February 13, 2025 • 24 mins
Why are so many aspiring developers burning out or giving up? In this, I explore how a lack of curiosity is holding back the new generation of junior devs. We’ll dig into why blindly following “popular” paths can kill your motivation, and how embracing exploration, passion, and genuine excitement for tech can reignite your learning journey. If you’re feeling stuck or unmotivated, this might be the wake-up call you need.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Don Hansen (00:00):
If you are only going for a developer position
because you think it's theeasiest to land to basically
break into the industry, I thinkyou're only hurting yourself.
From what I've seen, a ton ofpeople that end up falling off
and they don't actually landdeveloper positions are those
who kind of just don't enjoy itthat much and they don't really
pursue it long enough.
(00:20):
They don't get the depth ofknowledge and they're kind of
just pursuing.
Maybe it's or they think it'sthe easiest to get into the
industry if they become afront-end developer, for example
.
So everyone tries to become afront-end developer, but I find
that a lot of people wouldeventually break in if they
started pursuing what they trulyenjoyed, because it's a very
(00:41):
long path.
You're going to lose motivationalong the way many, many, many,
many, many times.
But the problems that you'resolving are going to be very
different in differentdepositions.
They're going to be differentwith different technology stacks
that you're working withdifferent types of apps that
you're trying to build and youneed to explore and be curious
enough to try different thingsto finally settle on something
(01:06):
that you actually do enjoy.
So many developers are justtrying to pursue a path that
they aren't excited to wake upand learn more about.
They're not excited to wake upand work on the projects that
they got to build to be hireablefor that type of deposition.
(01:26):
A ton of people are just givingup because they don't.
They're not allowing themselvesto just become a better
programmer, a better softwareengineer who is curious, who
tries different things, whotries different languages, who
builds different things and justwants to solve things with
technology.
A lot of us back in the daywould just kind of be fascinated
(01:47):
with technology in general andwe, you know, even when you
built your first PC and justfiguring out how to do that and
get it set up properly, and itwas just like it was yours.
You built that and you choseall the different parts and you
chose a software that you'regoing to install on that PC.
That's supposed to be,hopefully pick the right
(02:09):
hardware to be optimal for whatyou're trying to do with it and
it was exciting.
It's just something customthing you built.
Some people would builddifferent things with Raspberry
Pis.
Some people would build reallysilly command line scripts.
Some people would just have funbuilding things on GeoCities
and bringing their ideas to lifeon the web so other people can
interact with it that there areso many different opportunities,
(02:31):
even outside of web development, because I talk about that a
lot but there are a lot ofopportunities to just play with
technology and have fun and becurious about it.
And I feel like that's what'slost in a lot of junior
developers, where they kind ofjust were unhappy with their
previous career and theytransitioned but they're not
really finding the love fortechnology that a lot of good
developers found a long time ago.
(02:53):
And it's sad, becausetechnology, it is our future.
It enhances people's lives.
It is incredibly rewarding tosolve problems with it, it, it.
It gives a lot of uh developersjust aha moments and it keeps
us coming back to it over andover and over.
But you know a lot of us just wegot curious and we allowed that
(03:18):
curiosity to take us intodifferent avenues in tech where
maybe it's not the mostefficient path to get a job, but
it did bring our motivation up,it did excite us to learn
something new again and thatlearning even if we took a
little bit of a detour, thatlearning then reignited us when
(03:39):
we went back on the path.
Like, for example, if you aretrying to become a front-end
developer to then learnfront-end stuff.
I think just learning, havingfun with technology, being
curious about it, and justlearning how to be a better
software engineer and workingwith different languages and
building different stuff andjust pursuing software
engineering in general can beexciting again when you don't
(04:04):
create this tunnel vision foryourself to just learn one
single stack and pray that youget a job building shit that you
really don't want to buildbecause you really love backing
it.
Fuck front end.
But I got to learn front endbecause that's the only way I'm
going to get a job, which is ahuge misconception.
I've talked about this alreadyin my last video.
But so many people need toallow themselves to be curious
(04:27):
and I find those are thepersonalities, those are the
types of people who willeventually break into the
industry and build a meaningfuland rewarding career for
themselves.
That pays a lot more money andthat comes with time.
But you gotta you have to letthat curiosity just you gotta
reignite that curiosity, and Ithink a lot of people just need
(04:49):
to be reminded of that sometimes.
So if I was starting all overagain, I'm going to talk about a
few ways where I would try tofigure out like what the hell I
wanted to do right.
Tech is a big, big sphere.
It's a big career path that hasa lot of different little
career paths within it, and Iwould even be careful about
(05:09):
putting software engineering ona pedestal.
Software engineering is a very,very stressful job.
You can get paid quite a bit ofmoney with a less stressful job
and maybe you want to know howyou figure out what those less
stressful jobs are.
Look on YouTube, look atday-in-the-life videos of a ton
of different tech positions.
You could have chat to be t orwhatever LLM you use.
