There's a few main subjects, where it would be nice if you could elaborate, and/or get it (more) clear for yourself, then summarize to what conclusions you've come.
1. Skills. What programming languages have you worked with? What tools you know well? What are you good at, generally? What do you like doing? Can you remember moments where you were in a "flow"? (like where you felt like the Zen master of pancake-baking). Have you completed courses / read (e)books on fundamentals like advanced math, computer architecture, data structures, algorithms & the like?
2. Motivation. What do you hope to get out of it? Expand your knowledge? (if so: in which fields / subjects). A well-paying job? Start your own business? Help your home country (or local community) move forward? Contribute to Open Source projects? "Be where all the excitement happens"? Become that specialist with super-rare skillset? What provided most satisfaction on past projects?
3. Long-term goals. Where do you want to see yourself in 5..10y from now? Achieve x, y or z? [insert bucket list here]. Have you considered getting into a different line of work? (embedded systems, robotics, education, industrial machinery (PLCs, sensors etc), graphics design, ....).
Please just pick & choose questions from above whose answers are most clear to you. Or anything else you'd like to add.
I wrote this once, power went out. I write it shorter this time.
1. JS, Python, PHP, C#, C++, Rust, Java. The ones after PHP, I only have worked with for a short time, like a hello world and solving some basic CS questions. I don't really know them. I know frameworks, but I forgot most if them. React, Svelte for frontend. Laravel, Django for backend. I know more Laravel than Django. Pytorch and sklearn for AI. Not sure what I'm good at. I mostly experience flow in theoretical things like math. But I also experience flow in solving weird DevOps bugs that you have no clue where they come from, no error message or error message isn't helpful, the ones AI can't solve and you find out with thinking an lot of experimenting and trying to find the root. I have completed advanced math courses for AI, but not for algorithms and such things. I learned some design patterns and tried to be loyal to OOP or functional programming, never felt it helped me. Also I get bored adn I'm bad at algorithms.
2. lol, all of it. But the most possible and logical one that I'm sure I like is just making stuff that I and other people find cool. Its fine even if only I would like it. Things like interactive games or cool tools and websites. Most satisfying thing was two things I did recently, related to solving two small language/typography problem and and bidirectional text.
3. I want to have a lot of cool projects people can interact with and play with and see. Made useful stuff for myself, that help me in hard and important things like studying. I'd also like to fit in the university, maybe find some new friends and doing projects with my old + new friends, and that would be a huge victory as I haven't done much team work. My financial goals would be having a job. Perfectly I'd have passive income. I really have many interests, and I feel I might fail because of being a "jack of all trades". I did some graphics design before. I even sometimes want to get to art like 2D art, that I'm normal in and even music composing which I know nothing about. But I'm behind others in these and I can't get accepted to a good university at those, least not this year. Also I'm only consistent in programming, not these. The motivation I have for them is occasional and temporary. About Robotics, before programming I liked that, but I hate the fact you have to buy stuff to experiment etc. It's hard to have the playground to learn in does hardware professions in my opinion. Also by experience I'm bad at handiwork.
First off: as you'll gather from HN, career prospects for software developers aren't what they used to be. And even for better-experienced ones, their job might move from develop/bughunting to writing specs, review code, "prompt engineering" & set up AI agents to write code for them. Or more management / sales related.
You may want to consider doing some 'low-profile' (but decent paying) job to pay the bills, with side gigs/hobbies you do 100% for fun. As so many people do.
Small or big company? Difficult choice, I'd think it's more important to find one whose company culture (& goals) fits you best. Or go freelance - which has its own pros & cons.
Have you ever considered a career in science? There's still many things unexplored, and new fields opening up. Or related like engineering (civil engineering? Bridge design etc), architecture (of buildings ;-)
The main point is motivation. Get clear for yourself the "why" for pursuing something.
Oh and stick around on HN! Many geat ideas pass by here. Good luck!
The point about careers was really something I didn't think about, thank you for pointing that out! Science looks fun too. thank you for your help. I still have to think about the 'why' you mentioned, but you cleared some of the picture for me!
There's a lot to chew on here...
