I have seen many people discussing online and people I know in real life having doubts about if the path they are pursuing is right for them. This ...
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I feel deeply seen in this conversation, Francis. It takes a lot of courage to question our paths, especially when rejections from companies can be so disheartening. I've been there myself, wondering if I'm good enough or if I'm just pretending to be. Thank you for sharing this with us.
Thanks for reading Aryan! Yea, it feels very discouraging but I do appreciate you sharing your experiences in post about your experience working in the startup and stuff. It gets to see someone's experience and learn from it. Glad you are doing well!
Thank you Francis! I hope you are well too...
I've been wanting to write more often than I am able to, I hope I can make some time to get more frequent on here again.
For me a person can only know when they are in the right path if they are committed enough in a way where doubt doesn’t come into the equation.
You can be unlucky , you can take a job that isn’t in CS, because after graduating you are not really fit for jobs. You only have proven that you can stick to a schedule and pass tests.
The job market is part luck and part who you know. Also 5% what you know.
The key is once you get your first job, really to adapt to the environment that you are in and make the best of your time there to do everything you can to learn more and more.
Not everyday will be free of frustration or sometimes yes doubt.
Doubt is a choice.
I choose self improvement
I choose to carve out my own room in this industry
I choose going back to square one if things don’t turn out the way you expected?
Just keep going because your story isn’t at an end. It’s not perfect but how you go through each phase is up to you.
Staying optimistic and positive is key.
Life will not go to plan.
Don’t let that allow you to ever doubt your path.
Change the destination, not the path.
Hey Ali-Funk! Hope you are well! The part at the end where you state "Change the destination, not the path" is interesting and is up for interpretation for each individual. I can see someone can move to a different area of expertise after not succeeding the first one instead of changing a bit.
Thanks for sharing! Hope your journey goes well :D
"Change the destination, not the path" was meant like this: If you set out to learn or do something, maybe along the way you discover it´s not what you thought it was. Maybe it involves lots of things you don´t like. It´s okay to change your mind and keep going into an area you had not thought of before.
Totally agree with you @alifunk. I once heard of a philosophy that real lifetime achievements in our life actually come from what we do after working hours. Hence, the golden 3 hours before sleep shape our future. Be it just a simple reading, or 90 minutes of online tutorials
Really difficult question :) Generally, I agree with the point that it depends on how you define success and it is individual. The path is only yours, only you know if it is right or not :)
If speaking particularly about CS and how we are using rejections from companies as a measuring tool, I have seen people trying to enter the field for literally years (three years of applying and getting rejections) and succeeding. I have also seen people trying and giving up or changing to a different area after facing rejections. So, again it’s a very personal decision :)
Hey Marina. Hope you are well. Thanks for your response!
It is quite interesting that the path is only yours, though it is influenced by how they perceived other people. For example, if they see others lacking off in the CS field, they will do the same.
I think it takes discipline to know what your needs and wants are and avoiding yourself to be in the wrong group of people who only do the bare minimum. Though like you said, sometimes people get offers early on and sometimes its later. Thanks for sharing btw :D
No problem 🙂 Thank you for writing this post, I really liked the questions you ask here. I think these are the kind of questions that can get a ton of different replies, and every one will be correct in some way. Anyway I hope your path will be happy and successful! ✨
I just meander and poke around data untill something squeaks, then I ask why it does that? What conditions led to that error, and what conditions can be set up to bypass that error, and into coherancy. How do we KNOW were on the right path? We dont, we probably never will, and its likely our passions will leave us empty handed. However, through understanding Computer Science, your Brain Chemistry Changes, your pattern recognition starts seeing patterns it didnt. CS might not be THE PATH , but it IS "A" path, and all paths eventually Converge, and also, diverge, in unexpected ways. If it interests you, helps you be a better human, and it may one day help others? Why should money be a factor?¿ Just ɓɛə yourself, and things will work themselves, even if you only put a small effort, those planck steps of discovery, eventually add up to something you never knew before. ?¿ ₩{^_^}Q Happy Coding!
Hey Daft! Hope you are well!
Made a great point on "CS might not be THE PATH , but it IS "A" path, and all paths eventually Converge, and also, diverge, in unexpected ways.". It could be a case where it is the path for someone but others see it as part of the journey into something greater. I guess we never know if the CS path is either THE or A path for us.
Thanks for sharing :D
The right path will be different based on what your guiding metric/principle is. Success can be defined in many different ways. From my end, I followed an irregular path having originally studied finance, then working in drone videography before diving into SWE and working on several applications and working in Fintech for quite a few years.
My personal take for assessing if I am on the right path is whether I am consistently learning new tech and challenging myself, as well as having enough energy to keep exploring and tinkering with side projects.
Hey Julien! Hope you are well!
It makes quite sense for your personal assessment where if you are challenging yourself and learning new things in tech, you are ok! We just have to make sure it "feels" challenging and when we need to push ourselves. That way, we only know if we make huge progress or not. Then again, we also need to make sure we don't burn out from doing this.
Thanks for sharing! Hope your journey is going well so far!
This is something every developer struggles with at some point, especially with how fast the stack changes. I’ve realized that the 'right path' usually isn't a straight line, it's more about whether you're still solving problems that actually interest you. If you're consistently learning and shipping, you're probably doing better than you think. The imposter syndrome never really goes away, you just get better at managing it as you gain more experience.
The right path has a smell, not a map. You know you're on it when the work itself pulls you forward, not just the outcome. Rejections are data, not verdicts, they tell you about fit, timing, and luck, but nothing about whether you're meant to build.
I see there are actually two different questions here.
Regarding the first question: it's completely normal to question your choice from time to time. Almost everyone does. But ultimately no one except you can answer that question. Doubts often simply mean that something in your current situation doesn't fully match your expectations. It's worth exploring those feelings honestly.
The second question is more practical: will this path actually lead to employment?
Here reality is a bit harsher - some areas are simply more secure than others, especially in the coming decade with AI changing the paradigm of the industry.
Fields that are likely to remain relatively stable include things like:
In other words, the long-term stability often comes not from which programming language you know, but from how deep your understanding of systems, domains, and real-world constraints is. And that's something much harder to replace - by automation or by competition.
I have been on both sides.
First: Being rejected for a job means nothing. I have seen experienced devs rejected because of companies low budget or just because senior devs in the company want junior who will follow instead of someone who will question their ways of work.
Second: What you do is everything. If you feel that the project is little, zero or negative value for humanity, there is no way you can be happy working on it.
Last: There are periods of Life when learningis important and then there are periods when doing is important. Depending on ones stage in life, same work may seem pointless or inspiring
You're in the right path when you enjoy what you are doing :-)