3 ms·

Programing is un-natrual. Lets assume you graduated at 22, and your 28 now... You have a total of 6 years of experience, and the reality is the first three of

Programing is un-natrual. Lets assume you graduated at 22, and your 28 now... You have a total of 6 years of experience, and the reality is the first three of those were you unlearning computer science and starting on the path of engineering... The problem may be what your coding. If your interested in math and science and business is the code your writing DOING those things? Programing is PART of the job, figuring out what to code is the bigger part, and if that isn't interesting then the coding is even MORE un-natrual. Does what your company does excite you in any way, are there interesting parts of it for you to chase after, and if there aren't can you name a company that does something that you think is interesting? The other question I have is are you in the US (an Ivy school) but not FROM the US ("my country's...")? I ask because it may be compounding the issues your having.

confusedgeek 11y ago
That's correct. I am in the US but not from the US. Like I mentioned in my response to karmajunkie's comment, that does make career changes slightly tricky for me.
- zer00eyz 11y ago
  I'll be frank, your foreign, in a foreign land, not only based on your nationality but as a female in a male dominated world. This screams to me that "I don't have mentors or close associates at work" the kinds of folks who are going to be frank and honest with you, who are going to call you on your mistakes, who are going to push you to get better. The harder question for you is, are you having a moment of self doubt, or are you really looking to get out? If I reflect back on my on career then at points I think I have said everything you are saying... but I had folks around me who listening and giving me answers to help me keep going. After reading through the rest of your responses in this thread let me dish out some advice -- We all have moments of self doubt, your aware your having one, so thats huge -- Looking at your own code and seeing the flaws, thats normal. There are actors who hate seeing themselves on film because they only see their mistakes. If you aren't looking back, and you aren't seeing problems then your either foolish or over worked. -- Small is easy, big is hard. This is true of all things in life, if your making a holiday meal (large) its a whole hell of a lot different than making your lunch. -- Honestly you need to read this: http://discovermagazine.com/2015/june/13-curiosity-we-have-a-problem http://discovermagazine.com/2015/june/13-curiosity-we-have-a... if your current work culture isn't like that, CHANGE JOBS NOW. Everyone screws up, if you find it, and your willing to own it, they should support you. I once lost several hundred thousand dollars with a bug, at the end of the day my boss invited me to a meeting, I thought I was going to to get fired and he could see it. His response was "you did the right thing, and your never going to make that mistake again, your worth several hundred thousand dollars as an engineer now so relax. -- Learning new languages sucks. Its hard and your going to be terrible for a long time. Deal with it. There is a quote from a cartoon "sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something" -- Your use of VIM/C and unwillingness to part with it seem to say that your stuck in a rut. Vim is great don't get me wrong, and if your going to learn a new language a bare bones editor forces you to read... but in the long run your missing out on a world of tools that will make your job easier and faster! Change is hard, your going to suck at using the tools but you will get better with time -- Reading code is even more unnatural than writing it and I think I suck at it. I have been told by several people that I have an amazing proficiency for reading code, that no one they know is faster or better at it. You know what though, I read a lot of code, a LOT of code, a good portion of my day is spent looking at other peoples work... I read peoples checkins, I read bug reports and fixes, I read things that interest me that aren't even remotely related to what I'm doing at present. -- No one is perfect or even good at everything... so your code doesn't scale out of the box, the person next to you who's does, have you ever read it? if not go do it (read code) and figure out what THEY screwed up... keep reading it till you understand it, till you find the mistakes...
  - confusedgeek 11y ago
    Thanks, your analysis is spot-on. I'll work on the 'to do' items you suggested, particularly the last one.

confusedgeek 11y ago

That's correct. I am in the US but not from the US. Like I mentioned in my response to karmajunkie's comment, that does make career changes slightly tricky for me.

zer00eyz 11y ago
I'll be frank, your foreign, in a foreign land, not only based on your nationality but as a female in a male dominated world. This screams to me that "I don't have mentors or close associates at work" the kinds of folks who are going to be frank and honest with you, who are going to call you on your mistakes, who are going to push you to get better. The harder question for you is, are you having a moment of self doubt, or are you really looking to get out? If I reflect back on my on career then at points I think I have said everything you are saying... but I had folks around me who listening and giving me answers to help me keep going. After reading through the rest of your responses in this thread let me dish out some advice -- We all have moments of self doubt, your aware your having one, so thats huge -- Looking at your own code and seeing the flaws, thats normal. There are actors who hate seeing themselves on film because they only see their mistakes. If you aren't looking back, and you aren't seeing problems then your either foolish or over worked. -- Small is easy, big is hard. This is true of all things in life, if your making a holiday meal (large) its a whole hell of a lot different than making your lunch. -- Honestly you need to read this: http://discovermagazine.com/2015/june/13-curiosity-we-have-a-problem http://discovermagazine.com/2015/june/13-curiosity-we-have-a... if your current work culture isn't like that, CHANGE JOBS NOW. Everyone screws up, if you find it, and your willing to own it, they should support you. I once lost several hundred thousand dollars with a bug, at the end of the day my boss invited me to a meeting, I thought I was going to to get fired and he could see it. His response was "you did the right thing, and your never going to make that mistake again, your worth several hundred thousand dollars as an engineer now so relax. -- Learning new languages sucks. Its hard and your going to be terrible for a long time. Deal with it. There is a quote from a cartoon "sucking at something is the first step to becoming sorta good at something" -- Your use of VIM/C and unwillingness to part with it seem to say that your stuck in a rut. Vim is great don't get me wrong, and if your going to learn a new language a bare bones editor forces you to read... but in the long run your missing out on a world of tools that will make your job easier and faster! Change is hard, your going to suck at using the tools but you will get better with time -- Reading code is even more unnatural than writing it and I think I suck at it. I have been told by several people that I have an amazing proficiency for reading code, that no one they know is faster or better at it. You know what though, I read a lot of code, a LOT of code, a good portion of my day is spent looking at other peoples work... I read peoples checkins, I read bug reports and fixes, I read things that interest me that aren't even remotely related to what I'm doing at present. -- No one is perfect or even good at everything... so your code doesn't scale out of the box, the person next to you who's does, have you ever read it? if not go do it (read code) and figure out what THEY screwed up... keep reading it till you understand it, till you find the mistakes...
- confusedgeek 11y ago
  Thanks, your analysis is spot-on. I'll work on the 'to do' items you suggested, particularly the last one.