Learning Programming - I'm lost

[Wictorian]

My goal is to land a job at Fang. Obviously I wanna found a startup like everyone too but that's not my goal for now. I have been learning python and such but now I'm lost. I've been told to learn Java. I've been told not to spend energy learnning syntax.. What am  I supposed to do?

 

[Takumidesh]

3 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

My goal is to land a job at Fang

Why? You can work at one of the millions of companies that are craving developers and will actually give you work life balance and not expect you to drink the kool-aid.

 

4 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

Obviously I wanna found a startup like everyone

speak for yourself, working at a startup sounds horrible to me.

4 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

I have been learning python and such but now I'm lost. I've been told to learn Java. I've been told not to spend energy learnning syntax.. What am  I supposed to do?

If you really want to work at FAANG, you need to actually learn computer science. You should study data structures and algorithms, OOP, Discrete Mathematics, C, Big O notation and how to effectively use it.

 

You should probably spend a little bit of time with low level stuff like x86-64 ASM (though you can get by with just reading about it) as well as concepts like memory management (and garbage collectors for managed languages).

 

Things that will be helpful for you is understanding how and why computers work. Floating Point numbers, Arrays, Pointers (including OS stuff like Execution pointers) Call stacks, etc.

 

If you want to find something that will teach you all of that, learn C and then C++. this will get you used to working closer to the hardware and C++ will get you into the world of OOP.

 

 

After you are comfortable with that. Learn about code deployment, CI/CD, How to work with others in a team (git or other VC implementations) Building for target architectures other than your dev env, etc.

 

OR:

 

Instead of all that just learn .NET core and go work at a local insurance company.

 

 

 

IF you really really don't just want to work somewhere 'normal' then you can try to do web dev for big tech companies. So you need to learn the big 3 (HTML,CSS,JS) as well as a few of the big JS frameworks (react, knockout, angular, etc).

 

 

So much depends on what you want to do though. Google has nearly 20k developers, all working in different teams with different skill sets and specialties.

 

It sounds like you are younger and still learning and that is great! but for now in all reality I would a) manage expectations, and b) just continue practicing. think about what you want to build with software and read about what you would need to accomplish to build it. If you want to make a movie tracking app then read about databases and web frameworks. If you want to make a video game then learn about graphics APIs and system calls. If you want to make a robot learn calculus and PLCs.

 

 

[Wictorian]

7 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

Why? You can work at one of the millions of companies that are craving developers and will actually give you work life balance and not expect you to drink the kool-aid.

 

speak for yourself, working at a startup sounds horrible to me.

If you really want to work at FAANG, you need to actually learn computer science. You should study data structures and algorithms, OOP, Discrete Mathematics, C, Big O notation and how to effectively use it.

 

You should probably spend a little bit of time with low level stuff like x86-64 ASM (though you can get by with just reading about it) as well as concepts like memory management (and garbage collectors for managed languages).

 

Things that will be helpful for you is understanding how and why computers work. Floating Point numbers, Arrays, Pointers (including OS stuff like Execution pointers) Call stacks, etc.

 

If you want to find something that will teach you all of that, learn C and then C++. this will get you used to working closer to the hardware and C++ will get you into the world of OOP.

 

 

After you are comfortable with that. Learn about code deployment, CI/CD, How to work with others in a team (git or other VC implementations) Building for target architectures other than your dev env, etc.

 

OR:

 

Instead of all that just learn .NET core and go work at a local insurance company.

 

 

 

IF you really really don't just want to work somewhere 'normal' then you can try to do web dev for big tech companies. So you need to learn the big 3 (HTML,CSS,JS) as well as a few of the big JS frameworks (react, knockout, angular, etc).

 

 

So much depends on what you want to do though. Google has nearly 20k developers, all working in different teams with different skill sets and specialties.

 

It sounds like you are younger and still learning and that is great! but for now in all reality I would a) manage expectations, and b) just continue practicing. think about what you want to build with software and read about what you would need to accomplish to build it. If you want to make a movie tracking app then read about databases and web frameworks. If you want to make a video game then learn about graphics APIs and system calls. If you want to make a robot learn calculus and PLCs.

 

 

I don’t want work life balance. I want to work at Fang.

 

The thing is I know most of the things you mentioned, but I am not hundred percent confident about my knowledge. 
 

So the best thing to do currently is do what I want? I have some projects on my mind. Actually I’ve been delaying them because I thought learning was more important than doing,
 

My main motive is money and as far as I know data science pays best. Obviously being interested in your job is infinitely valuable however I am interested in computer science.

