I was a full stack programmer, I stopped for at least 5 years now I'm back to dev , training hard to become a front end developer but its tiring I'm getting less motivated and tired again , each time I get errors it gets me depressed, what's your story , what gets you motivated, what keeps you going , how fo you keep up , I really wanna know, might help me
Abod Micheal (he/him)
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Whats your story as a developer /programmer? , i'm getting less motivated
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I have a pretty long story, When I was in 10th Class I worked in an STD booth as a phone operator for 600 INR /Month, I then left that job in 20 days, and then I joined a Hardware & Networking Diploma course after passing 10th. I ran my business which I had to stop due to non-payment from most of the customers and most of them wanted their work to be done for free as I was a kid they wanted me to do everything for them for free.
I worked for several other jobs as I worked in Cybercafe as a typist, then at a photocopy shop as photocopy machine operator, then when I was in BCA 1st year I joined a BPO for tech support.
I was not good in academics which made me a center of attraction for friends to make fun of me. they have always bullied me for this that I can't have any good future. I will work like this ever with less salary in a small company.
While working in a BPO i have won best employee award thrice in 6 months but that is when I realized that I'm not happy which what I'm doing, though I'm working good getting appreciated life is not like what I have dreamt of. I quit that job and came back to my hometown.
I asked my dad for 2 years in which I will try to do something what I wanted to or if I fail I will do whatever he wants me to. He agreed and supported me all the time I needed him.
I joined a small IT company as an Intern without any pay but I have learnt HTML, CSS and Web Designing with Adobe Photoshop.
I switched that company working for 1.7 years then in my next company I started to get salary which was 8k INR /Month, which was way more less but at least it was higher than what I was getting. Then I switched job and came to other city, here I got promoted in 6 months to Frontend Team Lead.
Getting that post I had literally burnt my ass off. I worked for 16-18 hours daily, worked on 12 projects simultaneously which included designing new project, doing development, making slices for mobile development team for the designs they wanted.
After seeing my dedication director of my company gave me raise and promoted me to Frontend Team Lead. Till then I was just working with HTML, CSS, Designing web pages, and WordPress UI Customization. Didn't had any programming knowledge, I even didn't know writing if conditions that where to put it how to put it. I was dumb in terms of programming.
I started learning it online, I slept for 2-3 hours for almost 3 years. In the morning I used to study programming and then office working for more than 14 hours. When the work pressure was way much increased and pay was not good and also I didn't get the chance to use my programming knowledge, growth was somewhere blocked due to that. I switched the company where got to implement programming knowledge which I have learnt.
I joined as software analyst, which was a demotion for my designation but I was cool as I will get a chance to work as programmer, I worked there for 3 years and have developed some world-class projects for some big industry giants, mostly as a lone developer in the team. I was considered as the best resource in the company.
At initial time in this company I cracked the interview with theoretical knowledge which I had but practically I was null at that point in time, so when I got tasks I work in the day for the company and in the night I learn things which can improve the program. Literally did double shift to improve and complete my tasks. I didn't want people to know that I don't know to program so I never took the help of anyone but everybody thought that I have good knowledge. I usually keep myself away from everyone in the team for almost a year when I was learning, after a year there was a time that whenever we receive any new project every scrum masters wanted me as a primary team member.
Which boosted my morale and I worked with my full dedication and learning didn't stop. I tried to keep me updated with every tech stack and frameworks which have given me a flexibility to work with any framework.
Now working as Tech Lead for an MNC which is kinda what I wanted. Very happy and the best part of all this is my dad he is very happy. There was a time he never wanted to see my face due to my unstable mind but now he is very proud of me that I have done it all without anyone's help. I gave everything I had to learn and go through everything. Had to sacrifice many things in my life to get all this but I have no regrets for anything I have lost in the way to where I am today.
I don't know my story can motivate anyone or not but when I saw this post, I couldn't stop myself to write my story here.
First and foremost: e-hug!
My own story is still in baby shoes. I've worked in fintech customer support for 6 years, and burned out completely. I needed a 180 degree change in my life, and I've always been surrounded by capable developers whose brain I admired. For years I thought I could never do that, since I am a artsy craftsy person and thought I don't have the logical thinking requirements.
After my burnout though, financial security got me thinking. I was DONE working in positions where I could be easily replaceable. And I started to fulfill my dream of becoming a web developer completely via self-teaching. I did Udemy Colt Steele's Bootcamp course, CSS tutorials on Youtube, made a few basic static sites and put together a portfolio over a space of a year. The more I learned, the more I realised I NEED to learn (all JS frameworks etc, good practices etc). It definitely got very discouraging, since it's hard to be proud over your basic site when it does not involve any backend and only vanilla CSS/JS, with a touch of Bootstrap. Especially when you spent a whole day debugging a damn animation...
But you know, the key really is to celebrate every small win like it's New Years Eve. I mean it. You get your div to have a hover effect? DANCE. Your elements line up perfectly when in mobile view? Raise a coffee mug and cheer! Front End is actually so accommodating in that, since what you do oftentimes has VISUAL changes. Embrace each and single one, and motivation hopefully comes more easily as well.
