How to improve and get out from mediocre? | Hacker News Reader

How to improve and get out from mediocre?

20 pointskabowyad16 comments

I currently work as a Java developer with over six years of experience. I'm employed at a mid-sized neobank, but lately, I've found myself stuck in a monotonous routine focused on JSON manipulation and CRUD operations. I don't want to belittle my programming abilities, but I haven't had the opportunity to work on truly challenging and sophisticated systems.

I'm eager to break out of this mediocrity and explore new avenues. One approach I'm considering is dedicating time to solving coding challenges on platforms like LeetCode, as well as exploring opportunities at local companies with a FAANG-style reputation. (Checked my crying with chatgpt so you can read it)

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I was in a similar boat as you - I decided to get a masters degree in CS from Georgia Tech (online part time program) to shore up some of the things I didn't know since I was a bootcamp/self-taught full stack web dev.

Now that I'm almost done with the program (which I will highly recommend if you're into that kind of thing), my desire to solve truly challenging and sophisticated problems has vastly decreased. My goal was to see what's out there and maybe switch to a different field of programming, something more "challenging" like systems development or computer vision. Well, honestly now that I spent some time studying those I care even less

The real question I needed to answer is "what do I want out of life?" and I thought the answer is "work on truly challenging and sophisticated problems" and I don't think it's that. I'm still looking for the answer

Lol I know this doesn't really answer your question, but really the best way to do what you're asking is to just find a hard problem that you're interested in and try and solve it. Then do it again and again. If you don't have any hard problems you're interested in, you sure you actually want to do it? The people I know who solve hard problems have had no shortage of hard problems they want to solve in their lives

> The real question I needed to answer is "what do I want out of life?" and I thought the answer is "work on truly challenging and sophisticated problems" and I don't think it's that. I'm still looking for the answer

Yeah that's a tricky question. 41 with a family and still couldn't figure it out.

> Yeah that's a tricky question. 41 with a family and still couldn't figure it out.

Who tould you that you have to figure this out in the first place?

I mean just following the original post.

Start with "what do I want out of today?" and grow bigger timelines from there.

Good question, I don't know honestly. There are some but only with cursory interest.

At first i want to say, thanks for your reply. I wasn't hoping that someone will respond.

Currently i have 26 years behind me, wife and one year old son. I ended bachelor and master degree in some city with 1.3kk population in Russia.

And i don't have answer for your question "what do I want out of life?". I jumped in IT when i was 18 years old and was choosing to which faculty go. At the first 1-2-3 years of working i was really eager to work, learn and you know my eyes were burning. But know it's just seems like an ordinary work every day. I often want not to do tasks and do something else. But sometimes that fire from old days are burning my soul and i'm trying to read smth or touch new technologies. Ofc i'm doing this stuff when i have energy after working and spending time with my son.

And i don't think i will be able to find strength and power to prepare to new interviews. And you know i think i have 3-4-5 more years before my brain will not help me in my work

> in Russia

I don't know your circumstances, but if you're still living there I have some ideas about how you're feeling (my family moved from there when I was a kid)

> But know it's just seems like an ordinary work every day

Ye that's the vast majority of us.

> And you know i think i have 3-4-5 more years before my brain will not help me in my work

This is completely false lol, especially if you take care of yourself healthwise

It's hard to solve difficult problems when life drains your energy

also, check out this post - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22398118

LeetCode is a dead end. You don't learn anything from it except learning how to leetcode.

Modern FAANG is a dead end too — unless you're rock star or world class expert in some area, you have near zero chance to join exciting team there. You most likely gonna keep manipulating JSONs, CRUD and company politics in exchange for better money.

If you really want to grow - you have to find best teams doing some things you think are challenging and worthwile. Then you grow there by learning from the best.

> Modern FAANG is a dead end too

Maybe I got really lucky then with my team ..., but I also sort of pushed for things to happen. Some people in the teams involved are working on crud or crud-like things, UI, and so on, I get to work on the bleeding edge of things.

> If you really want to grow - you have to find best teams doing some things you think are challenging and worthwile. Then you grow there by learning from the best.

I agree, 100%. To get to this point I kept challenging established beliefs and volunteering to build POCs and get things done. Granted, I "work" for 65+ h/w, I don't have a husband or children, but I enjoy it. Well, I enjoy the development process and getting things done, I don't enjoy the meetings, the politics, and everything else.

WHP I am an outlier and this is all survivorship bias.

@OP this is the kind of person you will be competing against in the interview process if you want to do interesting and challenging work.

This question is very relatable to me that I decided to make my first HN post. My situation may not apply to you, but I hope you found it helpful.

I self-taught myself into a front-end position at 30 (with help of connection.) Several years later I'm still at the same position, I still like my job, but I don't love it. The coding part of the job is not boring nor challenging.

I'm the oldest one in my team, with the shortest developer experience. Most of my co-workers are either from good university or started coding since early teen, or both. They are more skilled than me, and more passionate toward coding than me. Work with them causes anxiety and imposter syndrome.

The worst part is, regarding front-end territory, I don't have the fire to improve anymore. I still enjoy coding now, but I stopped browsing github daily, looking for new tech and tools to play years ago. If a piece of information is necessary for my job, I will study it, but that's it.

My attention, however, is at indie game development these years. It's a passion and dream I have had since teen and had never took it seriously until about 3 years ago. I plan to do it solo, and to make my vision happening, I need to study every aspect of game development. Planning, programming, art, sound, you name it. Now I have motivation for a lot of topics, all of them new and challenging to me.

What are you passionate about?

Find a Open Source Software project that does that or close to that and contribute.

Or contribute to an OSS that you actively use.

> exploring opportunities at local companies with a FAANG-style reputation

You might have a different temperament to me, but I advise against working with high prestige places. Why? Peace of mind. I don't want to battle egos every day.

Alternatively don't worry about it and amplify the other aspects of your life: friends, loved ones, pets, hobbies, fitness, etc...

It's tricky because you almost never truly work on sophisticated systems as a whole. You usually interact with a small part of them that tends to be meaningless, (e.g. writing YAML files for complex k8s).

The exception to this would be if you are the one designing the system, but then most sophisticated systems tend to grow from necessity rather than central planning.

That's my experience at least.

> Java developer

First mistake

> not having switched to defense or moved to Hyderabad for embedded work in the C programming language

Second mistake

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