[jaslion]

31 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

speak for yourself, working at a startup sounds horrible to me.

Great to get some nice resume stuff and often learn a lot but other than that book it after max 2 years.

 

Do you have a piece of paper that says diploma? If not go get something that says that. Might even also have good education for what you need.

[Takumidesh]

27 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

The thing is I know most of the things you mentioned

I'm going to totally honest with you.

 

I don't think you do know them. you recently posted on the forum asking about endianness, even after it was explained to you it was still unclear for you, which is fine, but it is a pretty basic concept in computer science.

 

When you sit down at a google interview, you are going to need to explain, without being able to look anything up online, how you would solve traveling salesman. You are going to need to demonstrate understanding of complex computer science concepts that are inherently esoteric and hard to explain.

 

I am not trying to be mean here, but you seem to be rising to the first peak of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Everyone has been there, myself included. to make a claim that after you

58 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

have been learning python and such

that you are familiar with complex computer science concepts is bold to say the least.

 

When I got my first job as a real life computer programmer I was so quickly smacked in the face with how much I don't know. When a coworker asked me how comfortable I am with vector calculus and inverse kinematics, I was floored. I didn't even know that those were.

 

Now I am not saying you need to know that stuff to be a programmer, those ancillary skills are dependent on the domain. But you are talking about your goal being the literal 'pinnacle' of job competitiveness. You are saying your goal is to play in the world cup, or be an astronaut.

 

If your main goal is money, go work somewhere that does CRUD for internal tools or CRM or something. way lower barrier to entry and there are so many jobs that are crushing for developers.

 

 

Here is a quick question for you, don't google it, just try to answer from memory alone. ( we have to go by the honor system of course)

 

How would you make this code faster? *I refactored the question a bit

 

B is a constant and there still needs to be three variable assignments.

A = 1234123;
B = 4;
C = A/B

 

[Wictorian]

9 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

I'm going to totally honest with you.

 

I don't think you do know them. you recently posted on the forum asking about endianness, even after it was explained to you it was still unclear for you, which is fine, but it is a pretty basic concept in computer science.

 

When you sit down at a google interview, you are going to need to explain, without being able to look anything up online, how you would solve traveling salesman. You are going to need to demonstrate understanding of complex computer science concepts that are inherently esoteric and hard to explain.

 

I am not trying to be mean here, but you seem to be rising to the first peak of the Dunning-Kruger effect. Everyone has been there, myself included. to make a claim that after you

that you are familiar with complex computer science concepts is bold to say the least.

 

When I got my first job as a real life computer programmer I was so quickly smacked in the face with how much I don't know. When a coworker asked me how comfortable I am with vector calculus and inverse kinematics, I was floored. I didn't even know that those were.

 

Now I am not saying you need to know that stuff to be a programmer, those ancillary skills are dependent on the domain. But you are talking about your goal being the literal 'pinnacle' of job competitiveness. You are saying your goal is to play in the world cup, or be an astronaut.

 

If your main goal is money, go work somewhere that does CRUD for internal tools or CRM or something. way lower barrier to entry and there are so many jobs that are crushing for developers.

 

 

Here is a quick question for you, don't google it, just try to answer from memory alone. ( we have to go by the honor system of course)

 

How would you make this code faster?

A = 273456/2

 

Yeah I know my knowledge is minimal but still I am not sure how I am supposed to increase it. Should I learn those concepts to a full extent?

 

Can you eloborate about the job? Do they pay more than Fang?

 

Honestly I have no idea about your question. Write it in a lower level language? (I think this sounds sketchy as hell but the best thing I could come up with)

Or you could convert it to binary and convert the leftmost 1 to 0 but idk if it would be faster.

What about A=185228?  

[Takumidesh]

1 minute ago, Wictorian said:

Honestly I have no idea about your question. Write it in a lower level language? (I think this sounds sketchy as hell but the best thing I could come up with)

Or you could convert it to binary and convert the leftmost 1 to 0 but idk if it would be faster.

multiplication consumes less cycles than division, refactoring the expression to use multiplication instead can increase performance.

 

1 minute ago, Wictorian said:

Can you eloborate about the job? Do they pay more than Fang?

Any job pays more than a job you don't have but wish you did.

 

2 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

Yeah I know my knowledge is minimal but still I am not sure how I am supposed to increase it. Should I learn those concepts to a full extent?

