As a primarily self-taught dev, I know these feelings all too well. That said, I think it is important to keep all these things in perspective and have clearly defined goals.
If my goal was to be a senior software engineer in 6 months, I would be setting myself up for failure and the appropriate amount of disappointment.
Instead, I try to focus on small, bite-sized goals that are achievable in small time frames and aim towards a main overarching goal. For example, I am just trying to build a progressive web app calculator with react in the next few weeks after work. I am going to keep focusing on small projects like this until I can get a solid portfolio together and land a junior developer job.
Rather than focusing on the literal technical aspects of learning to program, I like to frame my progress as learning just a bit more than I knew last week.
This sounds super intuitive, but it has helped me crawl out of some mood funks. Of course, I want to be able to claim "software developer" as my job title, but I also want to be able to enjoy both the journey and the role. Keeping things positive and fun helps me stay motivated and not burnt out.
I think that's really great advice. Personally, I always struggle with focusing on the now and enjoying the journey, but you're right. If we can build great products one line of code at a time, we can build our lives and careers one small piece at a time too.
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As a primarily self-taught dev, I know these feelings all too well. That said, I think it is important to keep all these things in perspective and have clearly defined goals.
If my goal was to be a senior software engineer in 6 months, I would be setting myself up for failure and the appropriate amount of disappointment.
Instead, I try to focus on small, bite-sized goals that are achievable in small time frames and aim towards a main overarching goal. For example, I am just trying to build a progressive web app calculator with react in the next few weeks after work. I am going to keep focusing on small projects like this until I can get a solid portfolio together and land a junior developer job.
Rather than focusing on the literal technical aspects of learning to program, I like to frame my progress as learning just a bit more than I knew last week.
This sounds super intuitive, but it has helped me crawl out of some mood funks. Of course, I want to be able to claim "software developer" as my job title, but I also want to be able to enjoy both the journey and the role. Keeping things positive and fun helps me stay motivated and not burnt out.
I think that's really great advice. Personally, I always struggle with focusing on the now and enjoying the journey, but you're right. If we can build great products one line of code at a time, we can build our lives and careers one small piece at a time too.