4 Years of Programming - Everything I Got Wrong
Summary
TLDRIn this video, the creator reflects on their nearly 4.5-year journey as a programmer, sharing insights and lessons learned. They recount their initial struggles with PHP, the importance of mastering daily tools like Git, and overcoming imposter syndrome. The video also discusses their transition to a remote job with an AI startup, the challenges faced due to unrealistic expectations and pressure, and the decision to quit. The creator emphasizes the value of choosing the right company early in one's career and the impact it has on learning and job satisfaction.
Takeaways
- 🌟 The speaker reflects on their journey as a programmer and shares insights they wish they knew at the beginning.
- 📚 They emphasize the importance of learning the tools you'll use daily, such as git, GitHub, and bitbucket.
- 😵 The initial job experience was overwhelming due to the vast codebase and the pressure to learn PHP quickly.
- 🤝 A supportive manager and team can greatly ease the transition into a new programming job.
- 🚀 Overcoming imposter syndrome by taking on new challenges and learning opportunities is crucial for growth.
- 💡 The speaker encourages embracing a mindset of continuous learning, even if it means stepping out of your comfort zone.
- 🔄 The realization that companies are paying you to learn can be a powerful motivator to take on new projects.
- 🌍 The desire for a digital nomad lifestyle led to seeking new opportunities that allowed remote work and travel.
- 💼 The second job at an AI startup had a promising start but turned out to be a significant mistake due to poor management and unrealistic expectations.
- 📉 The pressure and lack of support at the AI startup led to a decline in job satisfaction and a loss of passion for coding.
- 🔄 Taking a break and rediscovering the joy of coding through learning and practicing can help regain motivation after a challenging experience.
Q & A
How long has the speaker been a programmer?
-The speaker has been a programmer for nearly 4 and a half years.
What was the speaker's background before becoming a programmer?
-Before becoming a programmer, the speaker worked in marketing and advertising.
How quickly did the speaker secure a job after learning to code?
-The speaker secured a job as a programmer 11 months after starting to learn code.
What was the speaker's initial reaction upon seeing the codebase on the first day at the new job?
-The speaker was overwhelmed and had a meltdown because there was so much code that they didn't understand.
What was the speaker's first piece of advice for new programmers?
-The speaker's first piece of advice was to learn the tools that will be used on a day-to-day basis for the job.
What was the speaker's experience with imposter syndrome?
-The speaker experienced imposter syndrome, feeling paranoid about being found out or potentially being fired due to not being good enough.
How did the speaker overcome their fear of taking on new projects?
-The speaker overcame their fear by adopting a mindset that the company was paying them to learn and started to take on new skills and projects.
What did the speaker learn from using Scrimba?
-The speaker learned React with Scrimba and uses it daily in their job now.
Why did the speaker decide to leave their job as a WordPress developer?
-The speaker decided to leave because they wanted to code more, work with React, possibly some backend, and have the freedom to travel the world.
What was the speaker's biggest mistake in tech?
-The speaker's biggest mistake was ignoring a gut feeling about a potential job and accepting it without considering the potential challenges with the CTO.
What was the speaker's experience like working at the AI startup?
-The experience was initially positive with travel and learning opportunities, but it became stressful due to high pressure, lack of support, and an absence of project management or UX design.
What did the speaker do after quitting the job at the AI startup?
-The speaker took a break, traveled, and then got back into coding by doing lots of LeetCode problems and learning JavaScript and Python.
What is the speaker's advice for new programmers in their first few years?
-The speaker advises new programmers to be intentional and careful with the companies they choose to work for in the first few years of their career.
Outlines
💻 Early Challenges as a Programmer
The speaker reflects on their journey as a programmer, starting from their first job as a WordPress developer. They recount the steep learning curve they faced, having to quickly learn PHP, JavaScript, and jQuery in just four weeks before starting the job. The initial shock of seeing the codebase and feeling overwhelmed by the amount of unfamiliar code is described. Despite this, the supportive manager helped them ease into the job with small tasks. They emphasize the importance of learning the tools used daily at work, such as git and GitHub, which they found challenging initially. The speaker also discusses the imposter syndrome they experienced and how it affected their willingness to take on new projects and challenges.