(05:31):
Just build a giant list of techcareer paths that you can kind
of look down and have itdescribe like what they're like
and you know who are the typesof people who would enjoy it,
who are the types of people whowould hate it, who would excel
in it, who wouldn't.
Right, like you can prompt anLLM to give you kind of just a
rundown of all this.
That'll give you a startingpoint to then look up different
(05:52):
content creators and differentdevelopers that are talking
about their career and what theydo day-to-day at their work and
what kind of things they'rebuilding, what kind of things
they're working on, what theyhate about the job right, but
it's a ton of research.
Don't, please, don't just andmaybe I'm just seeing this
because I'm in the web dev spaceand, like you know, I'm helping
(06:15):
a lot of aspiring developersbut I feel like so many people
are coming into web dev thinkingthis is like their access into,
like a high ticket job and it'sthe easiest type of work to get
into as a software engineer,which just isn't true.
Remember, a lot of people havethis misconception, but then you
have a lot of competition aswell.
So I would honestly get thatrundown.
(06:37):
You could ask friends, you canask family.
If you know anyone in theindustry, you could talk to them
about it and, you know,challenge them not to just give
you a watered down version orkind of just like a happy path
version of their job, like whatare the shitty parts of it?
What do they hate?
What do they wish weredifferent in their position?
(06:57):
Like if they were going for anew position, what would they
want to aim for?
And does that exist in thattype of position?
Or are they thinking aboutmoving?
Why are they thinking aboutmoving?
Just having conversations withpeople that you meet at
different tech meetups, you meetonline, different discords,
online hackathon events, justlike.
Having these conversations witha ton of people online is a
(07:20):
really easy and accessible wayto start getting some insight
into what you might enjoy asyou're listening to all of these
people.
A lot of people would reallybenefit from just having a huge
playlist of these videos ofdifferent people in different
(07:42):
positions talking about, like,what it even took to become this
or like, wherever they are,what it took to actually get to
where they are, but day in thelife videos, and not cheesy
latte on the rooftop videos.
But I'm talking about, likepeople breaking it down and
being real with you.
What is it really like to workthis position?
(08:04):
And I'd be careful about theoverly optimistic people and the
overly pessimistic people, orget a balance of both, but try
to find people who are going tobe grounded enough to be able to
give you the pros and cons.
That's what I find the mostinsight with.
But it's watching a ton ofthese videos.
It's doing a bunch of researchinto what it might take to get
(08:25):
this type of position and thetypes of things that you're
going to be building and workingon.
Do any of these appeal to you?
Like you know, a lot of peoplewant to become developers?
Why?
When I asked that question, why?
It's like there are a lot ofreally bad answers to that
question.
A good answer isn't I want tomake more money.
A good answer isn't well,that's the main bad answer that
(08:47):
I hear a lot, and those peopleusually end up failing.
They don't break into theindustry because it requires so
much time investment that thatreason of I just want to make
more money isn't motivatingenough.
You have to enjoy what you'regoing with.
You can make a lot more moneyin different tech positions, but
you have to find what you trulyenjoy and that happens over
time and you can pivot over timeyears even into your career.
(09:10):
You can slowly starttransitioning as well, but you
can start trying to get a littlebit of an inkling of what just
the types of things that youkind of enjoy, that you don't
feel like you're forcingyourself to learn and that you
never feel motivation with like.
If you never feel motivation,you're not inspired to learn
(09:31):
what you're learning.
Why are you learning it?
That's crazy to me.
Like, and I would even argue alot of people need to get off
the linear path of like.
Okay, when I get this likegiant tutorial or this giant
udemy course that's telling meto do this step by step, by step
by step.
If you're just getting boredwith it, man, like it's okay to
go off the beaten path, it'sokay to pivot a little bit and
(09:53):
try different stuff, it'llreignite that passion in you.
But again, you have to becurious enough to just go out of
bounds a bit and try differentlibraries and different
languages that might not be themost marketable in your area.
That's okay.
A lot of other people look at aton of different positions of
(10:15):
like there are a ton of Javapositions in my area and so I
got to learn Java.
No, no, no, no.
I think the research initiallyis good and we so like building
a spreadsheet of a ton of openpositions and their tech stacks
(10:35):
and what their requirements arelike for 100 or 250 positions in
kind of like your local bigcities or something like that.
But building a spreadsheet justto be aware of what companies
are hiring for is valuable.
But you shouldn't necessarilygo for the most popular job
(10:58):
posting.
You might hate Java.
I think it's completely okay totry it and build something with
it.
But if you are the type ofperson that just forces yourself
to go through learning alanguage that you don't like
because you think it's the mostmarketable.
You are the type of person Isee give up.
Oh, by the way, if you're tryingto become a front-end developer
(11:19):
, I highly recommend you checkout Scrimpa.
I'm specifically talking abouttheir front-end developer career
path.
They have a fun, interactiveway to learn how to code and
become a web developer, andwhile that's true, that's not
the main reason that I want topromote them, honestly.
The main reason is theircurriculum is solid.
