24 hours. That's how long a contract lasted before someone pulled it because I was running Windows, not Mac. Not my work. My OS.
It almost broke m...
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The line about continuing to ship during the day while telling your family nothing at night really stayed with me. Losing opportunities because of your OS or location, rather than the quality of your work, must be incredibly frustrating.
The fact that you kept building, writing and showing up anyway says a lot. I genuinely hope the next stretch is much kinder to you.
Zenovay, frustrating undersells it but "kept building anyway" is the only part of it I'd want someone to actually take from this.
Absolutely. That persistence is what stayed with me most. Thanks for sharing the part people usually leave out.
"You're touching lives in ways I don't think you fully know" - absolutely! Dev.to as a community is a treasure, pure gold - Ben is one of my "developer heroes" for sure ...
P.S. yeah getting rejected is one thing - but getting rejected on grounds that shouldn't matter, that surely hurts more, and rightly so - it's got to do with "justice" ...
leob, the justice thing is the whole shape of it . a no on skill stings less than a no on geography, because one you can work on and the other you can't move.
Ben's earned "developer hero" status more than once in my book too.
Is the geography thing something you've run into yourself, hiring or applying, or more something you've watched happen to others??
It's more something I know exists, and is of course unfair, and that's something I cannot stand - personally, for myself, I feel I've been pretty lucky during my whole career, I really can't complain - of course you always need to put in the effort, but I don't have the feeling I was ever treated in an unjust way! You just gotta be a bit lucky sometimes, that's for sure ...
luck and injustice aren't really the same axis tho . you can go your whole career without being treated badly and still never have your luck tested against a starting line like "no infrastructure to hire in your country."
That's the part that gets missed: the DEV role wasn't bad luck, it was the odds getting set before the interview even started.
Yeah you're right, they're completely different things or dimensions, not the same axis ...
Totally! 🎯 You nailed it. Thankfully, I have plenty of friends I can talk to about coding, but even they aren't really interested in my blogging. On the other hand, people outside the tech industry don't understand it at all. When I tell them about my blog, conferences, or writing articles, it all sounds like some strange abstract world to them. 😄 That's one of the reasons I appreciate DEV so much, the community here is genuinely amazing. People actually understand what you're doing and get excited about it with you. ❤️
Sylwia, "some strange abstract world" is exactly the gap DEV closes . nobody here needs it translated first. Even the friends who get the coding part often don't get why you'd bother writing about it.
Exactly! 😂 And then come the follow-up questions:
"Wait... you get free AI tokens?"
"Wait... they're paying for your flight to a conference abroad?"
"Wait... people actually read your blog?"
At that point you realize you've entered a completely different universe. 😄
Sylwia, "wait, they're paying for your flight?" is the tell every time. That's the moment you realize you're not describing a hobby to them, you're describing a different economy.
I agree with that wholeheartedly! 💛💯 I'm still in shock at how many community members left comments under my post about burnout, either sympathising or wishing me luck. This helped a lot and gave me the feeling that I am not alone and that it's possible to get out of it.
Wishing you find your dream job soon 🍀
Klaudia, "generated at the lowest possible cost, barely reviewed" is the exact fear I had writing mine from my laptop .glad the comments did for you what I hope this does for someone else.
Your persistence and clear vision for your life are so clear from this post. Eerything you've talked about shows you are in alignment with your goals and your current path, even if you have to take some detours. You are so much closer to your personal mountaintop than people who keep their code and their words siloed away from others. Keep going!
Life — you must believe in yourself. And life — you must, again and again, a thousand times, ten thousand times, at any cost — save yourself.
xulingfeng, that's the same thing I was doing without the words for it — thank you.