Attempt to write a piece of software that solves a problem (it doesn't matter that the problem may have been solved already by someone else)

 

When you run into a roadblock, research about what the problem is (don't immediately ask for help, actually try to learn it first), rinse and repeat.

 

If you want to learn in a more traditional way, you can A) go to university. b) attend free university audits (like the harvard CS50 course) C) read, a lot and study a lot.

option a and b are pretty self explanatory. Option C is more difficult. Take a topic that interests you (e.g. graphics) and start researching, find a book that covers the topic from first principles and read the entirety of it. Then after attempting to apply the knowledge you gained from the book, read it again.

 

 

[Wictorian]

6 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

multiplication consumes less cycles than division, refactoring the expression to use multiplication instead can increase performance.

 

Any job pays more than a job you don't have but wish you did.

 

Attempt to write a piece of software that solves a problem (it doesn't matter that the problem may have been solved already by someone else)

 

When you run into a roadblock, research about what the problem is (don't immediately ask for help, actually try to learn it first), rinse and repeat.

 

If you want to learn in a more traditional way, you can A) go to university. b) attend free university audits (like the harvard CS50 course) C) read, a lot and study a lot.

option a and b are pretty self explanatory. Option C is more difficult. Take a topic that interests you (e.g. graphics) and start researching, find a book that covers the topic from first principles and read the entirety of it. Then after attempting to apply the knowledge you gained from the book, read it again.

 

 

multiplyng by 1/2 is still division? so dividing 1 by 2 and multiplying that is easier?

 

I really want to aim for Fang. And other jobs aren't different anyways so worst case scenario I could work elsewhere. Why prepare for something else than Fang?

 

Yeah I have wrote pieces of software that solves a problem.

 

I have watched cs50 and other counterparts of it and enjoyed it a lot and it taught me many things however as I said I am not that confident about those.

 

What I was asking is a actually kind of a roadmap. Can you help with this? Or should I build it based on piques my interest and there is no solid path for everyone? 

[Takumidesh]

11 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

multiplyng by 1/2 is still division?

no it is not. You are not multiplying by a fraction, you are multiplying by floating point number.

123123/2 == 123123 * 0.5 but the computer operates on them differently.

 

14 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

Yeah I have wrote pieces of software that solves a problem.

write more

and when you are done writing that software, write more.

 

When you finish that, write even more.

 

Spend less time worrying about what to learn, because every second you spend pretending to learn you aren't actually learning anything.

 

14 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

I have watched cs50 and other counterparts of it and enjoyed it a lot and it taught me many things however as I said I am not that confident about those.

watch it again. take more notes, find the things in the lessons that you do not understand and read about those topics more.

 

 

14 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

What I was asking is a actually kind of a roadmap. Can you help with this? Or should I build it based on piques my interest and there is no solid path for everyone?

You want a roadmap to work at a FAANG company? either create a groundbreaking technology or go to university and with both of those options, try to also have a big helping of luck. Everything else is just more luck.

 

18 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

I really want to aim for Fang. And other jobs aren't different anyways so worst case scenario I could work elsewhere. Why prepare for something else than Fang?

Why prepare for anything other than FAANG?  because eventually you are going to have bills to pay.

 

Other jobs are different from faang. In my region, home of the research triangle, I have a better quality of life (even if the salary may technically be lower) then devs in silicon valley making $300k+ My buying power is higher, WFH is everywhere, the domain is less complex, and there is less competition.

[Takumidesh]

24 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

Or should I build it based on piques my interest and there is no solid path for everyone?

This is what you should do. you are so early in your path that it is not appropriate for you to try to dial in something. just keep practicing.

[Wictorian]

20 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

no it is not. You are not multiplying by a fraction, you are multiplying by floating point number.

123123/2 == 123123 * 0.5 but the computer operates on them differently.

 

write more

and when you are done writing that software, write more.

 

When you finish that, write even more.

 

Spend less time worrying about what to learn, because every second you spend pretending to learn you aren't actually learning anything.

 

watch it again. take more notes, find the things in the lessons that you do not understand and read about those topics more.

 

 

You want a roadmap to work at a FAANG company? either create a groundbreaking technology or go to university and with both of those options, try to also have a big helping of luck. Everything else is just more luck.

 

Why prepare for anything other than FAANG?  because eventually you are going to have bills to pay.

 

Other jobs are different from faang. In my region, home of the research triangle, I have a better quality of life (even if the salary may technically be lower) then devs in silicon valley making $300k+ My buying power is higher, WFH is everywhere, the domain is less complex, and there is less competition.