There are a lot of curriculumsthat do not prepare people to
(11:40):
actually be competitive in themarket, and I've reviewed a ton
of programs and to this day, itis still one of my favorites and
one of the best front endendcurriculums out there for
self-taught developers, andthey're backed by MDN, a leading
and well-respected resource inthe developer community, and I
actually personally run my ownmentees through the program to
(12:04):
prepare them for front-enddeveloper jobs.
And if you choose to sign upvia my affiliate link below in
the description, you actuallyget 30% off if you sign up for a
paid plan, but you have to signup by the end of February to
take advantage of that, becauseit expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself.
What do you have to lose?
Let's get back to the topic.
Give up, because they areseeking just more money and
(12:33):
going for the what they perceiveto be the most marketable
position, without forgettingthat so many good software
engineers are good softwareengineers because they're
fucking curious and theyexplored a ton.
They didn't go down a superlinear path.
They tried a bunch of differentthings until they settled on
something and then they fuckingdoubled down with it.
You can make a lot of differentmoney with most marketable
technologies.
You have choices.
(12:56):
You don't have to go for themost popular one and then you
can.
When you do a little bit ofmarket research of like what is
popular too, you can look atwhat types of companies are
hiring.
Maybe a ton of like old schoolkind of like non-tech companies
are hiring for a specificlanguage, even though there's a
(13:17):
lot of positions open with that.
Maybe you want to be in a moreprogressive tech culture, that
where you're not working on, youknow, 10 to 15 to 15 year old
legacy codeases stuck in a veryold version that you are going
to hate working with.
There are a lot of very, very,very old PHP codebases out there
(13:40):
that you might not be so happywith.
But you can look at thesecompanies and do I want to work
for these types of companies?
Look at the developers thatwork on these teams.
Research them on LinkedIn.
What do they like?
Are they likable or are theyjust miserable?
You'll discover there are a lotof miserable people in the
software engineering field.
Do I want to end up like them?
Do I want to be miserable likethem?
(14:02):
Do I want to hate my job likethem?
Maybe you don't.
Maybe you actually want toenjoy what you're doing.
It's okay to do that research.
It's okay to build thatspreadsheet.
I think that's helpful and youcould start digging in and
looking up the teams and lookingup the developers that are
working with these languages,with these types of companies.
But this is what I'm talkingabout, like over time.
(14:24):
Don't just expect yourself toknow what you are going to get
into right away.
Expect this research to happenmany, many, many months, um, and
even well into your career, butmany, many months initially of
just figuring out like differentavenues that you can take.
(14:45):
And in the meantime, it's okayto start with a language, start
with Python, do a Python coursewhile you're continuing to do
research.
Or maybe you want to just takea chance at freelancing.
You want to learn WordPressinitially and go the PHP route,
(15:06):
but you're like I probably won'tstay with it.
Continue doing that researchand expand your horizons, but
you will probably change yourpath before you land that first
position.
That's okay.
I'm not saying you need tospend three to six months with
WordPress.
But what if there's a coursethat your buddy recommended that
(15:27):
you know he wants to go with?
He wants to do that programwith you at the same time and
that would be fun.
Okay, cool, let's do like a twoweek course and let's learn
this together.
Let's build something, and thenwe'll decide what we want to do
afterwards.
It's okay to just pick up alanguage and start learning and
building with it.
It doesn't have to be thelanguage that you apply for jobs
(15:48):
with.
It just doesn't.
And here's the thing that stillpeople hate me for.
It triggers so many people.
You should be planning onspending years trying to become
a developer Years and that's theproblem.
So many people are trying toget a job within a year rushing.
(16:12):
And if I just did everythingright and everything perfect, I
could be an exception and Icould stand out and get that dev
job within a year.
I could break into the industrybefore most other people.
I know I can.
I've heard this so many timesthat motivational wane and when
you don't enjoy what you'redoing, you're going to be that
statistic, even though you tellyourself you're not going to be.
(16:34):
You are going to be thatstatistic that just gives up.
And that's what I'm trying toget people to realize and avoid.
And I think how you avoidgiving up, which is the only way
you will never become asoftware engineer, the way you
avoid that, is you allow yourcuriosity to take over at times.
You allow yourself to trydifferent stuff that looks
(16:57):
interesting.
You allow yourself to beopen-minded to what other people
are saying about their day inthe life and what they think the
industry is kind of turninginto For better or worse.
You keep watching videos andlistening to developer stories.
You meet other developers alongthe way you you have these
meaningful conversations whereyou teach each other about, like
(17:18):
what you've gone through andyour opinions that you've formed
, even if it's with otheraspiring developers.
What have they discovered?
What content creators have theylooked up and like really
respect and why, why?
Why do they respect thatcontent creator's opinions and
who is this content creator?
What was their position?
Are they still in the industry?
What's that like?
But it's about keeping your mindopen that software engineering
(17:44):
is a huge field and so becominga good software engineer is
about learning a lot ofdifferent things, a lot of
different paradigms, ways ofdoing things, and with different
languages, different ecosystems.
There are going to be differentconventions.
You're going to have differentcultures, different opinions,
(18:05):
and you might have different devcultures that are more
appealing to you, right?
