10x dev
10x developers do exist. But they’re not what you’ve been told they are. A 10x dev is simply more impactful than a regular developer. It’s not about cranking out code or being more “productive”. It’s about intuitively grokking problems quicker, and more precise than their peers. And the larger the scale of the problem, the bigger the edge.
Check out this answer on quora
Now here’s the thing. You don’t have to be a 10xer to found a startup.
I learned to code in under 1 year, founded a startup, and have since been employed at vmware.
I am not a 10xer by any means.
You just have to be proficient and dedicated to learning. I doubt the problem you intend to solve requires you to be a 10xer anyways. And if it did, then you’ll need funding to hire other top devs because going solo just won’t cut it at that level.
Also keep in mind that when Zuckerberg started Facebook it was just a simple website anyone of us could build.
big tech
Now about getting into big tech, you’ll need to change your mindset. Like I said I work at vmware and they don’t use the word programmer. At that level they consider themselves engineers.
Why do I say that? Because that’s what the
OSSU path is teaching you. How to engineer. At those big companies you will focus less on code, and more on process, architecture and impact. It’s pretty much a given everyone there can write code.
Things are much, much, slower here. It’s not unheard of for a simple change to a button to take a week to merge. Why? Because with over 200 devs working on the same 3 million LOC repo, and 100s of millions of dollars per month on the line, the number of checks required increases significantly. Because no one can possibly have the full context to make a decision that a change will require.
You’ll have to crank out more code and build more at smaller companies. So if you want to get “faster” at delivering features, that’s where you want to be.
And smaller companies can pay decently as well. Not as much as big tech, but life, like software engineering, is about tradeoffs.
getting into big tech
Now, if you’re still interested in getting into larger companies, then learn as much about best practices as you can. Build as many projects as you can. And leetcode.
Then you could look for referrals, or what I recommend, apprenticeships. Which are 1 year contracts with the possibility of converting to fill time after. That specifically target diversity and inclusion, which applies for self taught devs.
Onramp is a good company for this. Companies have closed their apprenticeships for the year, but follow them on Twitter to be informed when they start up again
https://twitter.com/onramp_io