The Problem
Completed a take-home assignment, applied to 100 companies off of LinkedIN and still failed to get that 1st job. Sounds like you or is it only me?
I am in the same rabbit hole of applying to jobs over at job portals, improving my perceived value by tweeting something that sounds really smart or maybe even doing some open source contributions to make that GitHub heat map a little greener.
I get that software engineering is used to solve daily life problems and you can only work your way backwards, that is exactly why I started developing web apps as well. Solving problems that seem unsolved. The rush you feel when an idea is converted to a working app starting from just a blank page is beyond some words I can write.
Journey to the solution
When I look at my GitHub contributions from 2017 where building an ATM simulator using C++ felt really the right thing to do at the time, I sometimes wonder that why can’t I even think of the problems that engineers face even after more than 7-8 years of writing code. Why can’t I raise an issue in OSS that nobody has thought of before?
But after getting rejected from almost all the companies I applied to or getting rejected from GSoC back to back, I think I have gotten my answer. Watching an Arpit Bhayani’s video recently made me think why can’t I think like this guy? Why are all my projects just an underlying GPT wrapper or a basic CRUD app and not something like DiceDB?
Led me to my lawful frenemy ChatGPT.
The Solution
And the answer is (drumrolls) : Get your fundamentals right.
You started this journey to become a software engineer. Right? Then why are you using another software engineer’s work that includes someone else’s work to build a project. You don’t even know how MongoDB works, you don’t even know how pubsub queues work or what else you can use instead of them yet you quote them in your project without using your brain. Stop it. The industry is ruthless and a solid bet I know I will win is that it will get more ruthless with passing time. If you just remember some instructions and don’t know which instruction actually does what. Well you will at some point of time hit a roadblock in your career cause there are tools that does that 10 times better than you.
An analogy (really proud of this one)
What’s the difference between a car mechanic and a mechanical engineer? A car mechanic might know how to fix your car or even build one from ground up if a really experienced one but there is a very high chance he might not know how to improve it’s engine by actually applying thermodynamics to it. That’s the job of a mechanical engineer.
Don’t be a software mechanic, learn the fundamentals and start popping those black boxes into logic.
So if you are a student just starting out your journey or an engineer that has ample amount of time cause of these new AI tools. Ask yourself questions based on the first principle and build little toy projects. Solving consumer problems then becomes a side product of this whole journey.
Those CS subjects that got taught to you while you were busy playing Subway Surfers in your college might come in handy in your career.
I proudly agree that this does feel like my first day in the software industry. If you don’t agree to this blog or an experienced engineer that is ready to help me in this journey. Hit me up I want to learn more about what it needs to become a great software engineer.
Follow me on X, to see my journey close up learning what computer science actually is.
Top comments (2)
😂😂 although im not a full on developer this post hit home. All the best for the journey. I think out of everything one thing i learnt about dev work is our ability for patience and dedication. Best of luck
That is very true!