Hi everyone, 25M, I graduated with a STEM degree, and have been working as a SWE since then. I have been fired from every position because I can't deliver. I believe this is due to a lack of skills, though I understand most of the concepts. I also have only worked in start-ups. I have been unemployed for multiple months, what are my options? Practicing until I get good? (this could take multiple years, I am a slow learner, and mental health is not the best) Going back to school for a CS degree? Thanks!
How good is your Hindi?
I'm not familiar with Hindi
I'd aim for a more established company tbh. Bigger corporations have more processes to train you, beyond just throwing you at problems until you swim, and are generally more forgiving of not delivering for a long time.
thank you for your answer again
Stop working for startups.
Thank you for your answer
Blind is full of crusty jerks, so I would not take any advice given here seriously. If you want actual constructive advice I would maybe go and ask over in the CS career questions subreddit. That said, I agree with the folks suggesting getting started in more established companies. They will usually be more willing to spend time onboarding. I would also specifically seek out in-person roles only while you are early in your career so you can get lots of face to face time with potential mentors. Onboarding fully remote while you are still inexperienced is really hard.
Ok thank you for your answer!
What do you struggle with? There are many parts of delivering things. Sounds like you like coding.
Well, when there's something I don't understand, I try to understand it before I actually write code. That's how I've learnt problem resolution (coming from a Math background) Problem is you can't afford to understand how everything works when someone asks you to implement a new feature
Depends on what you mean by everything. Say if you have to integrate with an API, you need to understand what the API does, what the failure modes are and what is the correct way to call it. But, you don’t need to understand what the API does under the hood in every case. There will be days when you need to flex that muscle.
How long did they usually take to fire you?
First time one year, Second time 7 months, Third time 3 months
Have you gotten finer grain feed back besides “can’t deliver”?
Well that's mainly it, I take too much time to complete the tasks at hand. Usually, it's like I try to understand everything before writing a single loc That's usually what I do
You sound like an average engineer to me. Don’t give up so easily. The experienced people say “fake it until you make it” and then they complain of “impostor syndrome.”
Read DDIA. You'll get a deeper understanding of systems. Get a mentor at the new company. Ask a question. You'll be surprised by the number of people that will ask a question the second they're blocked instead of figuring it out on their own. You don't have to understand everything top-down to get stuff done. When you get a project, ask someone more senior how they would break it up into smaller parts. Ship only the smaller parts. Eventually, you'll develop an inuition for how to break up projects. Focus on getting a gig and don't worry about past mistakes, you have a long career ahead of you. I've been a low performer at a tier 3 and a top performer at Netflix. I had similar issues to you and I became a great engineer. Also might be useful to be in person; managers are typically better at coaching in person.
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Give up on software engineering, find a different career field is also an option
Agreed, though I actually like coding
Coding can be your hobby.