I have 2 years. Don't you think I can make it?

 

If you make more but spend more you still save more so silicon valley devs save and have more buying power than you at your region. 

[Takumidesh]

33 minutes ago, Wictorian said:

If you make more but spend more you still save more so silicon valley devs save and have more buying power than you at your region. 

No, that is not true. objectively. For a more concrete example. the equivalent homes in silicon valley to mine (the same sq.footage, features) are currently valued around $2 million dollars. my house is $275,000. You have to be able to save MORE than the difference in the salary. I would need to make nearly $850k per year to have the same cost to salary ratio of my current home.

[Wictorian]

4 minutes ago, Takumidesh said:

No, that is not true. objectively. For a more concrete example. the equivalent homes in silicon valley to mine (the same sq.footage, features) are currently valued around $2 million dollars. my house is $275,000. You have to be able to save MORE than the difference in the salary. I would need to make nearly $850k per year to have the same cost to salary ratio of my current home.

ok by any means still I think preparing for Faang is the best option as you will either be prepared for other things too or it will be extremely easy to prepare.

[Takumidesh]

do you homie.

[Avocado Diaboli]

Sorry to do this to you, but I'll be incredibly harsh here: Your biggest problem is that you vastly overestimate your knowledge and ability coupled with the fact that you never really stick with anything for longer than mere days and that in general you're terrible at asking questions. This is evidenced by how often you switch from project to project (and I use the term "project" extremely loosely here) and how you talk with authority about things you have no idea about. You have trouble with even the most basic stuff, given the number of threads where you have to ask for solutions to incredibly simple problems and you seem to have a general lack of ingenuity or desire to work out things for yourself. Take for example the thread you made about making a calculator:

 

This thread just screams to me "I googled how to build a calculator and it only returned tutorials on how to do simple calculators". You claim you did a non-negligible amount of research, but show nothing that would prove that. No initial approach, no code snippets, nothing. It hints at the fact that you want to have a large project where someone holds your hand throughout the entire thing without you having to actually solve any of the problems a software developer needs to be able to solve. Similarly this here:

 

Again, no actual code you're working on, just a first-lesson question on HTML without even a hint as to what you're working on and a general refusal to be helpful to anyone offering you help by just falling back to "it doesn't work" with no elaboration of what you've done.

 

And you keep going on and on about all the projects you've done and that you want to work at FAANG for some reason. Do me a favor: Post a link to your github profile. Show us what you've actually accomplished. How is that calculator coming along? Highlight a project you're proud of for having finished it without immediately jumping ship and asking about how to solve a different problem, if you should learn a different programming language, etc. 

 

I'm not trying to be mean here. I'm by no means anything more than an amateur at programming at best, so I'm not some experienced world-class developer shitting on a newbie just for the sake of it. But it just seems kinda pointless to offer you any help if all you do is ignore it and move on to the next half-baked "project" to repeat the same process. It's not only not useful for you, but it actively wastes the time and effort people on this forum put into their replies to your threads. 

[shadow_ray]

3 hours ago, Takumidesh said:

B is a constant and there still needs to be three variable assignments.

A = 1234123;
B = 4;
C = A/B

I think your comments are valid overall but I strongly disagree with this example. Yes, it's a true fact that multiplication is a faster operation in most architectures, BUT pretty much every c++ compiler can recognize that this is a constant expression and will calculate the result in compile time.

 

Link to example: https://godbolt.org/z/bhevP1cfv

 

I believe that compilers of other languages can work this one out as well.

[Takumidesh]

4 hours ago, shadow_ray said:

I think your comments are valid overall but I strongly disagree with this example. Yes, it's a true fact that multiplication is a faster operation in most architectures, BUT pretty much every c++ compiler can recognize that this is a constant expression and will calculate the result in compile time.

 

Link to example: https://godbolt.org/z/bhevP1cfv

 

I believe that compilers of other languages can work this one out as well.

I was mostly trying to sus out the level of technical knowledge of OP. TBH I also didn't feel like writing a complete code example,

 

But thanks for adding the clarification!