🚀 Overcoming Fear and Embracing Learning
The speaker shares their mindset shift from fearing failure and rejection to embracing learning and taking on new challenges. They describe how they became more fearless, started learning new skills, and volunteered for projects that were slightly beyond their comfort zone. This change in attitude led to significant improvements in their skills and confidence. The speaker also discusses their experience with Scrimba, an online learning platform, which they used to learn React. They highlight the benefits of the platform's interactive tutorials and the updated features in Scrimba's version two. Additionally, they talk about their desire to become a digital nomad, leading to a job change where they sought a higher salary, the opportunity to work with React, and the flexibility to travel.
🌍 The Struggles of Working in a High-Pressure Startup
The speaker recounts their experience working at an AI startup, which initially seemed like a dream job with a 40% pay raise and the freedom to work remotely. However, they soon found themselves under immense pressure, with expectations far beyond their experience level and a lack of support to fill skill gaps. The absence of a project manager and UX team meant they had to take on additional responsibilities, leading to long hours and a decline in job satisfaction. The high-pressure environment eventually led to a loss of passion for coding. After quitting the job, the speaker took time off to recharge and rekindle their love for coding through learning and practicing. They advise new programmers to be cautious about the companies they work for early in their careers, as the learning phase is crucial and the wrong environment can lead to burnout.
📈 Career Growth and the Importance of Choosing the Right Company
In the final paragraph, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being intentional and selective when choosing companies to work for, especially during the early years of one's career. They note that the first few years are crucial for learning and gaining confidence, and that working in a supportive environment can significantly impact one's growth and job satisfaction. The speaker reflects on their own rapid career progression and expresses a desire to continue sharing their experiences in programming and technology, inviting viewers to follow along for more content on these topics.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Programmer
💡Imposter Syndrome
💡PHP
💡Git
💡React
💡Digital Nomad
💡Remote Work
💡Full Stack
💡Tech Startup
💡Burnout
💡LeetCode
Highlights
Reflecting on nearly 4.5 years as a programmer and sharing experiences, mistakes, and lessons learned.
Started coding journey in January or February 2020 and secured a job 11 months later in 2021.
First job as a WordPress developer with a steep learning curve, especially with PHP, jQuery, and JavaScript.
Initial imposter syndrome, struggling with understanding a massive codebase in the new job.
Advice: Learn key tools like Git, GitHub, and Bitbucket early to ease daily tasks in programming jobs.
Experience working in a fast-growing team during the 2021 tech boom, collaborating with other juniors under a senior manager.
Mistake: Letting imposter syndrome limit potential by avoiding challenges and new technologies early on.
Mindset shift: Overcoming fear of failure and taking on projects outside comfort zone significantly improved skills.
Using Scrimber to learn React and appreciating its interactive coding lessons as a key learning tool.
Second job in an AI startup came with a 40% pay rise but proved to be a major mistake due to a difficult work environment.
Struggled with lack of support and high-pressure demands in AI startup, leading to burnout and quitting the job.
Took time off in Thailand and Bali to recover from job stress and rekindle love for coding.
Spent 3 months grinding LeetCode, learning JavaScript and Python, and improving skills during a break.
Key takeaway: In the first 2-3 years, be intentional and careful with job choices to avoid burnout and high quit rates.
Encourages early-career developers to focus on learning and growth, and to subscribe for more programming and digital nomad content.
