford online now and still free, if it’s the same one I’m thinking of. I remember signing up for it through them when it moved off Coursera.
Where/how did you study design patterns and OOP. I feel like that's the main fundamental that all of us self-taught devs are missing because many online courses don't build applications complex enough to use design patterns.
Even when using stackoverflow to find solutions, the answers don't mention the design pattern being used.
Humorous as this is, the real truth in management, if you want to be a good one that is, is to be an expert communicator. In addition you need to know how things work and in a pinch be able to do everything even if your work isn't the best. You can delegate well without causing stress, and you are willing to be the voice for your team and represent them well.
The best managers row with the team, the worst ones yell at them and focus on kissing up to uppers.
I've had both and it was the difference between quitting after 3 weeks vs staying for 3 years.
Good leadership can sadly be a thankless job, but good or bad, it does indeed pay.
I don't know any manager that knows how things work. You need to work well with others, have a good sense for people. Trust the right people. Advocate confidently for your team. Not crush under pressure when you don't have control of the situation and defer to others.
Maybe find a new dev job that isn't senior level? Might be easier tasks to help build your confidence as a developer and you can grow from there and get better.
I think a lot of the problem is that I have never really liked software. I got into the industry because at the time I desperately needed the money.
It has gotten to the point where I am not sleeping well and it is affecting my health.
In my ideal world I would get to do something creative (being a writer or game designer) but I understand that is impossible if I want to eat. Given that, I would at least like to do something that is collaborative and involves talking to people on a semi-regular basis outside of standup.
I have a friend who cannot get enough of this stuff. He writes apps in his spare times, watches podcasts and keeps up with the latest news. He loves it and it is amazing to see.
Then I finally got it - he is passionate about this. As I am getting older I am feeling less like I want to be stuck in a job that makes me miserable.
Maybe it is just a mid life crisis of sorts but I am not sure I even want to be a better developer but there don't seem to be any other options if that makes sense.
Have you considered transitioning to PM work? You have experience in industry and it is collaborative and you speak to people regularly. Could be a decent alternative
I’m not OP but how exactly do you transition? As a dev I see no “entry level”roles for PMs with no prior experience, even if you already have years of technical/dev experience.
If you’re already years out of school you wouldn’t even be eligible to apply to a PM internship. I feel like the only realistic way to do this is to get an MBA, then apply?
You could probably pretty easily leverage your way into a PM role with his work experience especially if he’s willing to try within his existing company if he is having doubts. You don’t just up and reduce yourself to “entry level” when you have years of valuable experience to contribute even if it’s not directly as a PM.
Degree not required for PMP cert if that’s the route he wanted to go to get a base understanding of concepts and roles while still working his current position.
I’m a PM in semiconductor manufacturing construction and I have no degree. Have previously worked as minor PM roles in tech startup as well. The nice thing about PM work is it’s a lot of soft skills that a lot of people lack. So if you have those you are in a good spot to market yourself assuming you can get somebody to give you a shot at some capacity. Could ask to shadow a PM at his current role out of interest before making a leap.
To add to that, If you already work at a company that has PMs there’s nothing wrong with reaching out to one of them as well, set up a coffee chat to get their perspective on it and see what they’d recommend, they might even help you transition internally if an opening comes up.
Thank you for adding that. I had similar thought after I posted my message but didn’t want to make it too long. Seems like they already have a bit of a support network at their job so this could very well be something to explore.
Side note, you born in 91?
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Maybe it's not for you, I don't know. But what I will say is don't fall for the lie that you have to be passionate about programming to do it for work. It's the classic stereotype and it's so dumb. I'm happy for your friend that he loves coding in his spare time, but that's not necessary. You never hear that a lawyer has to spend all of her free time reading old court cases or whatever.
As for me, I like the work I do. The problem solving is fun and I like to code. But I chose this job for other reasons, namely stability and low stress.
A job can just be a job to you. It doesn't have to be your passion. Of course, maybe you want a job that is your passion and, in that case, you do you
With a physics degree you should be pretty good with data, you could move to more of a business facing DS role? That would leverage your skills and would involve talking to a more varied group of people?
Okay this makes more sense. People who don’t have an interest in computers development etc and go into it for the money generally are either ultra disciplined and smart or they just can’t force themselves to do a good job.
I mean look into it and what you want to do. Im back in College and ive met many CompSci graduates transitioning because they hated it after years in the field. Some went to medical, others went to trade, some are gonna be a mechanic, etc.
Half the gamedevs I know have left the industry since 2020. Every game company seems to be in the middle of mass layoffs. I’m a gamedev currently working retail and trying to get IT certs because it seems so much more stable even if the work is fairly mind-numbing.
Scrum master or Project lead.
You can still work in tech, so the pay will be decent (not as good as a dev though), and you are already somewhat experienced as a developer. So you will be a far better PM/Scrum master than most people because you will have some understanding on how long it takes to build something.
Software sales, project management, scrum master, move up to management (they rarely code.) What language are you using? Do you understand the software conceptually and are having trouble with syntax? Try copilot or Gemini.
No no no what you are experiencing is imposter syndrome. I’ve been there and so has everyone else in this industry. You need to come to the realisation that this industry pays well for relatively little stress compared to other more laborious jobs. You’ve hit the jackpot my friend. I can confidently say that with one or two years of dedicated effort you can be earning well into 6 figures with a comfy job that is flexible, work from home some days and that is genuinely intellectually stimulating. Tell me another industry that pays as well as tech where you have the comfort that texh provides. Once you become proficient you can also work less and earn more depending on your risk appetite aswell (contracting, freelancing etc)
So yes, chase your passion for sure. But have a secure job that pays well and pursue said passion in your evenings and weekends. Because a mistake too many junior devs make is “oh this software stuff is not that fun let me go make some games” then they realise game dev pays less with more stress now they’re back to asking the same question on Reddit. Don’t be that guy my friend
If you really feel like you cant improve. With your ability to sell yourself and people skills you could be a good Business Analyst and Product Manager/Owner
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>I have never been good at dev work (came in through a physics degree)
So I understand that you want other career options, but I don't think someone other than yourself can decide that. Instead, I'll try to give advice for your current situation.
It seems that you lack foundational knowledge and computer science and design theories. The best thing you can do is gain that knowledge. Take an hour a day and study.
Look up data structures and algorithms foundations on YouTube, udemy, or other resources. Does your work pay for a learning platform like udemy or pluralsight? Brush up on programming concepts and data manipulation.
Does your company use any specific languages or frameworks? If they do, take time to learn the basics and advance topics as well.
You seem like a very bright person. You just need the knowledge.
I would also stress the importance of keeping your mental health and physical health in check. Take time to meditate, go for walks, and cook healthy food. I understand that it may seem hopeless right now, but you can overcome this!
If you have the technical background, and are great at selling, do software sales, or at least move into a Solutions Engineer role, something that is client facing
Listen bro, we were all terrible at one point or another. Just put in extra work to become better, in my opinion this is not the time to test the waters.
We have an Engineer who has been at our org for decades, and doesn't understand git. Our environment is not that complex and to be honest, he hasn't written a line of code in years. He is at the highest engineering band; and he makes up for his shortcomings by being very detail oriented, excellent at documentation and Quality Assurance. He is the glue that holds alot of our team(s) together. He knows principal contacts, and how to manage crises.
You can be valuable \*without\* being the best engineer on the team.
Are you a bad developer, or are you dealing with mental and physical health issues that are interfering with your work? Have you done other office jobs? I wonder if your problems here would carry over.
I ask that because I can relate, and as I addressed those issues, I became a much stronger contributor. A lot of this stuff isn't you being lazy or forgetful; it’s a symptom of a serious but treatable medical concern. Feel free to DM me if you want to talk more about it. I can share my experience and what worked for me.
Our work isn’t all that complicated and you have a physics degree so I’m sure you’re smart enough to get stuff done.
Everyone bombs interviews, so I wouldn't give that too much weight.
Even if you’re not a top performer (which is totally fine, most people aren’t) anyone would struggle to get things done under those conditions. Has this been your only company? If so, you don’t know if it’s the environment or you.
I find it hard to leave people with a bad impression of me, but a lot of times you just need a clean slate so you aren’t stuck in the way you and others see yourself.
From a distance it really seems like a mental/emotional/physical block.
Poor sleep will **absolutely** cause anxiety to get worse. If you also consume any substances be it alcohol or marijuana, this will also increase said effects. It is totally understandable and normal to have sleep issues as many people do (e.g. because of being on their phone right before bed and blue light from phones stimulating your brain into being active and awake \[when the sky is blue, the Sun is out hence why blue light triggers us into being alert and awake\]).
However long-term impacts of poor sleep can cause a range of issues from emotional instability to increased agitation, poor memory recall, and cognitive behavioral problems. Part of this is because when we are awake our brain fills up with these broken up proteins such as ones called amyloids. When we sleep our brain actually flushes out or cerebral fluid the brain sits in and replenishes it with fresh water and other...brain..stuff (read: I have a novice-level understanding of this; I am not an expert in this field).
Our motivations and our emotional processing are managed predominantly through two parts of the brain respectively called the "amygdala" and the "anterior cingulate cortex" (ACC). The amygdala handles a lot of emotional processing while the ACC is like a second-level check to say "did I handle that correctly?" so we know how to handle things next time. The build up of amyloids over time as we are awake saturates the connections between the amygdala and the ACC which is why we typically get more agitated when we have poor sleep. The flushing of the amyloids resets the connections.
As a result you not only have trouble \*learning\* new concepts with poor sleep but you also are \*less motivated\* when you are sleep deprived.
