I started programming at an age that some people would call “late”. I was 23, not happy with my college major and was looking for something else to do. My wife pointed out that I spent so much time looking at technology websites and thought I should try that, so I did. I switched from exercise science to computer science pretty much the day after talking with my wife.
I struggled through the program. Up till that point the most programming I had done was super simple webpages with just html and css. I felt so far behind the other students. But at the same time I liked solving the problems and seeing my programs come to life.
I got B’s and C’s in my classes. I didn’t get an internship until the summer, one semester before I graduated. And I even failed a class the semester before I was suppose to graduate. I was stressed and I worried that I shouldn’t be a programmer. My last semester I worked hard, struggled but I did graduate. I sent out tons of applications, interviewed a few times and pretty much failed all my coding interviews. I’m pretty sure my current employer was desperate and maybe I convinced them enough to take a chance on me. But yes my imposter syndrome was really bad through this whole time.
Since graduating I’ve struggled with imposter syndrome constantly but I’m working on it. I’ve been making little silly/stupid projects that sound fun to me, I’ve published a few games on itch.io and I’m just constantly reading and learning. Cause really that’s what we developers are. Professional lifelong learners and professional google users.
I don’t plan on making the next Instagram or what not but I do plan on continuing to make things that I find interesting. Because I belief average developers making amazing things to.
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