Need help of what to do with my Life and continue My Career as a SWE
Posted by DuskyDino@reddit | learnprogramming | View on Reddit | 11 comments
Hello, I just wanted to get this out of my chest, so right now I'm a CS student in my Junior year, 24 years old, and throughout my career as a CS Major student I've taken Java, C, bash, and learn assembly (never coded it, but my teacher talked about the code and what's it about). And overall I'm just thinking of what to do with my life and thinking of bad thoughts like I'm a failure because I can't code like a simple code, or I think I can't because throughout my year I never practice in my 2 years of learning and I liked Programming or I think I do because I like how it does, and I just don't what to do I feel like I should just restart everything going back to everything of learning all the basics again and the problem I have is with practice what simple projects can I do like I hear calculator tic-tac-toe and I have never done them because I was lazy, and I hated, and I keep thinking there too advanced, and I just don't know what to do since I have forgotten all of OOP and DSA stuff, or I think I did, and I just feel stuck like I don't know what to do I want to relearn everything and IDK I'm retarded but reading a book I just can't, I don't know why but reading a book for some reason just doesn't work with me and yes I do use AI, but I never let it code the answer for me, I more like guide it for me to do the answer and I always feel like am I actually learning, or I'm just doing my homework assignment, and I was thinking after this semester is over with I was thinking of using the Claude AI to help me make a road map of relearning my fundamentals OOP and DSA. I guess the main reason I felt this was also me doing Leet code questions like twoSums and Palindrome and I remember palindrome, but I just can't do it at all and overall I just feel like a failure and I don't know if someone can give me advice on anything because every time I want to look up at something like look at the answer or how to do this or that I feel like cheating like I should know this by now and get it done in one sit like everyone, and It's sad to say don't I remember what is stack and heap are, and I just feel like a failure of a student and I don't know.
If someone does read this, thank you for reading this post and have a wonderful day/night.
Also sorry for the grammar and long text and how I write because I suck at it and I don't even know how I passed school if I can't grammar right at all.
Designer-Flounder948@reddit
You’re overwhelmed, not incapable. Everyone struggles with LeetCode at first. Start small: print patterns, loops, basic OOP. Then move to tiny projects. Progress > perfection.
JGhostThing@reddit
Do small projects. It sounds like you think you can't, but trust me, you can. Think of small projects that relate to another hobby of yours.
Do you collect Pokemon cards? Write a simple database to store data on each of your cards. This also works for pretty much any type of collection; I wrote a book database.
Do you play table-top role playing games? Then write a utility to help you do something; I wrote a star ship generator for a SF RPG (Traveller).
DuskyDino@reddit (OP)
Thank you for responding but I'm sorry forgotten to write about this but I haven't done any SQL or any database or Spring or whatever the heck that is called. I've only done is programming fundamentals 1-3, Application programming, and C programming right now in my Semester I'm doing System programming learning bash, awk,sed, grep find etc and Computer Organization. so I don't know if any of that was database stuff.
JGhostThing@reddit
First, SQL is trivial. I picked it up in less than a day. Of course, I was an experienced programmer.
You do not need to use SQL. I was using "database" in a generic sense. It's easy enough to learn SQL, but you can write the database portion in pretty much any language.
DuskyDino@reddit (OP)
what like an array or an arrayList like how lets say I want to store a specific pokemon card and this this card it has chairzard, Pikachu, Squirtle and lets say I want to make a for loop of going through that array and I want a specfic pokemon like that? sorry if this confuses you.
JGhostThing@reddit
Yes, exactly. You create a list of cards that you have. Each element of the list is a specific structure that holds the data for one card. Usually, you will have one field, which is the main index into the list (perhaps the card name or the set and the name together).
I find it easier to set this up in SQL, and I don't get confused.
But I always start out a project by mapping out the structures I will need for the program. This is done with pen and paper. You can use programs for this, but I work better with the old ways.
bootyhole_licker69@reddit
you’re not a failure, you’re just not practicing in the right way yet take one language, grab a beginner course or yt series, and code along daily don’t jump to leetcode or dsa deep dives, just tiny projects calculators, todo app, text games, whatever and yeah, job hunting after all this is a nightmare now
DuskyDino@reddit (OP)
Sorry for the late response but thank you for responding back I guess my worried when doing small projects like or anything in general is like if I looked it up with ai helping me(not doing the work for me but guiding me) I feel like cheating like I shouldn't have to do that and idk if that is imposter Syndrome of some kind or what thank you for the suggestions
Ok_Wasabi4276@reddit
real
TripleTen-Team@reddit
It is normal to feel like a failure when you have not practiced, but you are not behind. Most of your struggle comes from a lack of hands-on experience rather than a lack of ability. You do not need to read a book; instead, start by building tiny programs to regain your confidence.
DuskyDino@reddit (OP)
Thank you for your response I guess my biggest worried with small projects or something small as well that I haven't talked about is that when I think I had to look at something up like how to do this or that I feel like cheating like I should know this already and I don't know if that is imposter syndrome talking or something else.