#or unless you're offering to connect me with your friend who can either mentor me or get me a job themselves | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

pocket-size-cthulhu · 3 months ago

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It's getting to the point where instead of being encouraged, I just get pissed when people tell me their friends' success stories with getting jobs as software devs without formal education.

Everyone is like "oh yeah my friend did it without a degree, you can too!" And I'm like ok how did they get past the auto rejectors that won't even look at you if you don't have a degree? How good were they before they were hired, and who supported them while they educated themselves? Or who agreed to take them under the wing and give them a chance even though they were green?

I know people are trying to be encouraging but it's starting to feel less like "I believe you can do it" and more like "if you haven't done it yet, what's wrong with you?" They'll be like "you don't need a degree to succeed, just a willingness to learn" and I'm like, I know that as well as anyone, but to the people responsible for making budget decisions, I'm too much of a risk. What do I have to show for myself to them?

Like at the end of the day it just feels like either these folks were super lucky or I'm super unlucky and either way, hearing their stories doesn't usually help or encourage me. I'm fighting an uphill battle here trying to convince folks who think we're in an economic downtown, that a US-based junior developer is a good investment. Yuck. If you don't have anything helpful to say then at this point just don't say anything 😭

#I've always done my best learning on the job #and I'm an extremely loyal employee #to a fault definitely #but nobody is hiring junior devs or if they are it's ALWAYS offshore #I'm busting my ass trying to learn enough to make myself look like the viable candidate I think i probably am #but I'm trying to learn around a full time job and I'm the sole breadwinner and have been for years #which is fine! i don't mind! but it does make it hard to progress in something so brain-intensive when 40hrs per week is eaten by my job #and it's just a really bad time to be looking for work as a developer #idk anything about the economy but whether or not we're in an economic downturn. execs think we are #and their opinion is in some situations more influential than actual truth. this is one of those situations #my company keeps saying they're in the best financial spot they've been in since before the pandemic #but the only non senior devs they are hiring are offshore #which sucks bc they used to be really good about hiring for devs internally among people who proved their worth #i missed the last wave of that by about two years #anyway. I'm just frustrated and annoyed #stop telling me your friends' success stories unless you have specific actionable feedback #and even then think twice if you aren't in tech yourself cause i get a lot of weird advice #or unless you're offering to connect me with your friend who can either mentor me or get me a job themselves #I'm tired of hearing about it #'just put yourself out there!' just put yourself out of my earshot

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