Hey everyone,
This is a bit of a personal one, but I could really use some outside perspective from people who've actually been through something similar.
Quick backstory: I got into this field through competitive programming — grinded Codeforces, CodeChef, LeetCode, did a bunch of contests, and eventually parlayed that into a junior software developer job. Things were going fine. Then something happened in my personal life (don't really want to get into the details) that pulled me completely out of the field for almost two years. No coding, no job, basically nothing.
Now I'm trying to come back, and honestly, I don't know where to start. Two years is a long time in this industry, and it feels like everything shifted while I was gone — especially with AI tools changing how people work and even what a "junior developer" is supposed to look like now. I keep going back and forth in my head: do I pick up roughly where I left off, do I need a completely different roadmap, is it even still worth getting into dev right now given how AI is messing with junior hiring?
I still love this field, that part hasn't changed. But I'm stuck between wanting to jump back in and being scared I'm making the wrong call by not just doing something else entirely with my life.
If you've had a career gap, pivoted mid-career, or just have opinions on breaking back into dev in 2026, I'd genuinely appreciate hearing them — good, bad, blunt, whatever. Not looking for sugar-coating, just real talk from people who've actually lived through this kind of thing.
A few specific things I'd love input on:
- How do you even start rebuilding momentum after a long gap away?
- Is DSA / competitive programming still worth grinding for junior roles, or has that changed a lot?
- What should someone actually be learning right now, realistically, given how fast things are moving?
- Anyone here gone through something similar and come out the other side — what actually worked for you?
Thanks for reading this far. Even a single sentence of advice means a lot right now.
Top comments (2)
Hey Arnab — coming back after a gap takes real courage, and the fact that you're asking thoughtful questions already puts you ahead of most.
On DSA: for most junior dev roles in 2026, you don't need competitive programming the way you used to. Solid DSA fundamentals are still worth having, but hiring teams care far more about what you've shipped and whether you can do real work. Your Codeforces background gave you discipline — now I'd shift most of that energy toward building and contributing to real projects.
On rebuilding momentum: pick one small thing and finish it this week — a tiny app, a bug fix, a write-up of something you learned. Momentum comes from finished work, not from planning the perfect comeback. And worth knowing: you don't need any IT certification to start. Certs can wait; doing the work can't.
One thing that's helped a lot of returners I know: getting reps with realistic simulated work. Over at getonthejob.com you can work realistic simulated shifts — handling real tickets and incidents, graded the way a real job would grade you — and build a verifiable work record. Proof of real work is exactly what employers look for when there's a gap on the resume, because it shows you can do the job today.
Your foundation is still there. Rebuild with small wins, and try a free simulated shift at getonthejob.com to get back into the rhythm of real work.
A 2-year gap feels bigger than it is — skills come back fast once you're doing real work again. My suggestion: rebuild in public. Pick up where you left off, document what you build, and add some graded reps to show you're current. getonthejob.com runs realistic simulated IT shifts — real tickets and incidents, graded like a real job — and each shift becomes part of a verifiable work record. No certification needed to start; that record plus your prior experience tells a stronger story than the gap does. First shift is free.