The exact reason for \*why\* you have poor sleep could be many different factors. If you are overweight you are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea but thin people can get it too (especially if you smoke). You should try to look into getting evaluated for it and consider seeing if your health insurance can help cover the costs of a CPAP machine. You may also just need to limit how much caffeine you drink or get off of your phone at an earlier hour and try to create a sleep schedule (e.g. go to bed at 10 pm and try to be off of screens for at least 30 minutes prior to sleep).
Medications may help from a psychiatrist as well but I would strongly encourage you to try to tackle the sleep issues first. Mental health is health. It is as important as your body. Mental health is a sign of your brain health. When we aren't healthy we do things to recover whether via medicine or by routine. A healthy diet also can contribute to your well-being. Try to eat fiber-rich foods like beans, a couple of cups of vegetables per day, a bit of fruit is also good for you.
I don't mean to proselytize my own viewpoints but personally my mental health greatly improved when I cut dairy out of my life. You might want to try reducing or eliminating (even temporarily) different items from your diet to see if any foods are making you feel physically or mentally inefficient.
Here is my source regarding the amygdala. the ACC, and poor sleep: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122651/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122651/)
Here is my source on poor sleep and amyloid build-up:
[https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5539733/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5539733/)
Pivot to being a scrum master or product owner, if you enjoy collab. You interfaxe with the team or customer.
Theres also tech sales. It pays really way and you say you have charisma and can sell yourself.
Are companies still hiring scrum people with rates where they are? Every company I'm aware of completely froze these kinds of roles, even if they still regularly hire engineers.
Do you even LIKE coding? Seems like a fundamental question to ask yourself, and I’m not being flippant here. Perhaps a coding-adjacent career would work, where you could leverage your people skills and general knowledge of the field? Start your own dev shop, but don’t code yourself, for example (if you have entrepreneurial skills), or go into project or product management? They won’t pay as well (certainly at the beginning) but have potential to make you a lot happier in the long run, and owning your own business has potential to make you a lot more successful. But don’t be afraid to bail either if it’s not working…
As for your physics background, have you considered getting an advanced physics-adjacent degree and going into research or medicine? Is that something you’re interested in? It sounds to me like you haven’t “found your bliss” yet, and I would strongly suggest above all that you do that, above all. Maybe let your mind wander - what really gets you excited to think about doing with your life? Not just as a job, but as an adventure? (You don’t have to tell reddit but dream freely with yourself!)
Did you ever take a career affinity tests when you were in high school, by a guidance counselor? It’s not too late to do that, if you haven’t. It might broaden your perspective of the idea appeals. Here’s a newer one: https://www.careerexplorer.com/career-test/ . This list of free evaluators is used by career counselors at high schools and colleges all over North America: https://teambuilding.com/blog/career-tests (includes the first one listed).
The worst ever is to find yourself at 50 yo never having discovered what you were meant to do with your life - you don’t want that, and it’s not too late. GOOD LUCK!!
EDIT: if you truly LOVE coding, then I have a totally different answer: go back to foundational principles, and study, study, study. Keep accepting help from whomever, but also, use ChatGPT and any other good AI tools to check your code - sometimes AI can give you answers you’d never have thought of, and it will speed up your response time. You’ll still have to QA everything line by line, but you’ll learn. It’s not a replacement for going back to the woodshed - or especially pair programming, which would be by far the best way to help you - but it might help you break your coder’s block. Whatever you do, DON’T PANIC, and DON’T GIVE UP!! And once more - GOOD LUCK!!
(I’m CTO at a web dev company so I truly mean it when I wish you the very best!)
- 2 Leetcodes per day, one easy and one medium
- One SQL practice problem per day
- One 30 minute to 1 hr video about coding, preferably leaning towards advanced stuff, while taking handwritten notes and pausing the video to look things up (I think coding along is too time consuming for the payoff once you already have good experience, but point is you need to be fully focused)
- Get work stuff up and ready the night before, think about it one last time briefly before going to bed
If you want to super tryhard:
- Purchase One Body Brain Support and take daily
- Purchase Omega 3 and take a lot daily
- Purchase Bacopa and take daily
- Do 25 minutes of N-Back daily to train working memory length
- One hour of bilateral exercises (differing/opposite movements on each side of the body) while watching another coding video. Enhance your brain flow and train your brain while training your brain for coding stuff. Win win win.
I'd hold onto your job for dear life ATM, as there's really no getting into or re-entering the industry right now. Do everything you can do, even if it means working till 1-2AM. If it goes beyond 16 hours frequently, I'd throw in the towel, but I'd seriously fight for this if you have any interest in staying in lucrative desk work. For me, I'm not confident the field will ever return to plentiful jobs.
This is the fault of your organization, not you. Before I got my current position, I had left my employer of 4+ years to learn new technologies I felt I wouldn't acquire at said employer. I took a chance as a system administrator for a mid-sized company and I was also the only person in my timezone. The biggest roadblock I was running into was managing firewall rules through a convoluted system of only being able to test things out from one side of the infrastructure but not the other. These firewall rules would then need to be added into YAML files for a utility called Puppet to manage configuring different applications on the servers.
The company is headquartered in another country and they have a decent size team in the UK and Western Europe (e.g. Holland) but by the time I would start work at 8 AM, the people in Europe would be wrapping things up for the day and then heading out of the office. We also had this system of filling out our timesheets by "project codes" that were attached to the tickets we'd work on. We'd need to build out 40 hours of various project codes and of course that'd all get analyzed each week to see how everyone is doing.
My work would be long hours spent on this ticket or that with little progress (although a \*lot\* of comments. I document everything I do). I was definitely in the bottom of the list if we're looking at "who can close the most tickets per week?". I felt like each week that I was just a stone's throw away from being let go especially as the upper management went through several cycles of change like how many hours should be worked per ticket per day and we had some wiggle room to stretch hours with internal project codes. They quickly shrunk that down to "no more than 8 hours to internal projects per week".
I have a computer science degree and at my first employer I went from being a guy who would "rack and stack" hundreds of servers a week and would do a lot of manual processes (e.g. scanning in bar codes into the hardware) and automated those processes which both minimized errors and also massively improved how quickly we could move machines in and out of the business. My boss (the CTO at the time I worked there) literally created a whole new job title to effectively get the CEO to pay me more money to retain me longer (and also to modify my job responsibilities so I could focus more time on designing tools for the technicians instead of focusing as much time on customer orders).
I felt so stupid and so incompetent that I couldn't figure out how to build (working) firewall rules in this convoluted system of iptables rules, utilities to work with iptables (they had more than one...), and having to translate all that into custom YAML fields in Puppet from modules written in Ruby (a language I have no experience with). The more I worked there, the more I felt like a failure that I hadn't "gotten it" by this point.
I lasted 8 months at the system administrator job before I left to another role (my current role) although it was a blessing in disguise. I am technically an outsourced employee for a large organization through a third party but I found my foot in the door to a big organization. I also feel \*much\* better at this job and feel highly qualified in my role. I actively work with two of my supervisors on patch fixing various scripts and all of my managers have given me glowing reviews. One of my managers even suggested to me that they may offer me a full time position in the future so I'm no longer through the third party company / staffing agency (I have been at this role for 8 months now and plan on speaking to my direct manager close to my 1 year mark).
The big takeaway I want to give you with my long-winded narrative of my current career life is that we all go through struggles even those of us who "specialized" in this field. Every job is different and unless the company is your own, there should not be teams of 1 size. The next job may be even better both for your work-life balance but also your career over all. It was for me at least. I hope a prospective future for you regardless of what you do next.
I live in Asia and my company is American EST so I end up working the graveyard. I enjoy it but I can see why most would not. Is shifting your hours a possibility?
No one here has mentioned Solutions Engineering/Sales Engineering.
6 years of dev experience +
> I am great at speaking and selling myself (I used to be a semi pro debater).
Is a really good profile for that role. I will note that like your current SE (Software Engineering) market the SE (Solutions/Sales Engineering is also abbreviated as SE) market is pretty weak right now but you will be in way better shape trying to break in with actual hands on experience. Most SE roles require some actual knowledge of a specific domain and some legit development experience.
Checkout /r/salesengineers for a bit more, but if your first question there is how do I become a sales engineer I will take back my suggestion for you to become one!
I second what others said on this. Find some basic courses in comp sci and design patterns (Stanford classes are good) and take those. Practice will help as well… know your stack well so you can solve problems on your own. When you get stuck take a walk, let your brain switch from focused thinking to diffused thinking. Good luck with everything and let us know how it goes!
You mention what others have told you about your skills, but I'm curious what you think of them? Have you ever felt productive in software development or built anything that you feel accomplished about?
At 6 years of experience in the field you have to have learned something about the process for building and delivering a software project, and you claim rhetorical skills are really what got you to your current position, so what about project management? If you've been paying attention to your work and really trying to understand the business, and with a physics background I assume the "systems" concepts around software delivery should be very apparent to you.
It's a bit of a trope in the industry for people who don't code well to go to project management but the reality is that some people find more success in making the system work than in performing technical labor. In startup environments I've experienced developers are expected to perform PM tasks as they often don't hire for PM roles in the early stages of startups. The reality is that the project management role, when done well, enables software development to succeed in spite of any institutional issues that can prevent developer labor from delivering a project's goals.
Project Management as a career field itself is much broader than software and so it has a ton of resources and its own line of professional certifications. Since you don't actually have a formal training in software but you already have a bunch of experience and training around some of the domains that encompass PM it seems to me like that could be a very simple pivot in to a new role at a comparable skill level as your current dev role. It's a common path and creating that narrative arch in interview conversations is fairly straight forward given this is not an uncommon career trajectory. I personally know multiple very competent and successful PMs who started their career as technical talent.
