Software Engineers Feel Unsure About Their Progress
34 posts across 20 communities in the last 30 days; 24% from r/cscareerquestions.
“that second question is miles better, gets past the social script and into the actual friction point "I couldn't justify it to my team" is a totally different problem than "too expensive" and you'd never know to address it otherwise”
“You say you can't and won't quit. It's who you are... That's who you think you should be. You have a choice. This will affect both your physical and mental health. For what? A company who would drop you on a dime? A boss who won't listen to you? Pride is a powerful feeling, but…”
“I don't think I can really change that. First impressions tend to stick with people for a long time. And I can't realistically change jobs for at least another 12 months. So what would you do in my situation? Keep giving your best ideas to a boss who never gives you credit and…”
Several software engineers express uncertainty about their progress on tasks, questioning whether they are '100% there' and feeling pressure to maintain a positive outlook despite concerns about the job market. This suggests a lack of clear feedback or expectations within their work environment.
SOURCES (60)
“I know companies will have lulls in performance… but this team I’m on is truly struggling. We’re definitely not going to hit our annual goal. We’ve already performed a relatively large layoff a few months back, sales fundamentals are completely missing, shuffles in the team…”
“hi, i'm software engineer that already gave out on chasing KPIs or doing extra mile at work. my suspect is because i got laid off few years back then, i didn't get much of clarity why i got laid off but the manager (my manager's manager) said i wasn't good enough. i felt betrayed because in the whole year, i checked in every 1:1 about my KPIs ensuring that i met and no complaint from teammates. after getting new jobs, i completely lost trust to company, coworker, and manager. wor”
“Give it a go. I think you can do it. If you don't like the outcome, do it again. The only thing that separates you from the guy getting paid, is the amount of times they've done it. It might look good the first time or you might need to fineness it a bit. Either way you won't know if you don't at least try. [re: DYI Fix? New kiddo on the way.]”
“Fair point on the logic though. The numbers say I can quit, and the comments here helped me see that the hesitation is more psychological than financial.”
“When you're 50 and you've been unceremoniously laid off, how do you think you'll feel about your career prospects? FWIW, I agree with you. But you have to consider the long game.”
“I'm in the same boat. The moment you realize the whole industry runs on duct tape and vibes is when the motivation just evaporates. Coasting on that early career rep while everyone around you ships AI slop is a special kind of hell.”
“This is exactly what the SERVQUAL methodology is meant to measure - the gaps. Unfortunately it is difficult to implement”
“I thought the same thing, but more like 6 months ago. It was Déjà vu reading it.”
“that second question is miles better, gets past the social script and into the actual friction point "I couldn't justify it to my team" is a totally different problem than "too expensive" and you'd never know to address it otherwise”
“You say you can't and won't quit. It's who you are... That's who you think you should be. You have a choice. This will affect both your physical and mental health. For what? A company who would drop you on a dime? A boss who won't listen to you? Pride is a powerful feeling, but it's not worth what you are describing. You have plenty of time in life to achieve good things in the right circumstances. I feel for you, but look out for yourself or you won't be any good to”
“I usually give a week or two... But remember, without feedback no one gets better... Tells them what they're doing wrong, if they keep doing it, it's just going to get worse.”
“I don't think I can really change that. First impressions tend to stick with people for a long time. And I can't realistically change jobs for at least another 12 months. So what would you do in my situation? Keep giving your best ideas to a boss who never gives you credit and passes everything on to senior management? Or deliberately hold back and stop sharing your best ideas?”
“No, no one has ever done it. No one has any experience doing it. If they tried it never went well. It's such a dumb question. There are so many unique experiences out there. So much luck and timing. Within a 10-year period of time, you have vastly different experiences between engineers. Reading these comments is so absurd. Some of these comments make it so apparently clear what kind of person is responding. I would be embarrassed if I was from their country, but most of them have no shame a”
“Burnout makes setbacks feel worse. Sometimes stability matters more than forcing a SaaS to work.”
