This is a submission for the 2026 WeCoded Challenge: Echoes of Experience
So it is finally time to write about the past year. It has truly been a ...
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Thank you for the mention — and for the company you put me in. Every name on that list is someone I follow and read closely.
That includes you. I read your articles and always find something worth taking away.
What strikes me most in this one is the honesty. A year of uncertainty, rejections, small wins — and you document all of it, without trying to make it look better than it was. That takes more courage than most people realise.
The Veni Vidi Vici mindset going into that CEO interview — that's the right call. You went in, regardless of the outcome.
Keep writing. Keep building. The right opportunity will come.
Thank you so much for you kind words. Your articles always provide me a new perspective to look at tech.
Thank you so much for being so awesome and giving such awesome articles.
Thank you, Konark. That means a lot — especially coming from someone who documents their own journey with as much honesty as you do.
Keep writing. The perspective you bring matters.
Thank you so much Pascal for such an honour. I'm really blessed to have wonderful supporter like you.
You also keep shining and bringing new knowledge to everyone on this platform.
The 2-day interview that ended in rejection and you still left feeling confident. That's the right read of it. The outcome and the performance are separate things. Most people conflate them and come away doubting the wrong thing.
The lesson that changed how I work: shipping something broken in public teaches you faster than building something perfect in private. Every article I've written that flopped told me something the ones that landed didn't. You already know this — the Vibe Coding piece wasn't the one you expected to matter.
Keep going. 👊
Yes, I always believe in giving your best because even if you don't get that opportunity. You will not have the guilt that if I had given my best then I would have gotten that opportunity.
Wow, that is such cool line 'shipping something broken in public teaches you faster than building something perfect in private'. Building in public helps you gather the knowledge or the perspective that you never thought of. Yeah that's something every writer gets after every article that it worked or not and with the reasons. The more you write the more pattern you understand.
Same to you brother. Keep shining and writing such awesome content.
"The more you write the more pattern you understand". That's the thing nobody tells you upfront. You don't get better by writing more carefully. You get better by publishing enough times to see what lands and what doesn't, and eventually you stop being surprised by which is which.
The guilt-free mindset going into that interview is the same principle. You gave what you had. The outcome is separate data.
'That's the thing nobody tells you upfront.' I think people don't tell things upfront at all. They wanna hide their knowledge and skillset that led them to where they are. If you ask how they do it they will say they just did it. So, yeah not by publishing enough times but by publishing what matters. If you and 10 others wrote about same topic then it will be repetition only. Everyone needs to find their voice and their own unique way to represent.
Yeah we should have guilt free mindset. For me, the guilt would be for not writing on this platform. I like to write so I will write on the topics and see how well it is received and work on my way of representing. Like, you also have a way of presenting AI to us in terms of stats and numbers so that the connection is there.
Hey @konark_13! Hope you are well! I am honored that you mentioned me and was honored that my articles helped you! I am glad you are making the progress you are making right now and I can say your post on Interviews does help me (been practicing! :D).
With your question on "What is one lesson the tech industry has taught you that changed how you approach your work or learning?". It basically comes down to the mindset of a Student Vs. Engineer.
When I was working, I noticed that the mindset change since I am not doing tasks as a student where I have to memorize and complete exams, I was shifting towards into thinking as a engineer where it is to accomplish tasks and where there are risks. I am not thinking "course is done", I am thinking of "I fixed a bug where the user does this and that". Overall, it taught me the mindset of an engineer and how it is different when thinking as a student. A student learns while an engineer applies.
Thanks for sharing your journey! Stay tuned for mine this month! Have a lot to talk about and a lot of mentions :D
Great post and hope your journey continues to go well for you!!!
Thank you for such a well thought and meaningful comment it means a lot.
Definitely, the student vs Engineer mindset is a must for everyone now. Like you said we don't have to memorize and complete exams now but rather apply that knowledge in use. Like, how to vibe code and build the idea that is in our mind and transform that idea into an app.
Yeah, can't wait for your journey as well. I am really excited for it and drop it soon kindly. Would love to know how tech helped you.