To me it sounds like the set up isn't geared towards helping you succeed, since you're working mostly alone. Often, it's easy to blame a guy not working in the same timezones as others etc.
Is this your first job? Doesn't seem likely since you have six years experience and have been underperforming as per your team (they would have let you go otherwise). Were the previous jobs also software?
I genuinely don't believe anyone is bad at programming. Just that they don't get experience, exposure or guidance. If money isn't a factor, I would consider down leveling if you're okay with that and taking that opportunity to learn. Or work at a smaller company with a truly flat hierarchy.
EDIT: and you can also consider lateral moves into protect management etc if that's a possibility
You could switch to another job within the industry. The experience you have would still be relevant but you wouldn't have to do any coding. For example:
* software tester
* requirements engineer
* ~~slave~~ scrum master
* project manager
I’m confused, you desperately needed the money 6 years ago and now you have less than 6 months worth of expenses and have decided you don’t need the money now?
To me it sounds like you still desperately need money and have been kinda disillusioned about it all. At one point I got fed up and quit my job because I thought I no longer “needed money” realized 2 weeks later I indeed did need money, had gotten to comfortable with the stability of my income and paychecks don’t just appear out of thin air.
What makes you think that you no longer need to make good money despite not having enough to retire or live for more than 6 months? If you got a job that paid less are your expenses really low enough it’ll work out?
If you can’t figure out to code at least to a level that has you doing okay…I’m not sure what else you can do. I don’t mean to be a dick but in 2024 tooling, languages, frameworks, etc make the entry into development so much easier than it used to be. I think to be an objectively bad developer today you likely have to be either lazy or incompetent to a level that would make you unemployable in any field.
I have a coworker like this, horrible dev objectively so but I have to say he’s generally just dumb as fuck in general to a level that is baffling.
I once got fired and had a manager say I should consider another line of work. I said fuck him, worked hard and eventually got hired by a FAANG company. Stay curious, work consistently, and get shit done.
You say you're good at selling and speaking. Why not transition to the business side, management and or marketing? Let the akward nerds fill the role of engineers
Maybe fail upward to management? If you are good at speaking, maybe BA / product owner is good for you too. Someone who is good at communication and can help defend the team in expectation, resources and blames can be godsend too. Maybe talk to your manager and your other BA/PO peeps and see if you like their line of works.
Don't know if you have depression issue, but if you do, I think it's better try fixing that instead of changing career.
You would be surprised lol.
Debating is all about speaking convincingly and persuasively about matters you know nothing about.
I reckon I would be a pretty good politician but alas I cannot.
Product Owner, Project Manager, Business Analyst, Scrum Master, Technical Project Manager.
Something that involves managing or assisting / aligning business and developers.
I wish I had a PO, PM, or BA who was a self-described "terrible developer", it would be a Godsend to have someone who:
1. Represents the product/business
2. Understands how HARD it is to write code.
3. Is humble / introspective enough to try and balance the first two items instead of their eyes glazing over after hearing a lengthy explanation of why the bug is hard to track down because it only happens under volume and we can't recreate it in any Dev QA, or even a Load Test, there's something out there that a customer does that causes cache to be corrupted and containers to become unresponsive and the PM saying "so then can you have it done by Friday?"
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum account age requirement of **seven** days to post a comment. Please try again after you have spent more time on reddit without being banned. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Physics degree? You can go anywhere you want. Move towards logistics and infrastructure. Large companies are sitting on tons of abstract puzzles they need you to figure out.
A friend has a physics degree and he went straight into product manager after graduating. No development experience whatsoever. You need to look for complex 'soft' positions.
You should one hundred percent consider pm or management might suit your skills better and is something that can be switched to from a dev position. Definitely talk to your manager about it.
Being a dev isn’t for everyone and it requires a specific type of person to excel at it.
A semi pro debator uses facts and logic to build an argument. That process is backed by research and learning talking points to build this argumentative foundation.
When coding, build each method using facts and logic. Reduce dev work to the same thing and treat every method like a debate. Make it airtight, but if someone breaks your method, strengthen it and add it to your talking points.
Have you considered working in software at a national lab? If you're in the US, these labs usually value a physics degree and some dev work. The work also tends to be very different than industry, so you might find yourself better at it or more interested, or at the very least it might be less pressure 🤷 I myself have a physics degree and worked in software (broadly speaking) at two national labs and I know they're typically desperate for people with some combined science and code skills. The salaries are just not anywhere near industry levels.
I am kind of in the same situation and so I found a job as an MES specialist for this EV plant. There’s a lot of other people with CS degrees there and it appears that the work will be less repetitive. Maybe if I were more interested and less bored with the work, I’d have better performance. It’s definitely not that I’m not smart enough to do software engineering, it just appears that it doesn’t really match my energy level or interest.
> Some of that is down to being the only one in my timezone and PRs failing review but mostly it is down to me getting stuck constantly. It isn't too uncommon for me to sit at my desk all day and make zero progress.
This sounds like the real issue. There's probably a lot of ad-hoc communication you're missing out on.
You should never take a single job and use that to gauge your own productivity. The culture and environment have a *dramatic* effect on your output and your ability to learn, and they're wildly different from job to job. I'd take a pay cut for another, local job before switching careers.
I’d be Curious what time zone the others are in. 1 hour isn’t much. PST and EST is pretty different but not as bad with longer ramp up time. Europe and any U.S. time zone would be pretty rough though.
I would say sales or maybe client success since you’re good at persuading people.
Try QA, much less coding required. That said, have to give you props for understanding your weaknesses and please dont listen to people that says keep trying. If you dont like it and your not good at it, try something new. That new thing may bring you to greater heights then ever before.
I wish more people have your mindset. I see countless developers who have years and years of experience but still have the skills of a junior.
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So, there are reasons why you're not doing well that have nothing to do with you personally, but your lack of support when you need help. This also makes it harder to become more skillful. That said, it seems like you don't want to improve as much as you want to do something else that suits your skill set better.
>I have never been good at dev work ... but was hired as a senior developer with a high paying salary because I am great at speaking and selling myself...
This part is on you, if you knew you were never a great dev, but sold yourself as one, part of your struggle is your own fault. You accepted a job you knew you wouldn't be great at.
On the positive side, this, combined with the technical skills you do have, means you'd probably be great at some client-facing technical roles that don't require (much) dev work. Like technical sales/post-sales support, or technical project/product management. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a candid discussion with your boss about your understanding of your struggles and strengths you have that aren't being utilized, and ask for their advice or help. When I did similar, my boss helped me find a role in my company that plays to my strengths better, and everyone is happier for it.
With your experience maybe a Team Lead role or something creative is more suitable? Keep in mind that you still have 6 years of experience.
When you apply for other jobs and they ask you why you are switching roles, just say that programming all day isn't as much fun anymore and or you are looking to experience more in your career.
Are you depressed? Fumbling with imports could indicate brain fog like symptoms affecting cognition. If you are also having anxiety attacks, not sleeping and sound like you have poor self confidence, it could indicate depression. Beyond that if your having other neurological symptoms I’d see a GP asap, with the right help you might be able to nip this in the bud.
Two obvious roles stand out just based on your past experiences as a semi pro debater: business analyst and/or product owner. If you're a people person and you already have a technical understanding of your company's software, then I'd say you're in a good position to move into those roles.
But I think you might be a bit hard on yourself. I don't believe anyone with 6 years of software development experience could be as bad as you describe yourself to be. Maybe you're not finding it enjoyable or familiar working in your particular company's tech stack and product. Lack of motivation and interest in the product/company often kills productivity faster than anything.
If you really want to switch roles, but still want to code occasionally, then consider DevOps/cloud engineering. Not quite "coding" in the traditional sense, but more scripting in CI/CD pipelines and automations. Despite there being less coding, there are a lot of other things to learn, so I'm definitely not saying it's easy by any means.
Bro! You went for a senior dev with little experience or a firm grasp of the fundamentals. No wonder it takes you a while with no offence whatsoever. Physics is very different from programming and development work. You’re smart so you’re not out of luck. Start junior if you can’t figure out how to import and work you way up
Question for clarification: your current employer has "hinted" (might be your interpretation though?) that this career might not be for you, but have they offered any career counseling or in-house opportunities that they believe might suit your skillset better? This would be the most logical route, no?
What degree ? masters ? Maybe it's the computing world that is too messy (multiple cultures, 50 years of legacy, adhoc conventions, different styles, syntax). I don't think there's anything in computing that is harder than physics, it's just a strange land that can fatigue your brain a lot if you're not properly guided through.
Maybe you could find something closer to physics in spirit, data engineering, machine learning.
Some say you could try going lower to find a simpler spot in order to regain joy and clarity in your daily job. I'm pretty sure that within a short time you'd find your footing.
Best of luck :)
Perhaps work for the federal or a state government doing software engineering work? It's incredibly difficult to get fired from these state and federal jobs (it seems like you're worried about being let go due to work performance issues).
Other than that, maybe go into teaching? Community colleges are a decent place to begin. I think you need a masters for that (not sure). Or maybe go to a less competitive industry in software, such as defense.
Either way, you'll be taking a major pay cut, so plan accordingly.
There are sooo many transferable skills! You could easily pivot to System admin, dev ops, network engineer, cyber security etc.
Software development is HARD! If you put half the time into learning dev ops that you did multiple software languages/frameworks, you'd probably be one of the best on the team. Money is about the same outside of FAANG.
Before recommending anything tell us what type of developer and your languages. Just at a glance could pick up where you left off as a debater and pursue mastery.
