I’m happy to report that I was able to find a way out of my depression, and I would like to resume my fulfilling career as a developer (which was mostly as a frontend developer). But I’m lost as to the best way to do so. I originally got my first job through self teaching and a boot camp. I feel as though I “sold” myself as a self motivated, smart guy who was ready to tackle whatever. That “sale” worked because that is what I was, I’m not a good salesman, I just told the truth. I quickly moved up in pay and responsibility over four and a half years.
Now, however, I struggle with the idea that I seem washed up, and out of practice. I’ve taken some online courses and done open source work. But my history looks like patchwork (ala Github graph), and I haven’t had a real job in two years.
I know the common strategies: build something, write a blog, work as a freelancer, etc. In order to get back into the game. I was able to get myself my first job with no experience, but now I feel like I’m less employable because of my hiatus.
I wasn’t sure how this post would come out. It turned out that I used “I feel” a lot. I know the practical steps to get back into my career. Maybe I’m looking for encouragement. For you kind souls who have read this far - if you have any practical advice or personal anecdotes, I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you.
Have you been applying to jobs? Asking former coworkers for any job leads?
You’re overthinking it. Just start applying and interviewing everywhere. Don’t get hung up on rejection. Don’t wait until you have side projects or GitHub commits or blog posts. You can do those in parallel as a bonus if you really want to.
Get out there and apply for every single potentially interesting job that comes up. Practice LeetCode and HackerRank to refresh your knowledge and prep for any possible coding interviews in parallel with your job search. Start tonight. An hour a day of practice and applying goes a long way. No excuses to delay.
We weren't sure if he could still do it. So we offered him a three-month contract at a low rate, with the understanding that, if he panned out, we would hire him at a normal salary. He panned out. So we hired him.
This approach meant that we didn't have to guess whether he could still do the work. He got to show us. And if he couldn't, well, we weren't out that much. And if he could, he wasn't out that much.
You might do it to get back into coding, put it on a resume or just for fun (my reason to do it).
But the community around it (https://www.reddit.com/r/adventofcode/) is really great and it's a lot of fun!
It also provides as a specific daily purpose, in contrast to some random code test online.
Best of luck!
I don't have any advice for you to get back into programming. I doubt sitting in a chair in a silent room doing what someone else tells you all day is going to help your depression.