“Nah the 3 month stage is when you really start to get imposter syndrome because you still have room to improve but still have that pressure to perform and get it ALL done. Give it some time, you’ll find all the little shit that slows you down gets faster and easier and you start to learn when you’re behind, you’ll catch up. I always tell my preceptees, when it’s busy, quit thinking, put your head down and put your nose to the grindstone till it passes. Eventually you just start to get calmer and”
“I have eight years of experience as a software developer for state projects and haven't been able to find a new job in two years. I don't have a degree but that shouldn't be that big of a detractor.”
“FAANG engineering. I’m very much in the middle of the pack in earnings on my team. So there is more where it is coming from. It’s just not worth the effort for me right now. Like the other commenter said, I’m at the window seat, it is boring, doesn’t pay as much as the driver but I don’t have as many responsibilities as the driver as well. In the past when both of us were pushing limits we made 2M/year.”
“I agree. The market isn't that bad right now. I still personally get LinkedIn messages about interview opportunities, so it's not as bad as it seems.”
“This subreddit is hysterical. SWE jobs are increasing. I personally quit multiple jobs over the last few years, took some time to work on my own projects, and each time I got another job for MORE MONEY than the ones I quit. I saw my wife doing something similar. I saw my peers changing jobs without problem. And yet in this sub everyone is so historical about never finding another bloody corporate job… Jesus guys, maybe it’s this attitude the problem.”
“You can ALWAYS keep saying that until you retire and realize you never found the alternative. At least that’s my plan.”
“Hey man. Sorry to hear that. Please don't give up yet. Sounds like you got a salary bump from 20 to 35 within 3 months in this job market. Pretty sure you can find another gig in 3 months. It is Q4 now, a lot of companies are trying to use up their budget by EOY. So it's not the worst time to start looking again, gl”
“That was my first ~3 years of software development, going everything as perfectly as possible. Some time later I understood that the business doesn't want perfect, they want a working business value for the least money they have to invest in it. If you spend 75% of your time and deliver good enough product, it means you have 25% extra time to spend on new features or they pay 25% less (same thing). In the end they are not sending their clients a perfect product, they can only sell features a”
“How do I navigate? What steps can I take to improve myself and make my place?”
“You’re fine. Keep doing what you’re doing. Most people have been where you are, it’s not abnormal. Learning and growing does not mean that you are an imposter.”
“No point in quitting. You will come out stronger from this. Struggling is just part of the learning process. You'll eventually stop struggling and then YOU'LL be the one with knowledge that the rest of your team doesn't have. Get really good at leaning on AI to learn things. Also, find the kind engineer on your team that's willing to help you. Make sure to consistently give them thanks/props in your meetings/in writing/docs so they can use it for their end of year performance rev”
“I don’t have advice, but I’m in the same boat. Undecided to chug along and be miserable hoping for relief or sell and be done with it all.”
“your worth is actually effectively 10x what it was previously because now you can do the work off an entire off shore department with no loss in quality or precision (if you are a good engineer). but we aren't ready to have that conversation yet - big tech is still trying to push the opposite narrative in order to depress salaries.”
“I'm starting to feel like this journey into IT is a very long road for not much return. Lots of IT job cuts. Low wages. A ton of competition. I'm not going to quit, but it feels like it might not pay off in the long run. I’m 54. I have a degree in environmental science. New to tech. Was a cannabis entrepreneur for 20 years. Lost my business in CA when it went from medical to recreational. Lost my business in TN when the state sold the hemp industry to the alcohol lobby. I now test concre”
“Yep, technical knowledge is part of the process for our line of work, but the rest is figuring out how to tell people what they want to hear. Getting laid off back in early 2009 after only six months at my first job after graduating college sucked, but it was a crash course in how the industry evaluates people and in how to interview. Definitely fucked up the first 5 or so years of my career after college and was not fun to deal with, but learning those lessons early has paid off pretty well as”
“No sane company would give a junior dev a migration project solo for 8 weeks. This is not your fault, this is the companies fault.”
How did you go about that? That's a route I'm considering as well.
“34, been doing IT for a while. It will be 11 years come march27. I job hopped a bit and learned as much as I could at first. But I've reached a point where I'm in the same boat. At this point the only thing that would get me to move, would be a significant pay increase but with similar duties.”
