I'm glad I worked at a startup without benefits while I still had coverage from my parents. I'm also glad I realized I prefer medium-sized companies before I lost that coverage.
I regret the mentality that kept me at shitty jobs for five years. Being afraid the grass wouldn't be greener left me in a cycle of getting mad enough to polish my resume and send it out, but then never really following through.
I have almost 40+ and what I know definitely that nothing can be true thing in our job.
Today you on the wave, in 10 years this wave is deprecated.
I can feel self pity about different desicions
but when look at my path with sober mind I see that nothing can be deffirently.
The main thing is energy. If you have it you do not care how old are you. But industry is full of bias about devs age. So let's they go hell.
I am definitely happy that decided to learn programming in my 13.
I regret that didn't pay attention enough to math and physics to have a more interesting background than just software development. And now I am learning, returning to the roots. 😄
I regret not taking my suspicions that I had adhd more seriously.
Ie I suspected I had adhd when I was in my early 20s now that I'm in my mid-late 30s and getting sorted out, I can sometimes daydream about how different my career could have been if I'd been firing in all cylinders the whole time. I don't day dream for very long though, I've got things to do.
My family doctor referred me to a specialist clinic.
Specialist diagnosed me and made some suggestions to me family doctor. Some medications, some counseling some organizational stuff.
The organizational stuff is what really helps but it's just the 'get organized' stuff that everybody recommends. but with the meds I'm actually able to do it.
Bad idea: Tempted by a silicon valley startup because that's what all the cool kids were doing. They were style over substance.
Good idea: leaving my otherwise excellent first real job. I owe them ( slidebook.com ) a lot. I wouldn't be half the developer i am now if they hadn't given me the environment to approach software as a science. That said, leaving was the right call.
I regret staying at some jobs 2+ years and having my tech skills rot.
I also regret not joining companies that consult me out to clients sooner. It led to a massive increase in my own confidence and my technical skills across a lot of industries and technologies.
I also regret trying to be loyal to some company. It never pays off.
In the last 6 years I've averaged a job change every 6-8 months and have increased my base salary from $125k to about 4x that.
I have too many...I'll pick my favorite lessons as they're all kind of related
Don't stay at a job too long. Eventually, you'll be training a new hire that makes more than you and they'll probably be your replacement.
It only takes a couple promotions before your career development stagnates usually because you'll always be seen as the person you were when you started. Get a new job elsewhere with a title higher than the place you left and that becomes your new baseline. Repeat every few years.
If you want to earn more money, get a new job. Bonuses magically dry up. And your yearly performance increase won't ever keep up with inflation. Even lateral moves at a different company can mean decent salary inceease as market rate changes over time. (This doesn't always work with a lateral move so shoot for a higher position).
Don't sweat the specifics for job requirements in postings. They're not expecting someone that hits every bullet point. That would be dream candidate that doesn't exist. If you're at least familiar with what they're asking for and can pick it up, then you're good. Most of the time you're trained on the job anyway. Just demonstrate you're competent.
(Oops didn't realize this was a CS / programming community. Hopefully some of this still applies)
Not getting into web development sooner. I spent a good chunk of my 20s trying to be an animator. I should've seen that it wasn't going to work out sooner, and I even had friends who offered me web dev gigs. I eventually got one, but I could've got one probably 10 years earlier.
Like some others have said, being loyal to startups. They're never going to be loyal to you, so why bother being loyal to them?
Really, the two previous points could be combined into a somewhat related point: don't keep white-knuckling through on some career path if it's looking increasingly bad. The reason I used to keep white-knuckling is I believed perseverance in the face of adversity was the most important thing. While I agree perseverance is important, it's even more important to find that line between pushing yourself for a good career, and pushing yourself for something that may no longer make sense. It's not always easy to let go of something that you've already invested time and energy into, but sometimes its the best way forward.
Happy:
I developed frugal spending habits, largely due to my pseudo-artist lifestyle. While that isn't directly a career thing, I'd argue reducing my spending allowed me to last without income longer, which let me be more choosy about which job I got next.
I tried anything that interested me. This included programming - which ultimately became my career.
"While I agree perseverance is important, it’s even more important to find that line between pushing yourself for a good career, and pushing yourself for something that may no longer make sense. It’s not always easy to let go of something that you’ve already invested time and energy into, but sometimes its the best way forward."
This is actually how I feel about WebDev now. It doesn't seem worth it to start now with the future so uncertain and with all these "no Jr dev" hiring practices I've been reading about, plus my stupid fucking brain can't find any interest in the work at all... I swear my stupid fucking brain is only interested in things you can't make money with...
Not walking out the door when I should have. That's a tough call to make and the conventional wisdom is that you shouldn't quit your job before you have another one lined up, for understandable reasons. You have bills to pay.
The worst job I ever had was as a manager for a large utility. One time, we got quite a bit of snow. I didn't have 4 wheel drive so I asked my boss if I could take a company truck home. He said that was fine.
The next day, he called me into his office and told me I was in trouble for taking a company truck home. I was very confused and responded that I had asked him about it before I left and he said it was fine.
Turned out that motherfucker had been asked by someone further up the ladder if he signed off on it and instead of just saying, "Yep, I told him it was fine." He proceeded to lie his ass off and then pretend like we never had that conversation.
He showed me what kind of person he was and what kind of company I was working for. I should have immediately handed him my badge and walked out the door but I didn't. I stayed there for a few years after that. That was the tip of the iceberg on top of a completely toxic shit hole. The worst I have ever seen.
Never let someone try to take your dignity away from you and don't spend any longer in a toxic workplace than you absolutely have to.
Funny, I actually regret sort of the opposite. I went into a couple startups and small companies at first, and I wish I had gone a more resume impressive route.
I don't regret working for Amazon... for the most part. But that place also messed me up for years. Now i can look back on that place as a learning experience. I hope you get there too.
It is rare these days that loyalty and seniority are rewarded how it was depicted in popular media. These days the best way to make more money is to leave and find a new job.
Never let anyone make you work hard, work hard for you and for your goals.
In my 20s I didn’t realize how much more valuable my time was compared to the money I was being paid to give it up. The most valuable thing you have is the rest of your life, you’re being paid to give someone else your life for a time.