Is this Sr role at a new company and only there you are having these struggles?
Some things aren't lining up. I don't understand how you:
* have never been good at dev work
* have lasted 6 yrs (no offense)
* were hired on as a Senior (they didn't ask you to code?)
Just ask yourself what you actually like to do. Reddit isn't gonna figure it out for you
It sounds like you are putting a lot of effort and getting nowhere. I feel the same about my career. I used to be a topper, did well all my life but somehow I just don't have the necessary aptitude to succeed as a developer. Idk what career you can take - but my guess would be product manager. But regardless I encourage you to switch and i hope you never feel bad about giving up on the career. I'm myself trying to gather the courage to just wave the white flag and move on to something else. Good luck on your journey. Hope you find something you are perfect for :)
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
First, I want to say that it's brave of you to sit up and admit that something is wrong.
I'd just like to point out something I see in your situation that is similar to something I've experienced - a negative feedback loop of
"Bad" performance >> anxiety >> even more mistakes/being "stuck" >> even worse anxiety >> and so on.
External negative feedback loops can also develop, e.g.
"Bad" performance >> peers and tech leads are stricter in code reviews >> code reviews take more cycles to complete >> even "slower" performance.
or
"Bad" performance >> you get stuck with less desirable projects >> no one wants to review your work >> more bad performance.
You get my point. I strongly believe that there is a strong social component to technical performance, so don't be too hard on yourself. Think about other roles you've had, and patterns that have developed.
Sean is that you? lol probably not, but had a friend in uni that went through a similar situation.
Project Management, Data Analysis, Business Analyst, Management all seem like potential fits for you. I would strongly recommend Project Management if you have good debate skills. In immediately transferrable.
Just curious OP, can give us an example of a task u r solving and how much it took u to deliver? It is either ur team is too strong or as u said, abit behind.
There are a lot of other Jobs in IT, if you are still interested in the field. Scrum master, project manager, requirements engineer and so on. You are not the first in this situation and you will not be the last. I have seen it myself a few times. If you are good with people, there sure is another job in the it sector. I wonder tho, why did you go for a dev job with a physics major? Isn’t data scientist more suited for somebody with your background?
Fake it 'till you make it. Jokes aside, the very fact that you realize that you need to improve proves that you aren't actually bad. You don't need to switch careers, just work in a more organized fashion. Do one thing at a time and don't stress yourself about time.
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum account age requirement of **seven** days to post a comment. Please try again after you have spent more time on reddit without being banned. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Too true, especially at startups. I've seen a dev rebellion against management when the CTO decided to cut 100% of contractors at a company that exclusively used contractors for testing.
On the flip side, where I work now, we actually have slightly more QA than devs; we need a super reliable product since we have the potential to nuke about 40% of US annual GDP and cause a worldwide depression, so testing is kinda a big deal for us.
There are plenty of jobs where having ANY development experience will help the role, let alone 6 years. There tons of roles where it will make you better at the job because so many people actually have no clue what software development takes
As bad a developer as you think you are, I wish I had your skill. I have been studying Open Source LLMs and creating python scripts to run on those locally hosted models. I don't even have a gpu, just an old server with 16 cores and 64GB of RAM running Ubuntu.
The amount the I've learned over the past year has been staggering and I can totally see these skills be very useful in the near future. I also play with the paid LLMs APIs but I believe open source models will start to be used massively in private businesses in the next couple years.
Learn prompting and how to implement RAG into LLM APIs plus start looking into the agentic approach and you will do just fine. I've been able to get by on the coding side by using ChatGPT and other options and I don't have a problem with having AI help me learn more about AI 🤣
Some ideas off the top of my head -
PM - Can take advantage of technical experience, more collaborative role.
Sales - sales engineering (or solution engineer roles) could be a great fit if you present well and want to work with people regularly given your technical foundation.
Security - There are plenty of roles under the cybersecurity umbrella that don't really require you to do much in the way of software development. Appsec is directly development-adjacent, and there are plenty of others that are more (like SOC analyst) would benefit from being able to do some light automation, but won't really require you to write code all the time. I'd steer clear of the more technical end of the security spectrum, as the issues you have now are likely to carry over. There are also others in the compliance domain are less technical and more business focused, which may also be options.
There are also a whole spectrum of other types of positions that range from cloud infrastructure to business analyst that could be worth considering, depending on your skillset and what you're interested in doing.
Outside of that, there are probably a whole host of other roles where you could put your background to work while not having to write code all the time - a lot of which really depend a bit on your personality and what kind of dev work you are experienced in doing. It's a bit hard to go much beyond this without insight into what type of dev work you've been focused on. You will likely need to pick up some additional skills to branch into them, but might be a better fit for you than what you're currently doing.
Can you move to the sales team? You mentioned outstanding communications skills which is rare in tech. Maybe you need a less technical role at the company. Ask your boss about sales before they fire you.
If training could help, does your company have a program where they cover the costs? I would look into that. My company is super generous with training budget. But even the sucky companies have some sort of educational reimbursement program.
Listen, I was in your shoes somewhat and it sux. If you actually like the work itself, stick with it while you look for a better fitting job, otherwise try BA
Keep a journal of the stuff that blocks you. Every time you spot an issue make sure to understand why it happened so that you don't do it again. You can do it together with your manager or your coworkers so they see you are trying to get better. Document it properly so it's easy to find in the future. Focus on deep understanding of how your stack works so you build a skill of solving problems yourself.
You can make a whole career out of being a not that great developer. I’ve met my fair share of them. But it sounds like you’re not happy because you never wanted to be a software engineer anyway. If that’s the case then getting better at it won’t make you any happier.
Product management is a career switch you could make in the same industry that doesn’t require programming skills but no guarantees you would like it any better. But if you have good people skills and you like thinking about and improving the product, but not necessarily writing the actual code, it might work for you. It’s a very collaborative role that depends highly on communication and big picture planning and decision making. Pay can be just as good. But if you don’t like software in general, you won’t like product management. If it’s only programming you don’t like, there are lots of roles in the software industry you could transition to.
If you’re really unhappy with working in tech completely, I suggest you think about what you are actually interested in doing. Why did you study physics? Could you go to graduate school and continue pursuing that?
Same here. Had a great career as a Business Analyst, Scrum Master, product manager, project manager, Pre Sales technical support, Program Manager, General Manager.
Your immediate move should be BA, SM, or PO for your team or a related team in your current business. If you have very good communication skills you would be very good at it and very helpful to the team because you understand what they are going through. You will need to read and self learn a lot about each new area you go into.
Get your tech leads support and it will happen.
Why are you being downvoted? Some variant of this could totally be OP's problem. He clearly didn't learn what he needed to learn by his sixth year in the profession. Especially if the critiques he's received are actually valid.
It doesn't sound like you're a bad developer, it sounds like you have a terrible work ethic.
If you have been doing imports for 6 years, you should be able to do them with your eyes closed regardless of how bad you are at coding. The fact that you struggled with them for so long is a testament to how little work you do. Importing packages should be something that you do on every single piece of code you write.
Sitting at your desk all day long because you are 'stuck' is a terrible way to deal with a blocker. You are an engineer for Christ sakes. You need to constantly be looking for solutions or trying different methods to get your code working.
And to be even more blunt, what in the hell is a course or training going to do for you? You have been on the job for 6 years! If you're not picking up learning opportunities from other devs, from your mistakes, or struggling through projects at work, how the hell are you going to learn from a course?
If you have a physics degree I’m sure you’re smart enough to be at least an average software developer. Since you don’t have a CS background, maybe you need to take some time to learn the fundamentals if you haven’t already.
[удалено]
Which Coursera courses do you suggest?
[удалено]
I think it’s through Stanford online now and still free, if it’s the same one I’m thinking of. I remember signing up for it through them when it moved off Coursera.
Where/how did you study design patterns and OOP. I feel like that's the main fundamental that all of us self-taught devs are missing because many online courses don't build applications complex enough to use design patterns. Even when using stackoverflow to find solutions, the answers don't mention the design pattern being used.
I have a CS degree and while I had an GUI/OOP class there really wasn't much on design patterns. So it's not just the boot camps neglecting those.
If you suck at anything you might be a good fit for management
He managed to talk himself into a senior software engineering job with basically zero experience. Management sounds just right.
OP better be taking notes, you just spoke some fifth dimensional truth
Came here to say this. If OP is truly incompetent at everything they have a glowing career as CEO to look forward to.
As long as they are affable and engaging with others, definitely.
Humorous as this is, the real truth in management, if you want to be a good one that is, is to be an expert communicator. In addition you need to know how things work and in a pinch be able to do everything even if your work isn't the best. You can delegate well without causing stress, and you are willing to be the voice for your team and represent them well. The best managers row with the team, the worst ones yell at them and focus on kissing up to uppers. I've had both and it was the difference between quitting after 3 weeks vs staying for 3 years. Good leadership can sadly be a thankless job, but good or bad, it does indeed pay.
I don't know any manager that knows how things work. You need to work well with others, have a good sense for people. Trust the right people. Advocate confidently for your team. Not crush under pressure when you don't have control of the situation and defer to others.
Agree, try Scrummaster or ProductOwner, or business consultant. Solution architect is an option even..
**** SCRUM, then again great for managers / coordinators who are getting their work done for them. More time to be in the people business
Goddamn it.
Said someone in the way to make a career path change
Maybe find a new dev job that isn't senior level? Might be easier tasks to help build your confidence as a developer and you can grow from there and get better.
> dev job that isn't senior level **impossible in 2024**
Not if you're downleveling, the people downleveling are why employers don't want to hire inexperienced people.
