<story><title>Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been programming on and off since the age of 16. Unfortunately, I have never been a rockstar programmer. I&amp;#x27;ve always pieced code together from multiple sources to create programs but I&amp;#x27;ve always failed to come up with a solution from scratch of my own and provide any value. I&amp;#x27;ve always wondered how other smart people are able to come up with libraries, services and various solutions from scratch. I&amp;#x27;ve devised countless ideas only to never execute them for various reasons or get started with them only to never fully complete them and see it all the way through.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve already wasted my entire teens and 20s, current 28 years old, working as a software engineer (Full-Stack) at a startup for ~4 years. I&amp;#x27;ve been feeling like a loser and not good enough for this career even though I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very small team. I&amp;#x27;ve put in countless hours of work every day (70-90 hrs), being on-call almost 24&amp;#x2F;7, sometimes for straight 7 days for months despite only getting paid on a salary basis on 40 hr work weeks; being a loner helps with working long hours. My salary also hasn&amp;#x27;t increased much, and feel like I&amp;#x27;m severely underpaid based on the # of years of experience but I struggle with evaluating my value in the market to determine my worth. I assumed working hard would pay off but that hasn&amp;#x27;t been the case at all; I truly believe I&amp;#x27;ve been doing the opposite of &amp;quot;Work Smart, Not Hard&amp;quot;. I&amp;#x27;ve been trying to get back to learning DS and Algos so I can apply to places but I struggle with LeetCode, which is making me feel like even a bigger loser for not being able to solve problems.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m stuck in a rut, wanting to better my skills and earn a good amount of money but unable to concentrate, riddled with brain fog, and unsure of my future. My self-confidence and self-esteem are taking a hit. I am terrible at networking, so I don&amp;#x27;t have others to reach out to for tips and advice, hence I&amp;#x27;m turning to HN. I apologize if this isn&amp;#x27;t the place for a post like this. How can I turn my directionless life around and find satisfaction with my career?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>It depends entirely on the company and how many other candidates they have.&lt;p&gt;If I receive 200 resumes and 30% of them are picture perfect - Sorry, I can’t interview or even screen everyone. The resume with unexplained gaps isn’t getting sorted into the top of the pile simply because I have to be aggressive with filtering.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, if I’m hiring for a difficult position at a less popular company and I’m only getting 1 or 2 okay resumes per week, I’ll take the time to screen resumes with gaps as long as everything else looks fine.&lt;p&gt;You have to understand that a lot of hiring managers simply couldn’t screen&amp;#x2F;interview everyone even if they wanted to. For those jobs, having unexplained gaps in an otherwise average resume could be the negative signal that moves you slightly down bellow the threshold.&lt;p&gt;But for a lot of average jobs: No, it doesn’t actually matter that much.</text></item><item><author>feanaro</author><text>&amp;gt; No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume.&lt;p&gt;On a related note, this &amp;quot;gap in resume&amp;quot; thing needs to stop being a thing at all. I don&amp;#x27;t know when it became a thing, but it feels distinctively like forcing a wage slave class to keep their head down and continue wageslaving.&lt;p&gt;Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise?</text></item><item><author>colanderman</author><text>1. Take time off, like a month or more. [1]  Use it to do anything other than coding.  Hone a hobby, travel, volunteer, etc.  No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume.&lt;p&gt;2. You are worth more than you currently think you are.  Internalize this, know this, that is key.  &amp;quot;I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very small team&amp;quot; --&amp;gt; is a desirable skill in and of itself.&lt;p&gt;3. Stop working 80 hour weeks, stop working weekends.  When the only thing you do has little&amp;#x2F;no reward, that is what causes burnout.&lt;p&gt;4. Fill your time with something else that you prioritize above work.  Make it hard to find time to work.  This both prevents slipping back to 80 hr weeks, and forces your brain to prioritize important things within your work life (like executing and finishing projects).&lt;p&gt;5. Networking is key.  I don&amp;#x27;t have good advice here as this is a challenge for me also.  But -- switch jobs often (every couple years), and be friendly and helpful (within reason) to your co-workers.  They&amp;#x27;re now your network.&lt;p&gt;My background -- coding since I was 6, now 36 -- but I&amp;#x27;ve shared many of the same feelings.&lt;p&gt;[1] I am assuming you have the basic financial stability to support this.  My apologies if not.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lttlrck</author><text>A company that doesn&amp;#x27;t respect the need for privacy and&amp;#x2F;or the need to take time off should be avoided.&lt;p&gt;Nobody should have to explain a gap between jobs upfront - they could be gardening, on pilgrimage or attending family - Or simply take advantage of between jobs to take a well earned break. There are a million none of your business reasons.&lt;p&gt;There should be no expectation for this information, until you engage with them. And even then...