You might have a more meme-yculture, you might have a more
sensitive-y culture or you mighthave a more sensitive and soft
culture, with differentlanguages.
What appeals more to you?
That takes time to flush outand discover.
But if you want to speed thatup, as you are continuing to
(18:25):
learn something, always learningsomething, and moving forward
and getting good in thatecosystem, and you can always
carry that into another language, another ecosystem, but always
doing something where youcontinue to do research, meet
other people and haveconversations this is how you
start paving your way in tech.
Highly encourage you.
(18:46):
Highly encourage you, if youhaven't already, expand the
amount of time that it's goingto take to become a developer to
, I wouldn't say well, over twoyears, but to over two years.
If you're not even willing todo that, this is where I see
people get frustrated.
So I wrote a bunch of notesthat I didn't go over.
(19:10):
So I'm going to just check tosee if I have anything else to
add.
Bunch of notes that I didn't goover, so I'm going to just
check to see if I have anythingelse to add.
One thing I would okay, I dothink I have a few things.
One thing I would encourage youto do is, when you are learning
a language, I think it reallyhelps to build kind of a small,
even just a small personalproject outside of your tutorial
(19:30):
based projects, but just asmall project, personal project,
outside of your tutorial-basedprojects, but just a small
project, building something thatyou want to build to reinforce
the concepts that you need toreinforce.
You know you just came out of acourse how do I reinforce these
concepts?
And you could again have an LLMcome up with a bunch of
different ideas, a variety ofideas.
If you're just looking to buildlike a small personal project
(19:50):
to try this new language out,like that's what you can do.
But build a personal project,because I think when you start
flushing out a personal projectwithout getting your hand held,
it kind of that's when you startdiscovering if, like I, really
like working with this, build apersonal project.
I think it's going to helpquite a bit.
(20:19):
Quite a bit, um, you might evenfind that, like you don't really
like front end or back end, youdon't really like coding, but
you like server setup.
You might be fascinated withhardening your linux server and
you just go that route.
You might want to build a bunchof scripts and automated tools.
You might go into building abunch of developer tools.
Devops is an awesome positionthat is well-respected in tech
(20:45):
teams and it comes from peoplejust diving deeper in that area
and wanting to automate and makeit easier for a lot of
developers on the team to beable to do their work.
And they like the server setup,they like setting up pipelines,
they like setting upautomations.
You might just want to build amobile app.
You're like you know what?
I kind of like front end, but Idon't want to deal with all
these different browsers anddifferent screen resolutions.
(21:08):
Like, let's just buildsomething for a mobile device.
It's really to the point, it'sminimal.
That's my style, um, that, likeyou might have a passion for
analyzing and manipulating data.
You might go the data scienceroute.
Machine learning is becoming alittle bit more popular.
You might enjoy that route.
But I also want to stress, likea lot of people want to become a
(21:32):
software engineer and I'm gonnaask this, like why, why there
are so many different avenues intech, so many different areas
in tech that you can go down.
Why why fall, like, why blindlyfollow the same path that many,
(22:00):
many people have followed thatare not going to get that job,
because most people won't landthat that uh deposition, they do
end up giving up.
Um, why blindly follow it justbecause everyone else is doing
it?
I think that's kind of part ofthe problem.
You think it's just this likequick access to like a high
ticket position and you're goingto be respected and you're
(22:24):
going to feel good aboutyourself for becoming a
developer.
But there's a reason why somany people are failing at it
and it's because they don'treally enjoy it.
I think a lot of people justwant to better themselves.
I think you probably want abetter career, maybe for
yourself, for your family.
You want more money, you want,um, you want to get involved in
(22:44):
technology because you feel likeyour old industry might get
taken over soon and you'restarting to already see that,
with positions kind of goingaway and the market's getting a
bit rough.
I think those are fine reasonsto start with.
But software engineering is areally long path and if you're
not going with a CS degree, thealternative path is really hard.
(23:04):
The self-taught path is reallyhard.
Do you just want a better life?
You don't have to become asoftware engineer.
There are a ton of differenttech positions and there are
giant lists online.
Llms can create these lists foryou.
We've talked about that in thebeginning.
But I really want a lot ofpeople to question why they're
becoming a software engineer,because it's a very high-stress
(23:26):
position.
You paid a lot of money for areason.
It's a very high-stressposition.
Just explore.
I think that's my message.
Please just get curious andexplore, because tech has a
place for everyone.
You're not too dumb for tech.
Some people think it's like anintelligence thing.
(23:47):
Tech rewards people who careabout getting good at their
craft.
Tech rewards people who careabout getting good at their
craft.
Tech rewards people who arecurious enough to keep diving
deeper and exploring new thingsin tech.
Tech rewards people who arecurious enough and enjoyed
enough to keep up with newtechnologies and what's
happening in their specificposition and their specific
(24:10):
career path and also beingopen-minded to what's happening
outside of their specificposition as well and how it all
kind of interconnects together.