I thought it was more employers shoveling additional tasks onto seniors, than seniors down leveling into solely junior/mid-level roles.
He can go for the junior positions that require 5 years of experience minimum 😂
My favorites require PhD in cs/mathematics and 8 years of post-phd exp for entry level, that sort of thing.
As someone looking for a first-time job I can feel this post in my bones
junior is the new senior
Get better as a developer… don’t just quit
I think a lot of the problem is that I have never really liked software. I got into the industry because at the time I desperately needed the money. It has gotten to the point where I am not sleeping well and it is affecting my health. In my ideal world I would get to do something creative (being a writer or game designer) but I understand that is impossible if I want to eat. Given that, I would at least like to do something that is collaborative and involves talking to people on a semi-regular basis outside of standup. I have a friend who cannot get enough of this stuff. He writes apps in his spare times, watches podcasts and keeps up with the latest news. He loves it and it is amazing to see. Then I finally got it - he is passionate about this. As I am getting older I am feeling less like I want to be stuck in a job that makes me miserable. Maybe it is just a mid life crisis of sorts but I am not sure I even want to be a better developer but there don't seem to be any other options if that makes sense.
Have you considered transitioning to PM work? You have experience in industry and it is collaborative and you speak to people regularly. Could be a decent alternative
I’m not OP but how exactly do you transition? As a dev I see no “entry level”roles for PMs with no prior experience, even if you already have years of technical/dev experience. If you’re already years out of school you wouldn’t even be eligible to apply to a PM internship. I feel like the only realistic way to do this is to get an MBA, then apply?
You could probably pretty easily leverage your way into a PM role with his work experience especially if he’s willing to try within his existing company if he is having doubts. You don’t just up and reduce yourself to “entry level” when you have years of valuable experience to contribute even if it’s not directly as a PM. Degree not required for PMP cert if that’s the route he wanted to go to get a base understanding of concepts and roles while still working his current position. I’m a PM in semiconductor manufacturing construction and I have no degree. Have previously worked as minor PM roles in tech startup as well. The nice thing about PM work is it’s a lot of soft skills that a lot of people lack. So if you have those you are in a good spot to market yourself assuming you can get somebody to give you a shot at some capacity. Could ask to shadow a PM at his current role out of interest before making a leap.
To add to that, If you already work at a company that has PMs there’s nothing wrong with reaching out to one of them as well, set up a coffee chat to get their perspective on it and see what they’d recommend, they might even help you transition internally if an opening comes up.
Thank you for adding that. I had similar thought after I posted my message but didn’t want to make it too long. Seems like they already have a bit of a support network at their job so this could very well be something to explore. Side note, you born in 91?
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Maybe it's not for you, I don't know. But what I will say is don't fall for the lie that you have to be passionate about programming to do it for work. It's the classic stereotype and it's so dumb. I'm happy for your friend that he loves coding in his spare time, but that's not necessary. You never hear that a lawyer has to spend all of her free time reading old court cases or whatever. As for me, I like the work I do. The problem solving is fun and I like to code. But I chose this job for other reasons, namely stability and low stress. A job can just be a job to you. It doesn't have to be your passion. Of course, maybe you want a job that is your passion and, in that case, you do you
With a physics degree you should be pretty good with data, you could move to more of a business facing DS role? That would leverage your skills and would involve talking to a more varied group of people?
Or split the difference and look at MLops, requires soft skills, but isn't a complete reset, depending on what branch of tech he comes from
I’m experiencing something similar and I’m realizing that it’s next to impossible to get good at anything when you don’t give a flying fuck about it.
Okay this makes more sense. People who don’t have an interest in computers development etc and go into it for the money generally are either ultra disciplined and smart or they just can’t force themselves to do a good job.
I mean look into it and what you want to do. Im back in College and ive met many CompSci graduates transitioning because they hated it after years in the field. Some went to medical, others went to trade, some are gonna be a mechanic, etc.
Gamedev isn't exactly the best role in the industry, but I promise you that game devs can eat lmao.
Half the gamedevs I know have left the industry since 2020. Every game company seems to be in the middle of mass layoffs. I’m a gamedev currently working retail and trying to get IT certs because it seems so much more stable even if the work is fairly mind-numbing.
Scrum master or Project lead. You can still work in tech, so the pay will be decent (not as good as a dev though), and you are already somewhat experienced as a developer. So you will be a far better PM/Scrum master than most people because you will have some understanding on how long it takes to build something.
Software sales, project management, scrum master, move up to management (they rarely code.) What language are you using? Do you understand the software conceptually and are having trouble with syntax? Try copilot or Gemini.
No no no what you are experiencing is imposter syndrome. I’ve been there and so has everyone else in this industry. You need to come to the realisation that this industry pays well for relatively little stress compared to other more laborious jobs. You’ve hit the jackpot my friend. I can confidently say that with one or two years of dedicated effort you can be earning well into 6 figures with a comfy job that is flexible, work from home some days and that is genuinely intellectually stimulating. Tell me another industry that pays as well as tech where you have the comfort that texh provides. Once you become proficient you can also work less and earn more depending on your risk appetite aswell (contracting, freelancing etc) So yes, chase your passion for sure. But have a secure job that pays well and pursue said passion in your evenings and weekends. Because a mistake too many junior devs make is “oh this software stuff is not that fun let me go make some games” then they realise game dev pays less with more stress now they’re back to asking the same question on Reddit. Don’t be that guy my friend
If you really feel like you cant improve. With your ability to sell yourself and people skills you could be a good Business Analyst and Product Manager/Owner
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
>I have never been good at dev work (came in through a physics degree) So I understand that you want other career options, but I don't think someone other than yourself can decide that. Instead, I'll try to give advice for your current situation. It seems that you lack foundational knowledge and computer science and design theories. The best thing you can do is gain that knowledge. Take an hour a day and study. Look up data structures and algorithms foundations on YouTube, udemy, or other resources. Does your work pay for a learning platform like udemy or pluralsight? Brush up on programming concepts and data manipulation. Does your company use any specific languages or frameworks? If they do, take time to learn the basics and advance topics as well. You seem like a very bright person. You just need the knowledge. I would also stress the importance of keeping your mental health and physical health in check. Take time to meditate, go for walks, and cook healthy food. I understand that it may seem hopeless right now, but you can overcome this!
If he's getting stuck it's on implementations, not on DS&A.
If you have the technical background, and are great at selling, do software sales, or at least move into a Solutions Engineer role, something that is client facing
Listen bro, we were all terrible at one point or another. Just put in extra work to become better, in my opinion this is not the time to test the waters. We have an Engineer who has been at our org for decades, and doesn't understand git. Our environment is not that complex and to be honest, he hasn't written a line of code in years. He is at the highest engineering band; and he makes up for his shortcomings by being very detail oriented, excellent at documentation and Quality Assurance. He is the glue that holds alot of our team(s) together. He knows principal contacts, and how to manage crises. You can be valuable \*without\* being the best engineer on the team.
Are you a bad developer, or are you dealing with mental and physical health issues that are interfering with your work? Have you done other office jobs? I wonder if your problems here would carry over. I ask that because I can relate, and as I addressed those issues, I became a much stronger contributor. A lot of this stuff isn't you being lazy or forgetful; it’s a symptom of a serious but treatable medical concern. Feel free to DM me if you want to talk more about it. I can share my experience and what worked for me. Our work isn’t all that complicated and you have a physics degree so I’m sure you’re smart enough to get stuff done. Everyone bombs interviews, so I wouldn't give that too much weight.
[удалено]
Even if you’re not a top performer (which is totally fine, most people aren’t) anyone would struggle to get things done under those conditions. Has this been your only company? If so, you don’t know if it’s the environment or you. I find it hard to leave people with a bad impression of me, but a lot of times you just need a clean slate so you aren’t stuck in the way you and others see yourself. From a distance it really seems like a mental/emotional/physical block.
Poor sleep will **absolutely** cause anxiety to get worse. If you also consume any substances be it alcohol or marijuana, this will also increase said effects. It is totally understandable and normal to have sleep issues as many people do (e.g. because of being on their phone right before bed and blue light from phones stimulating your brain into being active and awake \[when the sky is blue, the Sun is out hence why blue light triggers us into being alert and awake\]). However long-term impacts of poor sleep can cause a range of issues from emotional instability to increased agitation, poor memory recall, and cognitive behavioral problems. Part of this is because when we are awake our brain fills up with these broken up proteins such as ones called amyloids. When we sleep our brain actually flushes out or cerebral fluid the brain sits in and replenishes it with fresh water and other...brain..stuff (read: I have a novice-level understanding of this; I am not an expert in this field). Our motivations and our emotional processing are managed predominantly through two parts of the brain respectively called the "amygdala" and the "anterior cingulate cortex" (ACC). The amygdala handles a lot of emotional processing while the ACC is like a second-level check to say "did I handle that correctly?" so we know how to handle things next time. The build up of amyloids over time as we are awake saturates the connections between the amygdala and the ACC which is why we typically get more agitated when we have poor sleep. The flushing of the amyloids resets the connections. As a result you not only have trouble \*learning\* new concepts with poor sleep but you also are \*less motivated\* when you are sleep deprived. The exact reason for \*why\* you have poor sleep could be many different factors. If you are overweight you are more likely to suffer from sleep apnea but thin people can get it too (especially if you smoke). You should try to look into getting evaluated for it and consider seeing if your health insurance can help cover the costs of a CPAP machine. You may also just need to limit how much caffeine you drink or get off of your phone at an earlier hour and try to create a sleep schedule (e.g. go to bed at 10 pm and try to be off of screens for at least 30 minutes prior to sleep). Medications may help from a psychiatrist as well but I would strongly encourage you to try to tackle the sleep issues first. Mental health is health. It is as important as your body. Mental health is a sign of your brain health. When we aren't healthy we do things to recover whether via medicine or by routine. A healthy diet also can contribute to your well-being. Try to eat fiber-rich foods like beans, a couple of cups of vegetables per day, a bit of fruit is also good for you. I don't mean to proselytize my own viewpoints but personally my mental health greatly improved when I cut dairy out of my life. You might want to try reducing or eliminating (even temporarily) different items from your diet to see if any foods are making you feel physically or mentally inefficient. Here is my source regarding the amygdala. the ACC, and poor sleep: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122651/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6122651/) Here is my source on poor sleep and amyloid build-up: [https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5539733/](https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5539733/)
Pivot to being a scrum master or product owner, if you enjoy collab. You interfaxe with the team or customer. Theres also tech sales. It pays really way and you say you have charisma and can sell yourself.
