Revive a dying software engineering career

New
butki#1

New

butki#1
Oct 21, 2021 12 Comments

Dear Fellow Blinders

I’ve been a software engineer since the last 8 years or so in the US and worked in India for 2 years before coming here for my masters. Plan didn’t go as expected and I’ve been working at mostly medium sized and startup companies. In the past 8 years, I could never pass the interviews with Big companies(need the validation) so I was always stuck with smaller No name companies. Started my career very badly, went through a horrible personal time at the start of career in US and got distracted and was in depression for a long time. That depression destroyed my mental capacities, memory etc. Worked on different technologies(languages, frameworks, etc) throughout my career but never got a chance to stick to one thing and be expert in it. I also have the problem where I cannot remember what I read beyond a certain point, so even if I worked on Something, I cannot remember what I knew or worked on( for eg: I was extremely good with sql internals, db internals, Java etc) and come out looking like a novice.

Over the past 7 years or so Ive lost the confidence that I may be a good engineer. Now I’m just a low confidence engineer with little or no knowledge of system design and architecture of a project in general.

I’m very bad at interviewing in general(leetcode etc) but I’m a decent programmer, although I never got a chance to improve my system design knowledge, so I’m always low and confidence and shut my mouth in front of colleagues. (I know I just repeated what I said from above 😆)

Most of my friends and past colleagues are now Staff engineers, director of engineering, leads, principals, managers etc and I’m stuck at SDE 2,3, senior level. It doesn’t help that being on blind depresses me further and makes me super anxious reading about the hefty salaries ppl make.

How can I revive my sideways stuck software engineering career or should I give up and be a stay home person(removing gender part out here for no bias).

🙏🏻🙏🏻

TC: $165K in Bay Area 🥜🥜
YOE: 8 years

#software #swe #engineering

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TOP 12 Comments
  • Amazon / Eng
    Bezoos

    Go to company page Amazon Eng

    Bezoos
    165k is not a depressing salary… even in a high cost of living like SF. For context, the median individual income in SF is 75k and mean income is 103k so you’re way above average. I don’t think the problem stems from your finances / job. I think it stems from a history of instability and a loss of confidence from professional rejection.
    Oct 21, 2021 0
  • your problem has nothing to do with engineering..
    your problem is comparison and you only compare with people better than you.. I find it hard to believe that everyone you know it's a staff engineer or director... probably you only look at those who are..
    step 1 try to understand that with that tc you are better than atleast 6.5 billion people in this world...
    stop the rat race it has no end.

    step 2 once you get your confidence back start leetcoding..

    life will work out for you just fine
    Oct 21, 2021 0
  • Cisco
    hungryhobo

    Go to company page Cisco

    hungryhobo
    Get off blind
    Oct 21, 2021 2
    • Sony
      mirkd

      Go to company page Sony

      mirkd
      Amen to this. You need thicker skin if this place is depressing you. Not worth the mental health impact. Do therapy and join Toastmasters. Then come back maybe.
      Oct 21, 2021
    • Second this. Personally, Blind has been a source of inspiration for me, but you know the effect it has on you better than anyone. If you can’t reframe seeing other people’s salaries as something other than a trigger for your depression, just avoid the platform.
      Oct 21, 2021
  • Bectran
    uFEV32

    Bectran

    uFEV32
    I would suggest looking into therapy and medication first to stabilize yourself, then just focus on getting better at LC and System Design and come up with some stories for behavioral. Honestly interviewing is hard and it's more than just being able to solve problems and answer questions, it's also about projecting confidence and capabilities, people with less technical skills then you also end up getting jobs if they can get the hiring manager to like them and trust their abilities, it's all about projection and also doing decently in the tech rounds, you don't have to ace every round, just be good enough for them to take a chance on you.
    Oct 21, 2021 1
  • Uber
    koeru

    Go to company page Uber

    koeru
    I have a similar story. At the start of my career I was struggling with a lot of personal problems. I didn't give up. What kept me going was the fighter in me who wanted to make a difference. My customer obsession helped me as well. The most important thing is to not lose hope and remember that there are better things lined up for you. I believed the same.
    Oct 21, 2021 0