Tech rewards people who are,who love technology, who are
hungry for it, who are curiousabout it, who love constantly
learning about it.
And, if that sounds appealingto you, there are a ton of
(24:31):
different opportunities in tech.
Please keep an open mind withthat.
If you are only going for a developer position
because you think it's theeasiest to land to basically
break into the industry, I thinkyou're only hurting yourself.
From what I've seen, a ton ofpeople that end up falling off
and they don't actually landdeveloper positions are those
who kind of just don't enjoy itthat much and they don't really
pursue it long enough.
(00:20):
They don't get the depth ofknowledge and they're kind of
just pursuing.
Maybe it's or they think it'sthe easiest to get into the
industry if they become afront-end developer, for example
.
So everyone tries to become afront-end developer, but I find
that a lot of people wouldeventually break in if they
started pursuing what they trulyenjoyed, because it's a very
(00:41):
long path.
You're going to lose motivationalong the way many, many, many,
many, many times.
But the problems that you'resolving are going to be very
different in differentdepositions.
They're going to be differentwith different technology stacks
that you're working withdifferent types of apps that
you're trying to build and youneed to explore and be curious
enough to try different thingsto finally settle on something
(01:06):
that you actually do enjoy.
So many developers are justtrying to pursue a path that
they aren't excited to wake upand learn more about.
They're not excited to wake upand work on the projects that
they got to build to be hireablefor that type of deposition.
(01:26):
A ton of people are just givingup because they don't.
They're not allowing themselvesto just become a better
programmer, a better softwareengineer who is curious, who
tries different things, whotries different languages, who
builds different things and justwants to solve things with
technology.
A lot of us back in the daywould just kind of be fascinated
(01:47):
with technology in general andwe, you know, even when you
built your first PC and justfiguring out how to do that and
get it set up properly, and itwas just like it was yours.
You built that and you choseall the different parts and you
chose a software that you'regoing to install on that PC.
That's supposed to be,hopefully pick the right
(02:09):
hardware to be optimal for whatyou're trying to do with it and
it was exciting.
It's just something customthing you built.
Some people would builddifferent things with Raspberry
Pis.
Some people would build reallysilly command line scripts.
Some people would just have funbuilding things on GeoCities
and bringing their ideas to lifeon the web so other people can
interact with it that there areso many different opportunities,
(02:31):
even outside of web development, because I talk about that a
lot but there are a lot ofopportunities to just play with
technology and have fun and becurious about it.
And I feel like that's what'slost in a lot of junior
developers, where they kind ofjust were unhappy with their
previous career and theytransitioned but they're not
really finding the love fortechnology that a lot of good
developers found a long time ago.
(02:53):
And it's sad, becausetechnology, it is our future.
It enhances people's lives.
It is incredibly rewarding tosolve problems with it, it, it.
It gives a lot of uh developersjust aha moments and it keeps
us coming back to it over andover and over.
But you know a lot of us just wegot curious and we allowed that
(03:18):
curiosity to take us intodifferent avenues in tech where
maybe it's not the mostefficient path to get a job, but
it did bring our motivation up,it did excite us to learn
something new again and thatlearning even if we took a
little bit of a detour, thatlearning then reignited us when
(03:39):
we went back on the path.
Like, for example, if you aretrying to become a front-end
developer to then learnfront-end stuff.
I think just learning, havingfun with technology, being
curious about it, and justlearning how to be a better
software engineer and workingwith different languages and
building different stuff andjust pursuing software
engineering in general can beexciting again when you don't
(04:04):
create this tunnel vision foryourself to just learn one
single stack and pray that youget a job building shit that you
really don't want to buildbecause you really love backing
it.
Fuck front end.
But I got to learn front endbecause that's the only way I'm
going to get a job, which is ahuge misconception.
I've talked about this alreadyin my last video.
But so many people need toallow themselves to be curious
(04:27):
and I find those are thepersonalities, those are the
types of people who willeventually break into the
industry and build a meaningfuland rewarding career for
themselves.
That pays a lot more money andthat comes with time.
But you gotta you have to letthat curiosity just you gotta
reignite that curiosity, and Ithink a lot of people just need
(04:49):
to be reminded of that sometimes.
So if I was starting all overagain, I'm going to talk about a
few ways where I would try tofigure out like what the hell I
wanted to do right.
Tech is a big, big sphere.
It's a big career path that hasa lot of different little
career paths within it, and Iwould even be careful about
(05:09):
putting software engineering ona pedestal.
Software engineering is a very,very stressful job.
You can get paid quite a bit ofmoney with a less stressful job
and maybe you want to know howyou figure out what those less
stressful jobs are.
Look on YouTube, look atday-in-the-life videos of a ton
of different tech positions.
You could have chat to be t orwhatever LLM you use.
(05:31):
Just build a giant list of techcareer paths that you can kind
of look down and have itdescribe like what they're like
and you know who are the typesof people who would enjoy it,
who are the types of people whowould hate it, who would excel
in it, who wouldn't.
Right, like you can prompt anLLM to give you kind of just a
rundown of all this.