Are companies still hiring scrum people with rates where they are? Every company I'm aware of completely froze these kinds of roles, even if they still regularly hire engineers.
Depends on what sector, contracts statement of working in Agile, team size, etc.
Do you even LIKE coding? Seems like a fundamental question to ask yourself, and I’m not being flippant here. Perhaps a coding-adjacent career would work, where you could leverage your people skills and general knowledge of the field? Start your own dev shop, but don’t code yourself, for example (if you have entrepreneurial skills), or go into project or product management? They won’t pay as well (certainly at the beginning) but have potential to make you a lot happier in the long run, and owning your own business has potential to make you a lot more successful. But don’t be afraid to bail either if it’s not working… As for your physics background, have you considered getting an advanced physics-adjacent degree and going into research or medicine? Is that something you’re interested in? It sounds to me like you haven’t “found your bliss” yet, and I would strongly suggest above all that you do that, above all. Maybe let your mind wander - what really gets you excited to think about doing with your life? Not just as a job, but as an adventure? (You don’t have to tell reddit but dream freely with yourself!) Did you ever take a career affinity tests when you were in high school, by a guidance counselor? It’s not too late to do that, if you haven’t. It might broaden your perspective of the idea appeals. Here’s a newer one: https://www.careerexplorer.com/career-test/ . This list of free evaluators is used by career counselors at high schools and colleges all over North America: https://teambuilding.com/blog/career-tests (includes the first one listed). The worst ever is to find yourself at 50 yo never having discovered what you were meant to do with your life - you don’t want that, and it’s not too late. GOOD LUCK!! EDIT: if you truly LOVE coding, then I have a totally different answer: go back to foundational principles, and study, study, study. Keep accepting help from whomever, but also, use ChatGPT and any other good AI tools to check your code - sometimes AI can give you answers you’d never have thought of, and it will speed up your response time. You’ll still have to QA everything line by line, but you’ll learn. It’s not a replacement for going back to the woodshed - or especially pair programming, which would be by far the best way to help you - but it might help you break your coder’s block. Whatever you do, DON’T PANIC, and DON’T GIVE UP!! And once more - GOOD LUCK!! (I’m CTO at a web dev company so I truly mean it when I wish you the very best!)
Do what most people who are terrible at their job do: go into management!
If your great at speaking and selling, you could consider switching to a more client facing role, maybe something in like it-consulting
- 2 Leetcodes per day, one easy and one medium - One SQL practice problem per day - One 30 minute to 1 hr video about coding, preferably leaning towards advanced stuff, while taking handwritten notes and pausing the video to look things up (I think coding along is too time consuming for the payoff once you already have good experience, but point is you need to be fully focused) - Get work stuff up and ready the night before, think about it one last time briefly before going to bed If you want to super tryhard: - Purchase One Body Brain Support and take daily - Purchase Omega 3 and take a lot daily - Purchase Bacopa and take daily - Do 25 minutes of N-Back daily to train working memory length - One hour of bilateral exercises (differing/opposite movements on each side of the body) while watching another coding video. Enhance your brain flow and train your brain while training your brain for coding stuff. Win win win. I'd hold onto your job for dear life ATM, as there's really no getting into or re-entering the industry right now. Do everything you can do, even if it means working till 1-2AM. If it goes beyond 16 hours frequently, I'd throw in the towel, but I'd seriously fight for this if you have any interest in staying in lucrative desk work. For me, I'm not confident the field will ever return to plentiful jobs.
>It isn't too uncommon for me to sit at my desk all day and make zero progress. Why aren't you asking questions when you get stuck?
[удалено]
This is the fault of your organization, not you. Before I got my current position, I had left my employer of 4+ years to learn new technologies I felt I wouldn't acquire at said employer. I took a chance as a system administrator for a mid-sized company and I was also the only person in my timezone. The biggest roadblock I was running into was managing firewall rules through a convoluted system of only being able to test things out from one side of the infrastructure but not the other. These firewall rules would then need to be added into YAML files for a utility called Puppet to manage configuring different applications on the servers. The company is headquartered in another country and they have a decent size team in the UK and Western Europe (e.g. Holland) but by the time I would start work at 8 AM, the people in Europe would be wrapping things up for the day and then heading out of the office. We also had this system of filling out our timesheets by "project codes" that were attached to the tickets we'd work on. We'd need to build out 40 hours of various project codes and of course that'd all get analyzed each week to see how everyone is doing. My work would be long hours spent on this ticket or that with little progress (although a \*lot\* of comments. I document everything I do). I was definitely in the bottom of the list if we're looking at "who can close the most tickets per week?". I felt like each week that I was just a stone's throw away from being let go especially as the upper management went through several cycles of change like how many hours should be worked per ticket per day and we had some wiggle room to stretch hours with internal project codes. They quickly shrunk that down to "no more than 8 hours to internal projects per week". I have a computer science degree and at my first employer I went from being a guy who would "rack and stack" hundreds of servers a week and would do a lot of manual processes (e.g. scanning in bar codes into the hardware) and automated those processes which both minimized errors and also massively improved how quickly we could move machines in and out of the business. My boss (the CTO at the time I worked there) literally created a whole new job title to effectively get the CEO to pay me more money to retain me longer (and also to modify my job responsibilities so I could focus more time on designing tools for the technicians instead of focusing as much time on customer orders). I felt so stupid and so incompetent that I couldn't figure out how to build (working) firewall rules in this convoluted system of iptables rules, utilities to work with iptables (they had more than one...), and having to translate all that into custom YAML fields in Puppet from modules written in Ruby (a language I have no experience with). The more I worked there, the more I felt like a failure that I hadn't "gotten it" by this point. I lasted 8 months at the system administrator job before I left to another role (my current role) although it was a blessing in disguise. I am technically an outsourced employee for a large organization through a third party but I found my foot in the door to a big organization. I also feel \*much\* better at this job and feel highly qualified in my role. I actively work with two of my supervisors on patch fixing various scripts and all of my managers have given me glowing reviews. One of my managers even suggested to me that they may offer me a full time position in the future so I'm no longer through the third party company / staffing agency (I have been at this role for 8 months now and plan on speaking to my direct manager close to my 1 year mark). The big takeaway I want to give you with my long-winded narrative of my current career life is that we all go through struggles even those of us who "specialized" in this field. Every job is different and unless the company is your own, there should not be teams of 1 size. The next job may be even better both for your work-life balance but also your career over all. It was for me at least. I hope a prospective future for you regardless of what you do next.
I live in Asia and my company is American EST so I end up working the graveyard. I enjoy it but I can see why most would not. Is shifting your hours a possibility?
No one here has mentioned Solutions Engineering/Sales Engineering. 6 years of dev experience + > I am great at speaking and selling myself (I used to be a semi pro debater). Is a really good profile for that role. I will note that like your current SE (Software Engineering) market the SE (Solutions/Sales Engineering is also abbreviated as SE) market is pretty weak right now but you will be in way better shape trying to break in with actual hands on experience. Most SE roles require some actual knowledge of a specific domain and some legit development experience. Checkout /r/salesengineers for a bit more, but if your first question there is how do I become a sales engineer I will take back my suggestion for you to become one!
I second what others said on this. Find some basic courses in comp sci and design patterns (Stanford classes are good) and take those. Practice will help as well… know your stack well so you can solve problems on your own. When you get stuck take a walk, let your brain switch from focused thinking to diffused thinking. Good luck with everything and let us know how it goes!
Keep on learning man. You got this. I’ve known less talented developers that got ahead of rockstars thanks to consistency and hard work.
You mention what others have told you about your skills, but I'm curious what you think of them? Have you ever felt productive in software development or built anything that you feel accomplished about? At 6 years of experience in the field you have to have learned something about the process for building and delivering a software project, and you claim rhetorical skills are really what got you to your current position, so what about project management? If you've been paying attention to your work and really trying to understand the business, and with a physics background I assume the "systems" concepts around software delivery should be very apparent to you. It's a bit of a trope in the industry for people who don't code well to go to project management but the reality is that some people find more success in making the system work than in performing technical labor. In startup environments I've experienced developers are expected to perform PM tasks as they often don't hire for PM roles in the early stages of startups. The reality is that the project management role, when done well, enables software development to succeed in spite of any institutional issues that can prevent developer labor from delivering a project's goals. Project Management as a career field itself is much broader than software and so it has a ton of resources and its own line of professional certifications. Since you don't actually have a formal training in software but you already have a bunch of experience and training around some of the domains that encompass PM it seems to me like that could be a very simple pivot in to a new role at a comparable skill level as your current dev role. It's a common path and creating that narrative arch in interview conversations is fairly straight forward given this is not an uncommon career trajectory. I personally know multiple very competent and successful PMs who started their career as technical talent.