Transcripts
[Music]
[Music]
hello welcome back I felt inspired to
make this video because I've been
reflecting on what is now nearly 4 and a
half years as a programmer and in this
video I want to talk about things that I
wish I knew at the start of my journey
things which took me by surprise this
one's going to be an encapsulation of my
experiences everything I've learned
mistakes I've made things I wish I knew
at the start and things I did well as
well
so yeah and I'm not really scripted it
so I'm just going to kind of free ball
so yeah let's get stuck into it I
already made a video about how I learned
code I did it in my 30s and I start
started in January or February
2020 then got a job 11 months later in
2021 so I've already made a video of
that so you can watch that if you want
but this is
about from then to now everything that's
happened so let's rewind to I think it
was like March or February
2021 I got offered the job for a
WordPress developer in between handed in
my notice in my marketing advertising
job to start in this web developer job
the manager sent me a big list of stuff
I needed to learn so it was like loads
of objectoriented stuff JavaScript
jQuery I had to
learn and the biggest one was PHP I knew
no PHP so four weeks before this job I
was crumming PHP so hard I was probably
studying for about 8 hours a day like 7
hours a day just like jQuery PHP
JavaScript just trying to like soak in
as much as I could I was just so eager
and so Keen to impress and I was there's
a lot of imposter syndrome there as well
but the big thing for me was the PHP
side because I'm going into a job that I
don't know this language um it was like
a front end job but also a little bit of
backend with WordPress I started the job
they sent me my laptop and I'll never
forget the first day looking at the code
base because it was it was massive I
freaked out I was I had meltdown because
I was reading it and I just there was so
much I didn't understand yeah so they
left me with the Co base for like 2 days
just to go through it and just to like
familiarize myself with this co-base I
don't think that in hindsight that was a
good thing for them to do because I was
just I was just thinking I just don't
know a lot of this code it's going to be
very difficult for me anyway so I
started the job and it's the chillest
job the manager was so supportive and he
just kept giving me like small
bite-sized tasks to do and my one bit of
advice first of all you're going to help
yourself out so much by learning the
tools that you're going to learn on a
day-to-day basis for example if you're a
programmer git GitHub bit bucket my my
start for this job was so much harder
because I was just not really that good
at git I I was just struggling to pull
things and push things and yeah like if
I go go back now I would I would focus
on what are the key tools that you're
going to use every single day in your
job just get really good at those like
for example for me was git the team was
growing a lot so this was in 2021 so
it's obviously a massive Tech boom so
they hired I think like five or six
people and yeah we were all designing
sites but they were all Juniors and we
had one manager who was a senior so it
was like loads of like kids running
around throwing stuff around you know I
talk to some other devs and we'd be like
do you know how this works and you'd be
like no I don't know how that works do
you know how this works no no no but
anyway I'm enjoying this job um but
probably the second mistake I make is
that I had a really heavy case of
imposter syndrome they would give us a
chance to work on new projects but I was
just so paranoid that I might get found
out or might get sacked uh or fired
whatever because I just wasn't up to the
level so instead of just pushing
yourself and challenging yourself and
learning new things which I do now which
I'd encourage anyone to do I was just I
had the mindset that like if I do take
on this new technology and I'm just not
good enough or holding the project back
that the company might sack me so then I
became a bit more Fearless and just
started to take on new skills and put my
hand up for a project and this was a
really big mindset like shift for me
where I was like all right this company
are paying me to learn so I'm just going
to start learning and I'm going to put
my hand up for things which might be a
little bit out of my skilled knowledge
but who cares let's go for it so as soon
as I adopted that mindset I started
improving a lot but it took me a while
thank you to scriber for sponsoring this
portion of today's video so I basically
learned react with scriber a couple
years ago I think it was like 2021 and I
use it every day in my job now they got
in touch with me because they just
released version two of the platform
they gave me some logins and I've been
playing around with it for the last week
and it is really cool so this is
scrimber they've just updated to version
two which is a lot quicker and they're
updating their react course with react
19 here and also they're adding a lot
more AI content but the cool thing about
scriber is that you can be watching a
tutorial like this so I can play this
tutorial but you can pause it and
experiment with the code I can write