That'll give you a startingpoint to then look up different
(05:52):
content creators and differentdevelopers that are talking
about their career and what theydo day-to-day at their work and
what kind of things they'rebuilding, what kind of things
they're working on, what theyhate about the job right, but
it's a ton of research.
Don't, please, don't just andmaybe I'm just seeing this
because I'm in the web dev spaceand, like you know, I'm helping
(06:15):
a lot of aspiring developersbut I feel like so many people
are coming into web dev thinkingthis is like their access into,
like a high ticket job and it'sthe easiest type of work to get
into as a software engineer,which just isn't true.
Remember, a lot of people havethis misconception, but then you
have a lot of competition aswell.
So I would honestly get thatrundown.
(06:37):
You could ask friends, you canask family.
If you know anyone in theindustry, you could talk to them
about it and, you know,challenge them not to just give
you a watered down version orkind of just like a happy path
version of their job, like whatare the shitty parts of it?
What do they hate?
What do they wish weredifferent in their position?
(06:57):
Like if they were going for anew position, what would they
want to aim for?
And does that exist in thattype of position?
Or are they thinking aboutmoving?
Why are they thinking aboutmoving?
Just having conversations withpeople that you meet at
different tech meetups, you meetonline, different discords,
online hackathon events, justlike.
Having these conversations witha ton of people online is a
(07:20):
really easy and accessible wayto start getting some insight
into what you might enjoy asyou're listening to all of these
people.
A lot of people would reallybenefit from just having a huge
playlist of these videos ofdifferent people in different
(07:42):
positions talking about, like,what it even took to become this
or like, wherever they are,what it took to actually get to
where they are, but day in thelife videos, and not cheesy
latte on the rooftop videos.
But I'm talking about, likepeople breaking it down and
being real with you.
What is it really like to workthis position?
(08:04):
And I'd be careful about theoverly optimistic people and the
overly pessimistic people, orget a balance of both, but try
to find people who are going tobe grounded enough to be able to
give you the pros and cons.
That's what I find the mostinsight with.
But it's watching a ton ofthese videos.
It's doing a bunch of researchinto what it might take to get
(08:25):
this type of position and thetypes of things that you're
going to be building and workingon.
Do any of these appeal to you?
Like you know, a lot of peoplewant to become developers?
Why?
When I asked that question, why?
It's like there are a lot ofreally bad answers to that
question.
A good answer isn't I want tomake more money.
A good answer isn't well,that's the main bad answer that
(08:47):
I hear a lot, and those peopleusually end up failing.
They don't break into theindustry because it requires so
much time investment that thatreason of I just want to make
more money isn't motivatingenough.
You have to enjoy what you'regoing with.
You can make a lot more moneyin different tech positions, but
you have to find what you trulyenjoy and that happens over
time and you can pivot over timeyears even into your career.
(09:10):
You can slowly starttransitioning as well, but you
can start trying to get a littlebit of an inkling of what just
the types of things that youkind of enjoy, that you don't
feel like you're forcingyourself to learn and that you
never feel motivation with like.
If you never feel motivation,you're not inspired to learn
(09:31):
what you're learning.
Why are you learning it?
That's crazy to me.
Like, and I would even argue alot of people need to get off
the linear path of like.
Okay, when I get this likegiant tutorial or this giant
udemy course that's telling meto do this step by step, by step
by step.
If you're just getting boredwith it, man, like it's okay to
go off the beaten path, it'sokay to pivot a little bit and
(09:53):
try different stuff, it'llreignite that passion in you.
But again, you have to becurious enough to just go out of
bounds a bit and try differentlibraries and different
languages that might not be themost marketable in your area.
That's okay.
A lot of other people look at aton of different positions of
(10:15):
like there are a ton of Javapositions in my area and so I
got to learn Java.
No, no, no, no.
I think the research initiallyis good and we so like building
a spreadsheet of a ton of openpositions and their tech stacks
(10:35):
and what their requirements arelike for 100 or 250 positions in
kind of like your local bigcities or something like that.
But building a spreadsheet justto be aware of what companies
are hiring for is valuable.
But you shouldn't necessarilygo for the most popular job
(10:58):
posting.
You might hate Java.
I think it's completely okay totry it and build something with
it.
But if you are the type ofperson that just forces yourself
to go through learning alanguage that you don't like
because you think it's the mostmarketable.
You are the type of person Isee give up.
Oh, by the way, if you're tryingto become a front-end developer
(11:19):
, I highly recommend you checkout Scrimpa.
I'm specifically talking abouttheir front-end developer career
path.
They have a fun, interactiveway to learn how to code and
become a web developer, andwhile that's true, that's not
the main reason that I want topromote them, honestly.
The main reason is theircurriculum is solid.
There are a lot of curriculumsthat do not prepare people to
(11:40):
actually be competitive in themarket, and I've reviewed a ton
of programs and to this day, itis still one of my favorites and
one of the best front endendcurriculums out there for
self-taught developers, andthey're backed by MDN, a leading
and well-respected resource inthe developer community, and I
actually personally run my ownmentees through the program to
(12:04):
prepare them for front-enddeveloper jobs.