 

(to add: i would believe that 'the compiler is going to optimize that for me' is a good answer, but it is important to understand, why it would, when it would, and when it would not)

[Wictorian]

11 hours ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

Sorry to do this to you, but I'll be incredibly harsh here: Your biggest problem is that you vastly overestimate your knowledge and ability coupled with the fact that you never really stick with anything for longer than mere days and that in general you're terrible at asking questions. This is evidenced by how often you switch from project to project (and I use the term "project" extremely loosely here) and how you talk with authority about things you have no idea about. You have trouble with even the most basic stuff, given the number of threads where you have to ask for solutions to incredibly simple problems and you seem to have a general lack of ingenuity or desire to work out things for yourself. Take for example the thread you made about making a calculator:

 

This thread just screams to me "I googled how to build a calculator and it only returned tutorials on how to do simple calculators". You claim you did a non-negligible amount of research, but show nothing that would prove that. No initial approach, no code snippets, nothing. It hints at the fact that you want to have a large project where someone holds your hand throughout the entire thing without you having to actually solve any of the problems a software developer needs to be able to solve. Similarly this here:

 

Again, no actual code you're working on, just a first-lesson question on HTML without even a hint as to what you're working on and a general refusal to be helpful to anyone offering you help by just falling back to "it doesn't work" with no elaboration of what you've done.

 

And you keep going on and on about all the projects you've done and that you want to work at FAANG for some reason. Do me a favor: Post a link to your github profile. Show us what you've actually accomplished. How is that calculator coming along? Highlight a project you're proud of for having finished it without immediately jumping ship and asking about how to solve a different problem, if you should learn a different programming language, etc. 

 

I'm not trying to be mean here. I'm by no means anything more than an amateur at programming at best, so I'm not some experienced world-class developer shitting on a newbie just for the sake of it. But it just seems kinda pointless to offer you any help if all you do is ignore it and move on to the next half-baked "project" to repeat the same process. It's not only not useful for you, but it actively wastes the time and effort people on this forum put into their replies to your threads. 

By no means I think you are rude. In fact I am saying the same thing as you. 
I don’t upload everything but here you go : https://github.com/wictorianx

I made the calculator with addition function but when I extended it I got some errors and didn’t continue. Is this problematic? I felt like I got what I wanted so further effort would be pointless. In the past I would try to complete every project but I think it is unnecessary. I am looking forward to your comment about this.

Highlights

 

Anagram finder : https://github.com/wictorianx/UnScramble 

Hangman : https://github.com/wictorianx/hangman

TaskManager++: https://github.com/wictorianx/TaskManagePP (terminal window that can launch and terminate programs with database. I used this for terminating steam because it would break at times.)

TableSort : https://github.com/wictorianx/tableSort sorting algorithm that can only sort positive integers I think. 
Jackpot game : https://github.com/wictorianx/jackpot (I am not sure if this is impressive but I’ve seen something similar to this on a developers profile so I made this.)

 

 

 

 

 

 

[wasab]

1 hour ago, Wictorian said:

Snip

None of your portfolio projects are good quality. As a beginner, they are okay for learning but none of these are showcase worthy.
 

don’t include any of these in your showcase portfolio. try to find some decent quality projects to work on. General rule of thumb, if the project takes less than 1 week to complete, it is too simple. Ideally, a showcase worthy project should be at least a month in terms of time investment. 
 

also others are right that you should see them from beginning to finish. There is no such thing as doing a half completed work in a real work environment. If you show a portfolio full of half effort, incomplete work, that is clear indication to any potential employer that you are a half effort and incomplete software developer. Either finish a project or don’t bother with it at all.

 

btw, if you want a good project idea, I have a suggestion. Try creating a google drive clone. 

[Wictorian]

40 minutes ago, wasab said:

None of your portfolio projects are good quality. As a beginner, they are okay for learning but none of these are showcase worthy.
 

don’t include any of these in your showcase portfolio. try to find some decent quality projects to work on. General rule of thumb, if the project takes less than 1 week to complete, it is too simple. Ideally, a showcase worthy project should be at least a month in terms of time investment. 
 

also others are right that you should see them from beginning to finish. There is no such thing as doing a half completed work in a real work environment. If you show a portfolio full of half effort, incomplete work, that is clear indication to any potential employer that you are a half effort and incomplete software developer. Either finish a project or don’t bother with it at all.

 

btw, if you want a good project idea, I have a suggestion. Try creating a google drive clone. 

How will I do that without a server?

 

What framework should I use?

[Sauron]

18 hours ago, Wictorian said:

I have been learning python and such but now I'm lost

Why are you lost?

18 hours ago, Wictorian said:

I've been told to learn Java

By whom?

18 hours ago, Wictorian said:

What am  I supposed to do?