whatever I want here and this is how you
learn coding by experimenting trying new
things now most of the content on
scrimber is free but the pro plan's
really good you get access to the AI
engineer career path and also the
front-end developer career path as well
with mdn there's a link in the
description that'll get you 30% off for
the first few weeks you see this video
and after that it'll be 20%
off so I was in the job about 10 months
and I just felt I just wasn't coding
enough I was putting websites live I was
playing around around with WordPress a
lot I wanted to be a digital Nomad so I
was based in Manchester working remotely
but I wanted to be traveling and
traveling around the world and the
company were kind of relatively open to
it but I knew that I could probably earn
more money elsewhere I could be coding
all day elsewhere and I wanted somewhere
that was remote first that allowed me to
travel the world so I started applying
for new jobs had a few interviews and I
was looking for a big pay rise I was
looking to work with react and maybe a
bit of back end as well full stack I
wanted to go into the more software
development software engineering space
to work with apps not WordPress
basically and I wanted somewhere where I
can travel the world with but had an
interview with an AI
startup so this ended up being my second
job and my third pretty big mistake I'd
say so the job basically ticked a lot of
the boxes but I just got a very weird
energy from the CTO and it's hard to
describe but I just
I just had a good feeling that I think
he this guy could be quite hard to work
for or I just felt I could have issues
with him completely ignore this they
offered me like a 40% pay rise said I
could work anywhere in the world working
with a modern tech stack so I just
accepted it I I basically ignored this
feeling I had and just accepted the job
and this was my biggest mistake in Tech
and the first six months of this job
went really well so I was traveling a
lot I went to Cape Town Lisbon Thailand
having a blast learning reacts was
learning loads about software
engineering and the two guys in my team
were like 15 to 20 years experience so I
was learning loads from them um and I
was making a Microsoft teams app which
was really cool like I've never worked
on that platform before so I was
learning about that and picked it up
really quick now this job was advertised
they wanted someone with three years
experience I had 8 months experience so
we talked about this at interview they
said they were fine with it and that
they'll train me this just never
happened and they basically if I had any
skills Gap rather than saying okay we'll
support you with this we can help you it
was like okay we need to get this
product out so you've got to learn it as
soon as possible and I think with a lot
of AI startups they want to get the
product out as soon as possible at the
detriment of their own staff so the the
amount of pressure they were putting me
under and it got to a point where I was
in Thailand I remember I was in Bangkok
and I was waking up I'd start working
about 400 p.m. day but there was just so
much work that was starting about like
12 just to keep up with what they were
giving me also there was no project
manager there was no uh ux people so I
was doing all the ux no ux experience
and I was like building out these
components there was just a lot of the
structure that you need for a successful
software team was just not there and
they wanted to get the product out as
soon as possible so it was really
straining their relationships internally
and it just got to the point where I
just wasn't enjoying coding anymore when
I first started programming I just loved
I was like the awe of programming I
loved it and I love like geeking out on
learning new technology and this job
they basically just sucked the life out
of it with the pressure they were put me
under I I quit so I quit the job or we
mutually terminated it had a break so I
was in Thailand I went to Barley and had
some time off and then slowly got back
geek out on coding again programming and
learning new stuff and just fell in love
with coding again I then got home went
back to the UK and was learning did
loads of leak code just grinded leak
code datch algorithms and had maybe had
like 3 months off and I think in that
three months I was just learning so much
learn so much about JavaScript a little
bit about Python and then started
applying again all right so if there's
one thing I want to take away from this
video it's this I'd say at the start of
your career particularly for the first 2
or 3 years it's going to take you time
to learn stuff
to get to a level you're confident at
and to get a level where you can
meaningfully contribute to a company and
I'd just be very intentional and very
careful with the companies that you
choose in that period because you you're
in very high quit territory and that is
it so if you found some value in this
subscribe like the video and 4 years I
still can't believe how quickly it's
gone but uh I'll be making more videos
about this my experience in programming
Tech being digital no so if that sounds
fun follow along if you want all right
see you in the next one bye
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