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Where to next?
I got into coding in 2019 when I decided to leave medical school and pursue a career in tech. I enrolled in a coding boot camp and four months later, I accepted my first role as a junior programmer. Over the course of the last five years, I've worked for a 6-person, early stage start up, a global financial firm, and currently a consulting firm that serves the federal government. When I first started this journey, I knew next to nothing. Five years later, I still feel that way. I've read so much code. I've written so much code. I've studied recursion and closures. I've signed up for and abandoned LeetCode multiple times. I've completed courses on data structures and algorithms. I got a certificate for completing the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam. All in the hopes of staying competitive and relevant. I contemplated open source contributions and personal projects, but frozen by analysis paralysis opted for Netflix and couch time. I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe that's imposter syndrome, but I think there's some truth there too. And as the threat of AI taking my job looms large in the background. I can't help but wonder, "What now?" and "Where to next?" "What should I be doing?" So I looked at roadmaps. I googled what tools people were using and what the community said was good, important, and valuable. I looked at the skills listed in job postings. And I just felt, overwhelmed, tired, and a little cranky. How am I supposed to learn all of this? When am I supposed to learn all of this? Am I even learning the right thing? I don't know. I don't actually have an answer to any of these questions. So I just decided that instead, I'm going to go back to the basics. I'm going to pick a direction and start at the beginning and do what I can. I'll chop wood and carry water, until the robots come to do it for me or carry me away.
I got into coding in 2019 when I decided to leave medical school and pursue a career in tech. I enrolled in a coding boot camp and four months later, I accepted my first role as a junior programmer.
Over the course of the last five years, I've worked for a 6-person, early stage start up, a global financial firm, and currently a consulting firm that serves the federal government.
When I first started this journey, I knew next to nothing. Five years later, I still feel that way. I've read so much code. I've written so much code. I've studied recursion and closures. I've signed up for and abandoned LeetCode multiple times. I've completed courses on data structures and algorithms. I got a certificate for completing the AWS Cloud Practitioner exam. All in the hopes of staying competitive and relevant. I contemplated open source contributions and personal projects, but frozen by analysis paralysis opted for Netflix and couch time.
I still feel like I don't know what I'm doing. Maybe that's imposter syndrome, but I think there's some truth there too. And as the threat of AI taking my job looms large in the background. I can't help but wonder, "What now?" and "Where to next?" "What should I be doing?" So I looked at roadmaps. I googled what tools people were using and what the community said was good, important, and valuable. I looked at the skills listed in job postings.
And I just felt, overwhelmed, tired, and a little cranky. How am I supposed to learn all of this? When am I supposed to learn all of this? Am I even learning the right thing?
I don't know. I don't actually have an answer to any of these questions. So I just decided that instead, I'm going to go back to the basics. I'm going to pick a direction and start at the beginning and do what I can. I'll chop wood and carry water, until the robots come to do it for me or carry me away.