I’m truly honored to be mentioned among the amazing writers who’ve inspired your journey! 💙 It means a lot that my articles could help you learn and grow. Thank you for including me.
I love how you turned uncertainty into learning, building, and writing. It’s inspiring to see your persistence, curiosity, and courage shine through every step.
Yes, Hadil. Your articles about final round AI and the your questions series are amazing to read. I love to read and save them and re-read them before an interview. You write such awesome content.
Thank you so much hadil for your kind words.
I really felt it when you talked about attending tech events alone. It takes a massive amount of courage to do that, especially when you feel like a 'misfit' in a room where everyone else seems to have their life together. I personally have been doing that for a while this year and I always leave with something beneficial along the way! Seeing your growth through the Google Arcade and how you’ve pushed through those rejections is inspiring. You are clearly carving out your own path. Keep sharing your journey, your story is definitely going to be the lightbulb moment for someone else who feels stuck right now :)
Thanks you so much for your kind words.
I have read your article about attending this Tech Workshop and turning into a Summer Internship. Congrats on that and you wrote an amazing article. It is like you said something beneficial along the way.
I stop expecting from the events and started just attending and enjoying the vibe there and see where it takes me. It is amazing for me to see many 1st year students and working professionals attending it and though I feel bad sometimes for being unemployed but yeah keeping the hope alive.
On a sidenote, I would love to meet you and attend a Tech show with you and learn about you and your story or maybe attend a workshop where you are a speaker. Keep shining and writing amazing articles.
Thanks Konrak! Lots of tech events go on in London just let me know
Konark, I can really relate to the struggle of feeling the need to have it all figured out before sharing your work with others. It's so refreshing to see someone being honest about imperfections and learning from them. Your post really made me think about my own approach to sharing my own work - thanks for mentioning, the encouragement and the reminder that it's okay to start imperfect.
Thank you so much Aryan.
You are a writer with immense knowledge and your articles reflect that. Every word in your articles is well written and well thought. So, thank you so much for inspiring me and many other like me.
Keep writing and building amazing ideas.
Thanks for the mention, Konark❤️
your path to tech kinda reflects mine.
being introverted, skipping participating in hackathon because you thought you are not good enough, have the courage to participate but prefers working solo, later to realize you have to come out of the comfort zone by attending more hackathons, building more projects and most important and hard, networking.
one lesson from my past experience in tech that has helped me is building more projects, ultimately you get this one project that opens doors for you. networking seemed to be hard for me before but now I can just go to someone tell him/her I have this project I would like your thoughts on.
all I can say is being in tech is a continuous learning experience
Yes, Cian you are very right. Tech is a continuous learning experience.
Congrats on overcoming your networking fear. What was you the project that you least expected but turned out to be awesome.
Great article, Konark. You have the right mindset, and it’s just a matter of time until you get your job.
Also, check out Google Summer of Code (GSoC), where you can contribute to open-source projects and still get paid.
Keep posting your content and sharing knowledge with the world.
Thank you so much Raffael for your kind words. I will definitely look into GSoC and see what are the projects I can contribute to.
What is your favorite project to contribute?
I've never participated, tbh, but I was planning on doing this program this year. Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to do it.
Great read. The persistence through hackathons, writing, and rejections really stood out.
I think a lot of developers underestimate how much growth comes from simply building things and sharing them publicly. Even small projects can evolve into something bigger once you start using them.
I’ve been experimenting with building tools myself recently (one of them is a small anomaly-detection tool for spreadsheets called ThresholdIQ), and the learning from actually building something real is very different from just studying concepts.
Thanks for sharing such an honest reflection of the journey.
I'm glad you liked it.
Yes, Todoist is one of the example. It is just a todo app but everyone uses it and it is turned into something bigger now. Same goes for us, what projects we build thinking it is small might solve a problem for someone else.
I would love to try and use ThresholdIQ. Keep breaking and building Vignesh!