The spirit of enthusiasm over learning is what eventually got me an internship now. I had to learn Vue+Vuetify from scratch and I am absolutely fiercely in love, being able to work in a team and having my opinion heard. Yeah, it does not pay me much money now, only bare necessities, but there is now not a shadow of doubt in my mind that I can DO this! And so can you :)
wow this Got me smiling really , Thank u anzelika, I really appreciate this , lol each time I learn a new framework I forget css deeply lol , not been easy going back again and again , but I'll keep on going till the end
well, good news is that a lot of CSS is done for us with a good framework and a library that comes along with it! For example I rarely have to dig out css selectors when working with Vuetify (kind of like Bootstrap, but for Vue applications). It has many helpful selector classes, so hiding something in mobile view is as simple as
.d-none .d-md-flex. So if Vanilla CSS makes your head hurt, there is no shame in using a library to help you with UI elements without much legwork :)yea that's true tho although m not a fan of bootstrap, feels like I won't be able to use cash any more if I use bootstrap but its high time I do , but trust me I really appreciate this , cant thank u enough
Bootstrap is UUUUUGLYYYY. So much ugly bloat code. If you need an encouraging kick in the butt for a better library, I am giving it! Maybe it gets better with newer Bootstrap, but having developed on Vuetify for a while now, seeing the bloated row/col system that BS has is a load of.. excuse me, BullShit :D Perhaps try to give a try to Semantic UI/Material UI :)
lol 😂😂😂 , yeat it is , but the newer versions are getting better , you're really really funny , lol your team mates are so lucky having someone like you on the team lol left to me I don't wanna stop talking to you lol but thanks alot
2 of my friends believed in me from day 1, while the rest of my friends didn't, they told me that I should rather go work at a chair factory, or go and work at a construction site and similar.
Anyway yeah, that's my fire, moving on to prove them wrong.
I get errors I get frustrated A LOT :D but I realize it's all part of the process, I might not get it right today, but a day or 2 after I will.
So keep looking for the fire that moves ya As I do hehe :)
Regards
I relate!
Ohh glad to hear that someone can relate to it. What is your story with doubters if i may ask?
Honestly, I am my own biggest saboteur. I spent years convincing myself that I can't do it. And since many people know me from the time I completely burned out at my last job (call centre), I guess I just had a really strong need to prove myself at being able to turn my life around. I still can't believe I knock those JS algorithms out of the park sometimes, but I got to admit that proving my inner demons WRONG has a sweet flavor!
Ohh nice 😊 Well said !!!
thanks alot
Always keep the pace up. Especially in Frontend there is new stuff almost every day to learn. I can't imagine what would happen if I make a break for longer than a year.
But if I would start again on with my knowledge from 5 years ago I would probably recommend myself to learn a language with a more closed ecosystem to not get frustrated. So GoLang would be a good choice to get startet in backend environment. For frontend probably vue with all the toolings and default setup, but if it's only for motivation purposes, start in backend ;)
yea learning new frameworks , trying to perfect it and practice others , each time I learn something new I always forget CSS , i don't know why
I think the best motivation is to join a company, where you can find:
If you are struggling to teach yourself coding, try to reach some companies and asked them if you can join them and for few first months accept smaller salary (like 50-60%) to boost your skills and still help them reach their goals.
thanks alot but prefer freelancing, but I'll try it out
Hi , this is kushal from india , my story begains when i was in the 8th standard . One of my friend brother told me that i have a website and give me the url of his websitr . That was a blogspot by google . When i open that link there was a option . Make a blog . So i clicked it and make my first blog and start writing blogs . Then i started adding blogger widgets . Just like facebook share button , likr button. I also make a facebook page and also embedded it link to it . Then more widets like.. Popular posts , recent posts . I want to change the next default button of blogget . I searched on google and found some css code . Then i started adding it . That was mine first inline css code . Then i get to know about the term seo . I started looking it then google sitemap etc .
I want to do some more modifications to it , so ther was thems in the blogger . I downloaded some free themes and added. But i didn't get the acc to my need. Then i think why not made a new theme by own . I started learnig html and css . This is how i entered into this field
wow
Lead engineer here 👋 I still go through peaks and troughs of motivation/inspiration/burnout and find that taking breaks and doing something else is key. Think I'd go bonkers if I spent every evening and weekend coding as well!
yea I think I really need a
break , even when I sleep sometimes I dream of js
I have to work, otherwise I have nothing. As a Chinese player, I want to tell you , Sometime I fell that i don't chooses the work, but the work chooses me. In order to survive, I have to work, otherwise I can only eat myself. Maybe your conditions are too good, and whether you work or not will not affect your life. For me, work and life must continue no matter what. It's important to have company with friends and classmates along the way. Although they may work differently, it is important to communicate with each other. It is also very happy to care about each other and sometimes talk about the funny things that you encounter. (For example, The friend is a police officer, he received a call from a kind-hearted person,tell he a person who drank too much and lay on the ground. It would be bad in the winter. He went and let him to get up. but he said he didn't drink too much even though he was peeing his pants ), sometimes complained to each other later, and sometimes had time to come out for a meal together, it was fine. That's how for me, life has to continue, so work has to continue. . .
Therefore, I suggest , talk with a friend or classmate, maybe you can change your mood.
thank you
Hiya, I started programming for MS-DOS 6.22 with GW-Basic when I was 11-13 years old. I didn't know what a compiler was. There was no internet to go find out what was required to build software for the machine instead of an interpreter.
What I wanted most of all was to understand what made the computer work. Why it knew, and could display symbols I typed on a keyboard, or print graphics or make sounds.
Now I understand a lot of those things. I can open any text editor and express my ideas and compile them to running code on virtually any platform. Still, everyday, I learn something new.
Take problems as a helping hand to give you the tools you need to make what you actually want to make. When you are too focused on the thing that is blocking you right now, remember where your horizon is, and that some version of you is there waiting.
thanks a lot, I really appreciate
Hi!
Recently when I was struggling to get motivated, someone told me about finding your core values. There are plenty of methods online, here is one for example.
I found those 3 to be my core values:
The point of all this is that once you find your own core values, you can pick goals/projects that are aligned with these values and thus are most likely to keep you motivated in the long run. Errors will still be frustrating but when you know why you are doing it it's easier to go forward :).
Hope this helps!
thanks alot, it helped