There's a few main subjects, where it would be nice if you could elaborate, and/or get it (more) clear for yourself, then summarize to what conclusions you've come.
1. Skills. What programming languages have you worked with? What tools you know well? What are you good at, generally? What do you like doing? Can you remember moments where you were in a "flow"? (like where you felt like the Zen master of pancake-baking). Have you completed courses / read (e)books on fundamentals like advanced math, computer architecture, data structures, algorithms & the like?
2. Motivation. What do you hope to get out of it? Expand your knowledge? (if so: in which fields / subjects). A well-paying job? Start your own business? Help your home country (or local community) move forward? Contribute to Open Source projects? "Be where all the excitement happens"? Become that specialist with super-rare skillset? What provided most satisfaction on past projects?
3. Long-term goals. Where do you want to see yourself in 5..10y from now? Achieve x, y or z? [insert bucket list here]. Have you considered getting into a different line of work? (embedded systems, robotics, education, industrial machinery (PLCs, sensors etc), graphics design, ....).
Please just pick & choose questions from above whose answers are most clear to you. Or anything else you'd like to add.
I wrote this once, power went out. I write it shorter this time. 1. JS, Python, PHP, C#, C++, Rust, Java. The ones after PHP, I only have worked with for a short time, like a hello world and solving some basic CS questions. I don't really know them. I know frameworks, but I forgot most if them. React, Svelte for frontend. Laravel, Django for backend. I know more Laravel than Django. Pytorch and sklearn for AI. Not sure what I'm good at. I mostly experience flow in theoretical things like math. But I also experience flow in solving weird DevOps bugs that you have no clue where they come from, no error message or error message isn't helpful, the ones AI can't solve and you find out with thinking an lot of experimenting and trying to find the root. I have completed advanced math courses for AI, but not for algorithms and such things. I learned some design patterns and tried to be loyal to OOP or functional programming, never felt it helped me. Also I get bored adn I'm bad at algorithms.
2. lol, all of it. But the most possible and logical one that I'm sure I like is just making stuff that I and other people find cool. Its fine even if only I would like it. Things like interactive games or cool tools and websites. Most satisfying thing was two things I did recently, related to solving two small language/typography problem and and bidirectional text.
3. I want to have a lot of cool projects people can interact with and play with and see. Made useful stuff for myself, that help me in hard and important things like studying. I'd also like to fit in the university, maybe find some new friends and doing projects with my old + new friends, and that would be a huge victory as I haven't done much team work. My financial goals would be having a job. Perfectly I'd have passive income. I really have many interests, and I feel I might fail because of being a "jack of all trades". I did some graphics design before. I even sometimes want to get to art like 2D art, that I'm normal in and even music composing which I know nothing about. But I'm behind others in these and I can't get accepted to a good university at those, least not this year. Also I'm only consistent in programming, not these. The motivation I have for them is occasional and temporary. About Robotics, before programming I liked that, but I hate the fact you have to buy stuff to experiment etc. It's hard to have the playground to learn in does hardware professions in my opinion. Also by experience I'm bad at handiwork.
Thank you very much for replying and helping me.
First off: as you'll gather from HN, career prospects for software developers aren't what they used to be. And even for better-experienced ones, their job might move from develop/bughunting to writing specs, review code, "prompt engineering" & set up AI agents to write code for them. Or more management / sales related.
You may want to consider doing some 'low-profile' (but decent paying) job to pay the bills, with side gigs/hobbies you do 100% for fun. As so many people do.
Small or big company? Difficult choice, I'd think it's more important to find one whose company culture (& goals) fits you best. Or go freelance - which has its own pros & cons.
Have you ever considered a career in science? There's still many things unexplored, and new fields opening up. Or related like engineering (civil engineering? Bridge design etc), architecture (of buildings ;-)
The main point is motivation. Get clear for yourself the "why" for pursuing something.
Oh and stick around on HN! Many geat ideas pass by here. Good luck!
The point about careers was really something I didn't think about, thank you for pointing that out! Science looks fun too. thank you for your help. I still have to think about the 'why' you mentioned, but you cleared some of the picture for me!