Thanks Konark , I would love to hear what you think after trying ThresholdIQ — especially if something feels confusing or doesn't work the way you'd expect. That kind of honest feedback at this stage is worth more than any feature request. Drop me a message anytime. I wish best wishes for you app too.
try it at thresholdiq.app
The lesson: momentum doesn't care about your employment status. You kept building, writing, showing up, while unemployed, while rejected, while unsure. That's not hustle culture. That's proof that the work itself is the anchor, not the job title.
Holy Crab 🦂 ! Dude first of all. This article is massive, and congrats to all your self-discoveries for learning resources and increased confidence with writing technicalities on dev.to, I see also in my case how it helps me. I've been reading it totally as though someone would have captivated me to my chair 🤣
I'm glad that more introverts I know kind of try to break the paradigm to even approach anyone to have a chat or whatever. I know it by my own experience, how tough for me it was to speak up to people in any situations (even literally some random situation).
But the toughest let's say challenge to me was to speak up to devs with work-experience, I kind of had this (rarely sometimes also occurs that I have) impression to be lower than them and attitude that if I have nothing constructive to convey, wtf would I even open my mouth ?
Recent year I broke that inside myself on Next Block Expo Event in Warsaw, it's basically an web3 focused conference/exposition event for web3 companies. I was the first person at the venue to appear and regardless of with hesitations I gone with the flow of the event and talked to people and pushed the boundaries so to say.
I refer to every section of this article, but it's so awesomely written, that my comment would be 3x of your work and everyone would fall asleep then XD
Thank you for mentioning me among very elite group of dev.to users.
Rooting for your future wins and hope to read next articles from you.
See ya.
Thanks you so much for your kind words and such a big comment. You kept this entertained well enough to make it to the end. Keep up the good work.
Congrats on overcoming your toughest challenge and talking to people in the event. I hope I could attend a workshop led by you on Cryptography someday.
This is such an honest and vulnerable reflection. The part about feeling like a misfit at tech events while unemployed really resonated I think many of us tie our identity too closely to our job titles, and being in between roles can feel isolating. But you showed up anyway, talked to people, learned, built, wrote. That takes real courage. Wishing you the best on your job search any team would be lucky to have someone with this much persistence and self-awareness.
Thank you so much Harsh for your amazing words. I do hope I get a job asap.
Yeah, I do feel many people tie their identity too close to job titles. That's why some people can't face being laid off from the company. They will blame everyone and everything for it but not themselves. The higher the post more humble you should be.
you made valid points
agreed
I'm glad you liked it. What was the one learning for you while building dev.to that stayed till date?
I am reading on blogs on the latest technology.
What's your favorite blog of the day? Can you share the link and what made you like it the most?
I don't remember by heart. Most of them.
Thanks for sharing your experience! I really liked how you phrased that posting on LinkedIn is about sharing, not showing off. I think that’s a great mindset, communication really matters!
I'm glad that you liked my work. I always thought LinkedIn is for showoff cause whenever I open someone got a new job, or a new certificate or something new. But, after changing my perspective it feels more for sharing what I learned.
Everyone needs to have that mindset for posting on LinkedIn. I need to have a full proof of work by showcasing it on my LinkedIn and improving myself day by day.
What are your thoughts on building in public? You write amazing articles. Were you hesitant at the time of your first posting?
I often felt hesitant to write an article or comment because it seemed like it would only state what everyone already knows. You know, when you read an article and think, 'Oh I could add something to what the author says' or 'I had a similar experience', but then you think like 'Why say it anyway? Everyone knows this!' Often it turned out that most people didn’t, and the comment could actually add value 🙂
Yeah, I totally get your ideas hesitation. It's so real. I always feel it before uploading my article. With the hesitation being 'people will like it or not', 'have I written a good article', 'will it add any value for anyone' and many more but after the struggles I publish and some work and some doesn't so it gives me the encouragement to write more.
Adding value is a must I feel because I have felt it. We all write our heart out in our articles. Writing it the best we can and that first like and first comment supports and gives encouragement for writing more and more. This platform has provided me the best supporters and encouraging people.
Honestly, I am indebted to you for your kind words. Your articles always provide me a new perspective to look at tech.
I'm glad Lawrence. Keep grinding and shining.
thank you sir
Can relateee