I mean if the industry is decimated, it's happening either way
My entire career. Don't have that "paid well" part though lol
I don't think the vast majority are overachieving . Sorry.
“There comes a time, when you are no longer interested in promotions, or taking it to the "next level". You just want to take your paycheque and go home on time. Is it a smart move for someone in their 30s? P.S. Why is there no such term as Quiet Paying. I feel like many bosses pay the minimum to keep a worker too. submitted by /u/Certified_Loner1391 [link] [comments]”
“I'm sorry I can't offer more advice as I've never quite been in this situation. I've been in a similar situation where I felt my skills weren't up to par. Do you have any colleagues that you respect/know they're good at their job? I would legit ask for advice from the best performers on your team. You'd be surprised how willing some people are to help give you some tips.”
“What was the process? Sometimes an complete rebuild is actually good for these kinds of things. Your company has probably grown and maybe it's time for a refresh.”
“I was that employee, though I wasn't doing it quietly. I was begging for proper systems and after a year of just growing with no plan B or proper systems in place I left. Was sick of always holding the reigns. Start implementing SOPs for EVERY task.”
“The old train of thought was leave after a season of being a senior. Now it's more along the lines of leave when the exit opportunities are better than your current job. I'm going to tell y'all straight, most industry jobs are looking for people who understand the technical work more than the theory. Coming in as a manager into industry is no longer a guarantee like it used to be.”
“I hate the ole “it’s common sense.” It’s common sense to you because you’ve been doing it forever. A fresh grad might take more or less time to wrap their head around what is going on in the software or the firm’s procedures. When I first got into my internships, I was so unfamiliar with invoices or any types of support and what numbers I should pull from them or where they go. Now, it is common sense to me. You’re just being a hard ass and unforgiving. People aren’t black and white.”
“I don’t hate dealing with people, I dislike spending more time talking theory than doing hands on work”
“Let's hope so. I feel there were lots of improvements asked.. and initiated so now there's no updates if I am doing fine now or i sucked so bad they have given up completely and not putting any efforts at all”
“you’re not trash, your career’s just getting the Tesla refresh treatment. nicer trim, more layoffs, somehow a lower price tag.”
“I do appreciate feed back food for thought. I've stepped away from the role but now considering what is next and how others have a managed to get through this stage of their career . I dont care about job titles either.”
“I’ve been in IT for around 14 years, and honestly, there was a point where I felt like I couldn’t keep up anymore. New technologies, AI, cloud, new frameworks—it felt like something new was coming out every few months. What helped me was realizing that I didn’t need to learn everything. I focused on building new skills around the experience I already had. For example, I started learning cloud and AI tools and looked for ways to apply them to the projects I was already familiar with. That made th”
“A lot of companies are just biased against former FAANG. I get it somewhat. There's a lot of stuff you don't touch or have to think about that are important at smaller companies. It's rare that I had to think about CI/CD, database, or infrastructure. And when I did, there were a thousand tools and whole teams with established patterns that handled the hardest parts. Also, If you worked with niche languages (looking at you Hack) that's also a point against you compared to others.”
“My husband is a very good software engineer and he loves his job a lot. But because of the current job market he has been laid off from his last 4 jobs in the past 3 years. With the current interview process people are doing 5-6 rounds of interviews and at the end of the last round they say you were very close but we are moving with someone else. He is loosing it from mental health perspective sleepless crying nights. I am not sure how to handle it, could someone please suggest if they are able”
“totally fine. if you’re up to it, wait til upward trend is clear and then just have a super transparent convo with boss and maybe skip level and just straight up tell them what you wrote here in a no bullshit vulnerable way. but wait til it’s trending up or it’ll seem like excuse making. do this correctly and the slate is wiped clean. you have to remember they hired you and so are biased in their own way to believe that was a good decision. any narrative that helps support that represents self-p”
“I'll provide my perspective as an IT Director at <insert mid-sized Enterprise/Corp> with a lot of experience hiring: All we really care is what you did and what you can do as it relates to the job you're applying for. We don't really care about whether it was a startup or not. We also don't really care if your startup failed or if it was successful. We only care about the position we have posted and whether you have the skillset and experience we need for it. If you apply f”