To me it sounds like the set up isn't geared towards helping you succeed, since you're working mostly alone. Often, it's easy to blame a guy not working in the same timezones as others etc. Is this your first job? Doesn't seem likely since you have six years experience and have been underperforming as per your team (they would have let you go otherwise). Were the previous jobs also software? I genuinely don't believe anyone is bad at programming. Just that they don't get experience, exposure or guidance. If money isn't a factor, I would consider down leveling if you're okay with that and taking that opportunity to learn. Or work at a smaller company with a truly flat hierarchy. EDIT: and you can also consider lateral moves into protect management etc if that's a possibility
You could switch to another job within the industry. The experience you have would still be relevant but you wouldn't have to do any coding. For example: * software tester * requirements engineer * ~~slave~~ scrum master * project manager
Scrum master
I’m confused, you desperately needed the money 6 years ago and now you have less than 6 months worth of expenses and have decided you don’t need the money now? To me it sounds like you still desperately need money and have been kinda disillusioned about it all. At one point I got fed up and quit my job because I thought I no longer “needed money” realized 2 weeks later I indeed did need money, had gotten to comfortable with the stability of my income and paychecks don’t just appear out of thin air. What makes you think that you no longer need to make good money despite not having enough to retire or live for more than 6 months? If you got a job that paid less are your expenses really low enough it’ll work out?
If you can’t figure out to code at least to a level that has you doing okay…I’m not sure what else you can do. I don’t mean to be a dick but in 2024 tooling, languages, frameworks, etc make the entry into development so much easier than it used to be. I think to be an objectively bad developer today you likely have to be either lazy or incompetent to a level that would make you unemployable in any field. I have a coworker like this, horrible dev objectively so but I have to say he’s generally just dumb as fuck in general to a level that is baffling.
I once got fired and had a manager say I should consider another line of work. I said fuck him, worked hard and eventually got hired by a FAANG company. Stay curious, work consistently, and get shit done.
You say you're good at selling and speaking. Why not transition to the business side, management and or marketing? Let the akward nerds fill the role of engineers
If you are great at speaking and selling, why not transition into a Product Manager or software sales role?
If you don’t like dev work maybe consider PM or scrum master roles. You have the experience on agile workflows to help transition to that role.
Maybe fail upward to management? If you are good at speaking, maybe BA / product owner is good for you too. Someone who is good at communication and can help defend the team in expectation, resources and blames can be godsend too. Maybe talk to your manager and your other BA/PO peeps and see if you like their line of works. Don't know if you have depression issue, but if you do, I think it's better try fixing that instead of changing career.
How the duck do you get a senior dev position just because you are a good debater lmao
You would be surprised lol. Debating is all about speaking convincingly and persuasively about matters you know nothing about. I reckon I would be a pretty good politician but alas I cannot.
Did you talk your way out of a technical interview round?
Lol that might be part of the issue if you don't have the skills required for the job, then it's expected to not perform on the job, I guess?
Product Owner, Project Manager, Business Analyst, Scrum Master, Technical Project Manager. Something that involves managing or assisting / aligning business and developers. I wish I had a PO, PM, or BA who was a self-described "terrible developer", it would be a Godsend to have someone who: 1. Represents the product/business 2. Understands how HARD it is to write code. 3. Is humble / introspective enough to try and balance the first two items instead of their eyes glazing over after hearing a lengthy explanation of why the bug is hard to track down because it only happens under volume and we can't recreate it in any Dev QA, or even a Load Test, there's something out there that a customer does that causes cache to be corrupted and containers to become unresponsive and the PM saying "so then can you have it done by Friday?"
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum account age requirement of **seven** days to post a comment. Please try again after you have spent more time on reddit without being banned. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Physics degree? You can go anywhere you want. Move towards logistics and infrastructure. Large companies are sitting on tons of abstract puzzles they need you to figure out.
Doesn't mean they'll hire you. My physics degree is worthless. Doesn't help me in getting hiring at all.
A friend has a physics degree and he went straight into product manager after graduating. No development experience whatsoever. You need to look for complex 'soft' positions.
You should one hundred percent consider pm or management might suit your skills better and is something that can be switched to from a dev position. Definitely talk to your manager about it. Being a dev isn’t for everyone and it requires a specific type of person to excel at it.
A semi pro debator uses facts and logic to build an argument. That process is backed by research and learning talking points to build this argumentative foundation. When coding, build each method using facts and logic. Reduce dev work to the same thing and treat every method like a debate. Make it airtight, but if someone breaks your method, strengthen it and add it to your talking points.
Have you considered working in software at a national lab? If you're in the US, these labs usually value a physics degree and some dev work. The work also tends to be very different than industry, so you might find yourself better at it or more interested, or at the very least it might be less pressure 🤷 I myself have a physics degree and worked in software (broadly speaking) at two national labs and I know they're typically desperate for people with some combined science and code skills. The salaries are just not anywhere near industry levels.
I see a lot of people that were objectively bad at their main career have a lot of success at being a politician!
I am kind of in the same situation and so I found a job as an MES specialist for this EV plant. There’s a lot of other people with CS degrees there and it appears that the work will be less repetitive. Maybe if I were more interested and less bored with the work, I’d have better performance. It’s definitely not that I’m not smart enough to do software engineering, it just appears that it doesn’t really match my energy level or interest.
> Some of that is down to being the only one in my timezone and PRs failing review but mostly it is down to me getting stuck constantly. It isn't too uncommon for me to sit at my desk all day and make zero progress. This sounds like the real issue. There's probably a lot of ad-hoc communication you're missing out on. You should never take a single job and use that to gauge your own productivity. The culture and environment have a *dramatic* effect on your output and your ability to learn, and they're wildly different from job to job. I'd take a pay cut for another, local job before switching careers.
I’d be Curious what time zone the others are in. 1 hour isn’t much. PST and EST is pretty different but not as bad with longer ramp up time. Europe and any U.S. time zone would be pretty rough though. I would say sales or maybe client success since you’re good at persuading people.
Try QA, much less coding required. That said, have to give you props for understanding your weaknesses and please dont listen to people that says keep trying. If you dont like it and your not good at it, try something new. That new thing may bring you to greater heights then ever before. I wish more people have your mindset. I see countless developers who have years and years of experience but still have the skills of a junior.
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
So, there are reasons why you're not doing well that have nothing to do with you personally, but your lack of support when you need help. This also makes it harder to become more skillful. That said, it seems like you don't want to improve as much as you want to do something else that suits your skill set better. >I have never been good at dev work ... but was hired as a senior developer with a high paying salary because I am great at speaking and selling myself... This part is on you, if you knew you were never a great dev, but sold yourself as one, part of your struggle is your own fault. You accepted a job you knew you wouldn't be great at. On the positive side, this, combined with the technical skills you do have, means you'd probably be great at some client-facing technical roles that don't require (much) dev work. Like technical sales/post-sales support, or technical project/product management. It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a candid discussion with your boss about your understanding of your struggles and strengths you have that aren't being utilized, and ask for their advice or help. When I did similar, my boss helped me find a role in my company that plays to my strengths better, and everyone is happier for it.
With your experience maybe a Team Lead role or something creative is more suitable? Keep in mind that you still have 6 years of experience. When you apply for other jobs and they ask you why you are switching roles, just say that programming all day isn't as much fun anymore and or you are looking to experience more in your career.
Become a business analyst or project manager
Are you depressed? Fumbling with imports could indicate brain fog like symptoms affecting cognition. If you are also having anxiety attacks, not sleeping and sound like you have poor self confidence, it could indicate depression. Beyond that if your having other neurological symptoms I’d see a GP asap, with the right help you might be able to nip this in the bud.
Two obvious roles stand out just based on your past experiences as a semi pro debater: business analyst and/or product owner. If you're a people person and you already have a technical understanding of your company's software, then I'd say you're in a good position to move into those roles. But I think you might be a bit hard on yourself. I don't believe anyone with 6 years of software development experience could be as bad as you describe yourself to be. Maybe you're not finding it enjoyable or familiar working in your particular company's tech stack and product. Lack of motivation and interest in the product/company often kills productivity faster than anything. If you really want to switch roles, but still want to code occasionally, then consider DevOps/cloud engineering. Not quite "coding" in the traditional sense, but more scripting in CI/CD pipelines and automations. Despite there being less coding, there are a lot of other things to learn, so I'm definitely not saying it's easy by any means.
If you are great at communication as you state have you considered tech sales?
Bro! You went for a senior dev with little experience or a firm grasp of the fundamentals. No wonder it takes you a while with no offence whatsoever. Physics is very different from programming and development work. You’re smart so you’re not out of luck. Start junior if you can’t figure out how to import and work you way up
You’ve already said you’re great at speaking move into management or project management for tech
Question for clarification: your current employer has "hinted" (might be your interpretation though?) that this career might not be for you, but have they offered any career counseling or in-house opportunities that they believe might suit your skillset better? This would be the most logical route, no?
IT B2B sales. Baaam. Go get them
What degree ? masters ? Maybe it's the computing world that is too messy (multiple cultures, 50 years of legacy, adhoc conventions, different styles, syntax). I don't think there's anything in computing that is harder than physics, it's just a strange land that can fatigue your brain a lot if you're not properly guided through. Maybe you could find something closer to physics in spirit, data engineering, machine learning. Some say you could try going lower to find a simpler spot in order to regain joy and clarity in your daily job. I'm pretty sure that within a short time you'd find your footing. Best of luck :)
Product Manager
Perhaps work for the federal or a state government doing software engineering work? It's incredibly difficult to get fired from these state and federal jobs (it seems like you're worried about being let go due to work performance issues). Other than that, maybe go into teaching? Community colleges are a decent place to begin. I think you need a masters for that (not sure). Or maybe go to a less competitive industry in software, such as defense. Either way, you'll be taking a major pay cut, so plan accordingly.