</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Burnt-out, directionless but want to turn it around</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve been programming on and off since the age of 16. Unfortunately, I have never been a rockstar programmer. I&amp;#x27;ve always pieced code together from multiple sources to create programs but I&amp;#x27;ve always failed to come up with a solution from scratch of my own and provide any value. I&amp;#x27;ve always wondered how other smart people are able to come up with libraries, services and various solutions from scratch. I&amp;#x27;ve devised countless ideas only to never execute them for various reasons or get started with them only to never fully complete them and see it all the way through.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;ve already wasted my entire teens and 20s, current 28 years old, working as a software engineer (Full-Stack) at a startup for ~4 years. I&amp;#x27;ve been feeling like a loser and not good enough for this career even though I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very small team. I&amp;#x27;ve put in countless hours of work every day (70-90 hrs), being on-call almost 24&amp;#x2F;7, sometimes for straight 7 days for months despite only getting paid on a salary basis on 40 hr work weeks; being a loner helps with working long hours. My salary also hasn&amp;#x27;t increased much, and feel like I&amp;#x27;m severely underpaid based on the # of years of experience but I struggle with evaluating my value in the market to determine my worth. I assumed working hard would pay off but that hasn&amp;#x27;t been the case at all; I truly believe I&amp;#x27;ve been doing the opposite of &amp;quot;Work Smart, Not Hard&amp;quot;. I&amp;#x27;ve been trying to get back to learning DS and Algos so I can apply to places but I struggle with LeetCode, which is making me feel like even a bigger loser for not being able to solve problems.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m stuck in a rut, wanting to better my skills and earn a good amount of money but unable to concentrate, riddled with brain fog, and unsure of my future. My self-confidence and self-esteem are taking a hit. I am terrible at networking, so I don&amp;#x27;t have others to reach out to for tips and advice, hence I&amp;#x27;m turning to HN. I apologize if this isn&amp;#x27;t the place for a post like this. How can I turn my directionless life around and find satisfaction with my career?</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>PragmaticPulp</author><text>It depends entirely on the company and how many other candidates they have.&lt;p&gt;If I receive 200 resumes and 30% of them are picture perfect - Sorry, I can’t interview or even screen everyone. The resume with unexplained gaps isn’t getting sorted into the top of the pile simply because I have to be aggressive with filtering.&lt;p&gt;On the other hand, if I’m hiring for a difficult position at a less popular company and I’m only getting 1 or 2 okay resumes per week, I’ll take the time to screen resumes with gaps as long as everything else looks fine.&lt;p&gt;You have to understand that a lot of hiring managers simply couldn’t screen&amp;#x2F;interview everyone even if they wanted to. For those jobs, having unexplained gaps in an otherwise average resume could be the negative signal that moves you slightly down bellow the threshold.&lt;p&gt;But for a lot of average jobs: No, it doesn’t actually matter that much.</text></item><item><author>feanaro</author><text>&amp;gt; No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume.&lt;p&gt;On a related note, this &amp;quot;gap in resume&amp;quot; thing needs to stop being a thing at all. I don&amp;#x27;t know when it became a thing, but it feels distinctively like forcing a wage slave class to keep their head down and continue wageslaving.&lt;p&gt;Why would an employer care whether I took time off to pursue other things otherwise?</text></item><item><author>colanderman</author><text>1. Take time off, like a month or more. [1]  Use it to do anything other than coding.  Hone a hobby, travel, volunteer, etc.  No-one will care about a month or two gap on your resume.&lt;p&gt;2. You are worth more than you currently think you are.  Internalize this, know this, that is key.  &amp;quot;I am a sole developer for Mobile and Web platforms at this startup in a very small team&amp;quot; --&amp;gt; is a desirable skill in and of itself.&lt;p&gt;3. Stop working 80 hour weeks, stop working weekends.  When the only thing you do has little&amp;#x2F;no reward, that is what causes burnout.&lt;p&gt;4. Fill your time with something else that you prioritize above work.  Make it hard to find time to work.  This both prevents slipping back to 80 hr weeks, and forces your brain to prioritize important things within your work life (like executing and finishing projects).&lt;p&gt;5. Networking is key.  I don&amp;#x27;t have good advice here as this is a challenge for me also.  But -- switch jobs often (every couple years), and be friendly and helpful (within reason) to your co-workers.  They&amp;#x27;re now your network.&lt;p&gt;My background -- coding since I was 6, now 36 -- but I&amp;#x27;ve shared many of the same feelings.&lt;p&gt;[1] I am assuming you have the basic financial stability to support this.  My apologies if not.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>skeeter2020</author><text>&amp;gt; If I receive 200 resumes and 30% of them are picture perfect&lt;p&gt;First, what software company hiring developers is in this position?&lt;p&gt;Second, isn&amp;#x27;t the definition of &amp;quot;picture perfect resume&amp;quot; the exact thing the GP is arguing to change?&lt;p&gt;Third, a month is not a unexplained gap; resumes (even LinkedIn) typically aren&amp;#x27;t fined-grained below the month level with dates, so there&amp;#x27;s nothing to hide or explain.</text></comment>