Hi Everyone,
I’m a Software Engineer with around 5 years of experience, and I’m currently at a crossroads in my career. I graduated from a Tier-1 college and started my journey as a Data Engineer at a large US-based retail company. Later, I transitioned into Backend Engineering roles, working as an SDE-II at a travel company in Gurgaon, and currently at a mid-sized startup in Bangalore.
Despite the solid resume on paper, I want to be honest: I haven’t taken my career as seriously as I should have. I mostly focused on completing assigned tasks without investing time in understanding the underlying technologies or exploring beyond what was required. Unfortunately, this attitude caught up with me — I was let go from both my last two jobs due to poor performance.
I am now serving my notice period, which ends in June. I do want to continue in software engineering, but I know I have a lot of catching up to do. My technical skills are closer to someone with 1.5 years of real experience, and I lack depth in the fundamentals and modern tech stacks.
That said, I’m ready to change. I want to put in the hard work now to become a genuinely strong engineer, not just someone who gets by.
If you’ve been in a similar situation or have mentored others in this phase, I’d really appreciate your guidance on:
How should I structure my upskilling over the next few months?
Should I take a step down in title/responsibility and look for an SDE-1 role?
Which areas (DSA, system design, backend tech, etc.) should I focus on first?
Any bootcamps, courses, or learning paths you’d recommend?
Thank you in advance. Any help or direction will mean a lot to me right now.
Top comments (2)
been in this spot myself, takes guts to say it out loud - you think focusing on fewer things at a time makes the bounce-back easier or is it better to dive headfirst at everything all at once?
going with your experience - you should know frameworks and DSA too. Don't worry you will be fine. Work hard and you will get through.