And if you choose to sign upvia my affiliate link below in
the description, you actuallyget 30% off if you sign up for a
paid plan, but you have to signup by the end of February to
take advantage of that, becauseit expires after that.
Anyways, check it out foryourself.
What do you have to lose?
Let's get back to the topic.
Give up, because they areseeking just more money and
(12:33):
going for the what they perceiveto be the most marketable
position, without forgettingthat so many good software
engineers are good softwareengineers because they're
fucking curious and theyexplored a ton.
They didn't go down a superlinear path.
They tried a bunch of differentthings until they settled on
something and then they fuckingdoubled down with it.
You can make a lot of differentmoney with most marketable
technologies.
You have choices.
(12:56):
You don't have to go for themost popular one and then you
can.
When you do a little bit ofmarket research of like what is
popular too, you can look atwhat types of companies are
hiring.
Maybe a ton of like old schoolkind of like non-tech companies
are hiring for a specificlanguage, even though there's a
(13:17):
lot of positions open with that.
Maybe you want to be in a moreprogressive tech culture, that
where you're not working on, youknow, 10 to 15 to 15 year old
legacy codeases stuck in a veryold version that you are going
to hate working with.
There are a lot of very, very,very old PHP codebases out there
(13:40):
that you might not be so happywith.
But you can look at thesecompanies and do I want to work
for these types of companies?
Look at the developers thatwork on these teams.
Research them on LinkedIn.
What do they like?
Are they likable or are theyjust miserable?
You'll discover there are a lotof miserable people in the
software engineering field.
Do I want to end up like them?
Do I want to be miserable likethem?
(14:02):
Do I want to hate my job likethem?
Maybe you don't.
Maybe you actually want toenjoy what you're doing.
It's okay to do that research.
It's okay to build thatspreadsheet.
I think that's helpful and youcould start digging in and
looking up the teams and lookingup the developers that are
working with these languages,with these types of companies.
But this is what I'm talkingabout, like over time.
(14:24):
Don't just expect yourself toknow what you are going to get
into right away.
Expect this research to happenmany, many, many months, um, and
even well into your career, butmany, many months initially of
just figuring out like differentavenues that you can take.
(14:45):
And in the meantime, it's okayto start with a language, start
with Python, do a Python coursewhile you're continuing to do
research.
Or maybe you want to just takea chance at freelancing.
You want to learn WordPressinitially and go the PHP route,
(15:06):
but you're like I probably won'tstay with it.
Continue doing that researchand expand your horizons, but
you will probably change yourpath before you land that first
position.
That's okay.
I'm not saying you need tospend three to six months with
WordPress.
But what if there's a coursethat your buddy recommended that
(15:27):
you know he wants to go with?
He wants to do that programwith you at the same time and
that would be fun.
Okay, cool, let's do like a twoweek course and let's learn
this together.
Let's build something, and thenwe'll decide what we want to do
afterwards.
It's okay to just pick up alanguage and start learning and
building with it.
It doesn't have to be thelanguage that you apply for jobs
(15:48):
with.
It just doesn't.
And here's the thing that stillpeople hate me for.
It triggers so many people.
You should be planning onspending years trying to become
a developer Years and that's theproblem.
So many people are trying toget a job within a year rushing.
(16:12):
And if I just did everythingright and everything perfect, I
could be an exception and Icould stand out and get that dev
job within a year.
I could break into the industrybefore most other people.
I know I can.
I've heard this so many timesthat motivational wane and when
you don't enjoy what you'redoing, you're going to be that
statistic, even though you tellyourself you're not going to be.
(16:34):
You are going to be thatstatistic that just gives up.
And that's what I'm trying toget people to realize and avoid.
And I think how you avoidgiving up, which is the only way
you will never become asoftware engineer, the way you
avoid that, is you allow yourcuriosity to take over at times.
You allow yourself to trydifferent stuff that looks
(16:57):
interesting.
You allow yourself to beopen-minded to what other people
are saying about their day inthe life and what they think the
industry is kind of turninginto For better or worse.
You keep watching videos andlistening to developer stories.
You meet other developers alongthe way you you have these
meaningful conversations whereyou teach each other about, like
(17:18):
what you've gone through andyour opinions that you've formed
, even if it's with otheraspiring developers.
What have they discovered?
What content creators have theylooked up and like really
respect and why, why?
Why do they respect thatcontent creator's opinions and
who is this content creator?
What was their position?
Are they still in the industry?
What's that like?
But it's about keeping your mindopen that software engineering
(17:44):
is a huge field and so becominga good software engineer is
about learning a lot ofdifferent things, a lot of
different paradigms, ways ofdoing things, and with different
languages, different ecosystems.
There are going to be differentconventions.
You're going to have differentcultures, different opinions,
(18:05):
and you might have different devcultures that are more
appealing to you, right?
You might have a more meme-yculture, you might have a more
sensitive-y culture or you mighthave a more sensitive and soft
culture, with differentlanguages.