To do what? If you mean "how can I get a programming job at google", I'm sorry to say learning python/java/whatever in your free time isn't likely to cut it. You'll probably need a CS degree or put in waaaaaaaaaay more effort than you're demonstrating.

1 hour ago, Wictorian said:

How will I do that without a server?

You can just run the server locally, it doesn't have to be a real deployment to show that the system works... I wrote a small TOR clone once and I demoed it entirely on a single machine by simulating multiple nodes.

2 hours ago, Wictorian said:

What framework should I use?

This is the kind of question you'd have to answer yourself in a work environment like google. Further you don't really need any specific framework to do this. Figure out how you want the system to work first and then pick whatever language and libraries help you get those things done. This is the type of thing @Avocado Diaboliwas warning you about; your response to being "assigned" a project is to immediately ask us to hold your hand.

4 hours ago, Wictorian said:

I made the calculator with addition function but when I extended it I got some errors and didn’t continue. Is this problematic? I felt like I got what I wanted so further effort would be pointless.

I'd say you did not get what you wanted if you tried to do something and stopped because you couldn't immediately figure it out. You just settled for less than you set out for.

 

There are situations where a problem cannot be solved for a variety of reasons, in which case it's important to realize that as soon as possible and carefully detail the reasons for the roadblock, making absolutely sure that you've thought of all reasonable possibilities and there really is no way forward. I get that pretty often at my workplace since my software has to deal with mechanical and electrical limitations as well as budgetary requirements. Obviously this is not the case for a hobby calculator project; no problem you may have encountered can possibly be unsolvable here. If this were your job, you couldn't just shrug and skip a feature because you got "some errors".

 

If all you care about are hobby projects then none of this matters, whatever you're satisfied with is enough; if you're shooting for a job opportunity then you're not putting in enough effort into your projects.

[Wictorian]

17 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Why are you lost?

By whom?

To do what? If you mean "how can I get a programming job at google", I'm sorry to say learning python/java/whatever in your free time isn't likely to cut it. You'll probably need a CS degree or put in waaaaaaaaaay more effort than you're demonstrating.

You can just run the server locally, it doesn't have to be a real deployment to show that the system works... I wrote a small TOR clone once and I demoed it entirely on a single machine by simulating multiple nodes.

This is the kind of question you'd have to answer yourself in a work environment like google. Further you don't really need any specific framework to do this. Figure out how you want the system to work first and then pick whatever language and libraries help you get those things done. This is the type of thing @Avocado Diaboliwas warning you about; your response to being "assigned" a project is to immediately ask us to hold your hand.

I'd say you did not get what you wanted if you tried to do something and stopped because you couldn't immediately figure it out. You just settled for less than you set out for.

 

There are situations where a problem cannot be solved for a variety of reasons, in which case it's important to realize that as soon as possible and carefully detail the reasons for the roadblock, making absolutely sure that you've thought of all reasonable possibilities and there really is no way forward. I get that pretty often at my workplace since my software has to deal with mechanical and electrical limitations as well as budgetary requirements. Obviously this is not the case for a hobby calculator project; no problem you may have encountered can possibly be unsolvable here. If this were your job, you couldn't just shrug and skip a feature because you got "some errors".

 

If all you care about are hobby projects then none of this matters, whatever you're satisfied with is enough; if you're shooting for a job opportunity then you're not putting in enough effort into your projects.

Thanks this was valuable.

 

[G-ZooM]

You could start contributing to open source software. You will get first hand experience, exposure, real world problems, learn to work in a multicultural team and touch a few processes that will be valuable in any job. You may even discover along the way a field or industry that you are really passionate about! All companies you wish to work for either have open sourced part of their projects or use open source libraries in their product and services. Trying to contribute is your best bet with your current experience and you may even make the right connections while you're at it.

 

And honestly, acing job interviews is a skill that mostly doesn't translate to actual daily tasks where it will be mostly CRUD and APIs.

[Guest]

On 10/16/2022 at 11:58 AM, Wictorian said:

I've been told not to spend energy learnning syntax.. What am  I supposed to do?

 

WHAT!

Syntax is minutely important relatively, but.... you need it... You can't write a book without knowing what nouns & adjectives are.

 

Get good at java.
Learn algorithms.

Learn data strucutres.

 

Learn some sort of database programming.

 

You should be qualified to start your own company or work for a company.

[Guest]

On 10/17/2022 at 4:22 AM, Wictorian said:

What framework should I use?

If you look at job listings, they tend to list the technologies they want people to know.