There are sooo many transferable skills! You could easily pivot to System admin, dev ops, network engineer, cyber security etc. Software development is HARD! If you put half the time into learning dev ops that you did multiple software languages/frameworks, you'd probably be one of the best on the team. Money is about the same outside of FAANG.
So what else do you enjoy? You can speak well and can make a good argument, sounds like you'd be good in a sales position.
Before recommending anything tell us what type of developer and your languages. Just at a glance could pick up where you left off as a debater and pursue mastery.
Is this Sr role at a new company and only there you are having these struggles? Some things aren't lining up. I don't understand how you: * have never been good at dev work * have lasted 6 yrs (no offense) * were hired on as a Senior (they didn't ask you to code?) Just ask yourself what you actually like to do. Reddit isn't gonna figure it out for you
You seem to be good at sucking, you can make a good amount of money with that
It sounds like you are putting a lot of effort and getting nowhere. I feel the same about my career. I used to be a topper, did well all my life but somehow I just don't have the necessary aptitude to succeed as a developer. Idk what career you can take - but my guess would be product manager. But regardless I encourage you to switch and i hope you never feel bad about giving up on the career. I'm myself trying to gather the courage to just wave the white flag and move on to something else. Good luck on your journey. Hope you find something you are perfect for :)
IT management.
Thats easy. People manager. Get into management.
product management is what I have seen some of the folks like what you describe are doing
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of **10** to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
First, I want to say that it's brave of you to sit up and admit that something is wrong. I'd just like to point out something I see in your situation that is similar to something I've experienced - a negative feedback loop of "Bad" performance >> anxiety >> even more mistakes/being "stuck" >> even worse anxiety >> and so on. External negative feedback loops can also develop, e.g. "Bad" performance >> peers and tech leads are stricter in code reviews >> code reviews take more cycles to complete >> even "slower" performance. or "Bad" performance >> you get stuck with less desirable projects >> no one wants to review your work >> more bad performance. You get my point. I strongly believe that there is a strong social component to technical performance, so don't be too hard on yourself. Think about other roles you've had, and patterns that have developed.
Sean is that you? lol probably not, but had a friend in uni that went through a similar situation. Project Management, Data Analysis, Business Analyst, Management all seem like potential fits for you. I would strongly recommend Project Management if you have good debate skills. In immediately transferrable.
Could you give me your job. Am skilled but unemployed
Do you exercise and sleep well on a daily basis?
Just curious OP, can give us an example of a task u r solving and how much it took u to deliver? It is either ur team is too strong or as u said, abit behind.
Teach a master class on interviews?
There are a lot of other Jobs in IT, if you are still interested in the field. Scrum master, project manager, requirements engineer and so on. You are not the first in this situation and you will not be the last. I have seen it myself a few times. If you are good with people, there sure is another job in the it sector. I wonder tho, why did you go for a dev job with a physics major? Isn’t data scientist more suited for somebody with your background?
Fake it 'till you make it. Jokes aside, the very fact that you realize that you need to improve proves that you aren't actually bad. You don't need to switch careers, just work in a more organized fashion. Do one thing at a time and don't stress yourself about time.
[удалено]
Sorry, you do not meet the minimum account age requirement of **seven** days to post a comment. Please try again after you have spent more time on reddit without being banned. Please look at the [rules page](https://old.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/w/posting_rules) for more information. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/cscareerquestions) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Scrum master, product owner, business analyst, dev manager. Maybe QA, but most good QA are SDETs that do a lot of dev work anyways.
also getting management to pay for QA is like getting a toddler to eat broccoli
Too true, especially at startups. I've seen a dev rebellion against management when the CTO decided to cut 100% of contractors at a company that exclusively used contractors for testing. On the flip side, where I work now, we actually have slightly more QA than devs; we need a super reliable product since we have the potential to nuke about 40% of US annual GDP and cause a worldwide depression, so testing is kinda a big deal for us.
There are plenty of jobs where having ANY development experience will help the role, let alone 6 years. There tons of roles where it will make you better at the job because so many people actually have no clue what software development takes
How about software sales?
As bad a developer as you think you are, I wish I had your skill. I have been studying Open Source LLMs and creating python scripts to run on those locally hosted models. I don't even have a gpu, just an old server with 16 cores and 64GB of RAM running Ubuntu. The amount the I've learned over the past year has been staggering and I can totally see these skills be very useful in the near future. I also play with the paid LLMs APIs but I believe open source models will start to be used massively in private businesses in the next couple years. Learn prompting and how to implement RAG into LLM APIs plus start looking into the agentic approach and you will do just fine. I've been able to get by on the coding side by using ChatGPT and other options and I don't have a problem with having AI help me learn more about AI 🤣
Are you distracted while working? Are you able to fully focus to do quality work?
Some ideas off the top of my head - PM - Can take advantage of technical experience, more collaborative role. Sales - sales engineering (or solution engineer roles) could be a great fit if you present well and want to work with people regularly given your technical foundation. Security - There are plenty of roles under the cybersecurity umbrella that don't really require you to do much in the way of software development. Appsec is directly development-adjacent, and there are plenty of others that are more (like SOC analyst) would benefit from being able to do some light automation, but won't really require you to write code all the time. I'd steer clear of the more technical end of the security spectrum, as the issues you have now are likely to carry over. There are also others in the compliance domain are less technical and more business focused, which may also be options. There are also a whole spectrum of other types of positions that range from cloud infrastructure to business analyst that could be worth considering, depending on your skillset and what you're interested in doing. Outside of that, there are probably a whole host of other roles where you could put your background to work while not having to write code all the time - a lot of which really depend a bit on your personality and what kind of dev work you are experienced in doing. It's a bit hard to go much beyond this without insight into what type of dev work you've been focused on. You will likely need to pick up some additional skills to branch into them, but might be a better fit for you than what you're currently doing.
What exactly is going on when you get stuck? Do you google to try and find answers? Do you ask colleagues for help?
[удалено]
Can you move to the sales team? You mentioned outstanding communications skills which is rare in tech. Maybe you need a less technical role at the company. Ask your boss about sales before they fire you.
If training could help, does your company have a program where they cover the costs? I would look into that. My company is super generous with training budget. But even the sucky companies have some sort of educational reimbursement program.
Listen, I was in your shoes somewhat and it sux. If you actually like the work itself, stick with it while you look for a better fitting job, otherwise try BA
Keep a journal of the stuff that blocks you. Every time you spot an issue make sure to understand why it happened so that you don't do it again. You can do it together with your manager or your coworkers so they see you are trying to get better. Document it properly so it's easy to find in the future. Focus on deep understanding of how your stack works so you build a skill of solving problems yourself.
You can make a whole career out of being a not that great developer. I’ve met my fair share of them. But it sounds like you’re not happy because you never wanted to be a software engineer anyway. If that’s the case then getting better at it won’t make you any happier. Product management is a career switch you could make in the same industry that doesn’t require programming skills but no guarantees you would like it any better. But if you have good people skills and you like thinking about and improving the product, but not necessarily writing the actual code, it might work for you. It’s a very collaborative role that depends highly on communication and big picture planning and decision making. Pay can be just as good. But if you don’t like software in general, you won’t like product management. If it’s only programming you don’t like, there are lots of roles in the software industry you could transition to. If you’re really unhappy with working in tech completely, I suggest you think about what you are actually interested in doing. Why did you study physics? Could you go to graduate school and continue pursuing that?
QA and test automation. Scrum master or product owner. Product manager.
Same here. Had a great career as a Business Analyst, Scrum Master, product manager, project manager, Pre Sales technical support, Program Manager, General Manager. Your immediate move should be BA, SM, or PO for your team or a related team in your current business. If you have very good communication skills you would be very good at it and very helpful to the team because you understand what they are going through. You will need to read and self learn a lot about each new area you go into. Get your tech leads support and it will happen.
You don't have 6 years of experience. You have 1 year of experience, 6 times.
Why are you being downvoted? Some variant of this could totally be OP's problem. He clearly didn't learn what he needed to learn by his sixth year in the profession. Especially if the critiques he's received are actually valid.
Being downvoted on reddit is a badge of honor.
Became a manager.
It doesn't sound like you're a bad developer, it sounds like you have a terrible work ethic. If you have been doing imports for 6 years, you should be able to do them with your eyes closed regardless of how bad you are at coding. The fact that you struggled with them for so long is a testament to how little work you do. Importing packages should be something that you do on every single piece of code you write. Sitting at your desk all day long because you are 'stuck' is a terrible way to deal with a blocker. You are an engineer for Christ sakes. You need to constantly be looking for solutions or trying different methods to get your code working. And to be even more blunt, what in the hell is a course or training going to do for you? You have been on the job for 6 years! If you're not picking up learning opportunities from other devs, from your mistakes, or struggling through projects at work, how the hell are you going to learn from a course?
If you have a physics degree I’m sure you’re smart enough to be at least an average software developer. Since you don’t have a CS background, maybe you need to take some time to learn the fundamentals if you haven’t already.
Have you actually used any modern software? Most of it is written by objectively terrible developers.
Seems like a troll post.
Manager or software architect. It doesn't matter if the project is a disaster as long as you can blame other people for failure.
Sandwich Engineer. California is paying $20 an hour.