What appeals more to you?
That takes time to flush outand discover.
But if you want to speed thatup, as you are continuing to
(18:25):
learn something, always learningsomething, and moving forward
and getting good in thatecosystem, and you can always
carry that into another language, another ecosystem, but always
doing something where youcontinue to do research, meet
other people and haveconversations this is how you
start paving your way in tech.
Highly encourage you.
(18:46):
Highly encourage you, if youhaven't already, expand the
amount of time that it's goingto take to become a developer to
, I wouldn't say well, over twoyears, but to over two years.
If you're not even willing todo that, this is where I see
people get frustrated.
So I wrote a bunch of notesthat I didn't go over.
(19:10):
So I'm going to just check tosee if I have anything else to
add.
Bunch of notes that I didn't goover, so I'm going to just
check to see if I have anythingelse to add.
One thing I would okay, I dothink I have a few things.
One thing I would encourage youto do is, when you are learning
a language, I think it reallyhelps to build kind of a small,
even just a small personalproject outside of your tutorial
(19:30):
based projects, but just asmall project, personal project,
outside of your tutorial-basedprojects, but just a small
project, building something thatyou want to build to reinforce
the concepts that you need toreinforce.
You know you just came out of acourse how do I reinforce these
concepts?
And you could again have an LLMcome up with a bunch of
different ideas, a variety ofideas.
If you're just looking to buildlike a small personal project
(19:50):
to try this new language out,like that's what you can do.
But build a personal project,because I think when you start
flushing out a personal projectwithout getting your hand held,
it kind of that's when you startdiscovering if, like I, really
like working with this, build apersonal project.
I think it's going to helpquite a bit.
(20:19):
Quite a bit, um, you might evenfind that, like you don't really
like front end or back end, youdon't really like coding, but
you like server setup.
You might be fascinated withhardening your linux server and
you just go that route.
You might want to build a bunchof scripts and automated tools.
You might go into building abunch of developer tools.
Devops is an awesome positionthat is well-respected in tech
(20:45):
teams and it comes from peoplejust diving deeper in that area
and wanting to automate and makeit easier for a lot of
developers on the team to beable to do their work.
And they like the server setup,they like setting up pipelines,
they like setting upautomations.
You might just want to build amobile app.
You're like you know what?
I kind of like front end, but Idon't want to deal with all
these different browsers anddifferent screen resolutions.
(21:08):
Like, let's just buildsomething for a mobile device.
It's really to the point, it'sminimal.
That's my style, um, that, likeyou might have a passion for
analyzing and manipulating data.
You might go the data scienceroute.
Machine learning is becoming alittle bit more popular.
You might enjoy that route.
But I also want to stress, likea lot of people want to become a
(21:32):
software engineer and I'm gonnaask this, like why, why there
are so many different avenues intech, so many different areas
in tech that you can go down.
Why why fall, like, why blindlyfollow the same path that many,
(22:00):
many people have followed thatare not going to get that job,
because most people won't landthat that uh deposition, they do
end up giving up.
Um, why blindly follow it justbecause everyone else is doing
it?
I think that's kind of part ofthe problem.
You think it's just this likequick access to like a high
ticket position and you're goingto be respected and you're
(22:24):
going to feel good aboutyourself for becoming a
developer.
But there's a reason why somany people are failing at it
and it's because they don'treally enjoy it.
I think a lot of people justwant to better themselves.
I think you probably want abetter career, maybe for
yourself, for your family.
You want more money, you want,um, you want to get involved in
(22:44):
technology because you feel likeyour old industry might get
taken over soon and you'restarting to already see that,
with positions kind of goingaway and the market's getting a
bit rough.
I think those are fine reasonsto start with.
But software engineering is areally long path and if you're
not going with a CS degree, thealternative path is really hard.
(23:04):
The self-taught path is reallyhard.
Do you just want a better life?
You don't have to become asoftware engineer.
There are a ton of differenttech positions and there are
giant lists online.
Llms can create these lists foryou.
We've talked about that in thebeginning.
But I really want a lot ofpeople to question why they're
becoming a software engineer,because it's a very high-stress
(23:26):
position.
You paid a lot of money for areason.
It's a very high-stressposition.
Just explore.
I think that's my message.
Please just get curious andexplore, because tech has a
place for everyone.
You're not too dumb for tech.
Some people think it's like anintelligence thing.
(23:47):
Tech rewards people who careabout getting good at their
craft.
Tech rewards people who careabout getting good at their
craft.
Tech rewards people who arecurious enough to keep diving
deeper and exploring new thingsin tech.
Tech rewards people who arecurious enough and enjoyed
enough to keep up with newtechnologies and what's
happening in their specificposition and their specific
(24:10):
career path and also beingopen-minded to what's happening
outside of their specificposition as well and how it all
kind of interconnects together.
Tech rewards people who are,who love technology, who are
hungry for it, who are curiousabout it, who love constantly
learning about it.
And, if that sounds appealingto you, there are a ton of
(24:31):
different opportunities in tech.
Please keep an open mind withthat.
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