I’ve been listening to a lot of programming podcasts (I listened to every episode of the freeCodeCamp one and am on episode 153 of JavaScript Jabber) where theres lots of episodes where people talk about how the industry needs more developers and interviews with people who got jobs with very little experience. I also see posts on Twitter about people getting jobs as software developers after just doing a bootcamp or a couple of the freeCodeCamp curriculum courses.
I graduated with a Computer Science degree 2 and a half years ago, have done 3 of freeCodeCamp certifications (and am actively working on finishing the rest), practice coding problems everyday, go to all/most of the programming meetup groups in my area, read programming books nightly, and feel like the industry is just leaving me behind and I can’t do anything about it. I work on improving myself and try to stay engulfed in the programming culture but no company will hire me. What do I have to do? If i’m doing the right things how long do I have to wait for it to pay off? Do I have to wait for me to finish all of freeCodeCamp? It really is just a process of waiting in place even if i’m doing all the actions I can to improve and learn.
Am I a bad person and is there something wrong wrong with me? What quality do all of these people that catch breaks have that I don’t (am I dunning kruger stupid and don’t realize it)? I feel like I have zero control over my ability to get a job as a software developer and why is that the case?
Also every time I see another Tweet/blog/podcast about how another person with no experience got a job in 3 months with no degree it hurts me inside and makes me feel inadequate and rejected arbitrarily. I don’t no how to make it stop, I also can never get back the years i’ve spent trying to get a job when if someone would have given me a chances 2 years ago I would have 2 years of experience and people would want to hire me. It really feels like there is something wrong with the industry or i’m just really unlucky or completely incompetent (without knowing it) and I don’t know what actions i’m supposed to take outside of the ones i’m taking already.