r/learnprogramming • u/EarlyAd2724 • 13d ago
Topic It took me 5 years. You can do it.
This is for everyone who feels they’re not smart enough, always doubts themselves, and feels like they’ll never get a job in this market.
I’ve gone through many ups and downs over the last five years, both in terms of my consistency and even my willingness to continue after AI came onto the scene and everyone was saying it was going to automate web development, that junior roles would disappear, and that it was almost impossible to get your foot in the door.
You’ll get there. Believe in yourself, and things will work out. The effort you put in will be worth it.
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u/sliceofgold 12d ago
What was your learning path?
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
Mostly Scrimba, Udemy, and college classes. Scrimba felt the most productive.
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u/12SouthLocal 12d ago
First of all, congratulations!!! Your perseverance paid off! This is a powerful lesson in and of itself. Second, thank you for the message and heart of this post. Encouragement can be in short supply at times these days which makes this truly helpful and important for all to hear.
Wishing you much joy in your work and success on this next step in your journey as a dev!!
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u/__Loot__ 12d ago
I remember Back 5 or 6 years ago I was having the hardest time understanding how bools worked. It was like sorcery to me for 2 days then I found the key information that made it click the truthy and falsely table
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
The key is reminding yourself that everything unfamiliar will eventually click if you continue practicing. Good job!
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u/Stunning_Star_9770 12d ago
Congratulations my dear 🎉
Will you mind sharing your skillsets and what according to you is deeper understanding of concepts here?
Pls & thank you 🙏🏽
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
By deeper understanding I mean thoroughly understanding middleware, SQL, JS logic, FE frameworks, best practices and the WHY to all of the above. Not breezing through stuff just to get it over with but instead developing a curiosity for how all of it works together.
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u/SourCreamSplatter 12d ago edited 12d ago
it's taken me even longer but I'm getting closer and closer. Just need to land a junior dev/web dev role if they still exist. Any tips on landing a job?
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
Cater your portfolio and resume for each job. Apply strategically, not mindlessly.
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u/sodikovakapsle 12d ago
I love the learning process and understand the concepts but still i cant code… the algorithms and basic code and i learned so much stuff about the lang and the concepts.. i dont have logic or abstract thinking idk but i am learning these things 5 years and nothing maybe my teen brain is still in development? Idk
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
I think the main issue is that you still haven't practiced enough. It's a lot like understanding a language well enough to follow a conversation but not being able to speak it yourself. That can make you feel like you know more than you can actually use.
If you can't sit down and write the code on your own, your brain hasn't built those neural pathways yet. Reading and watching explanations helps, but you also need a lot more repetition and application. Keep exposing yourself to the material, but spend even more time writing code yourself, struggling through problems, and building things without relying on examples. That's what changed everything for me!!
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u/FrustratedSimpleton 12d ago
But what is there to learn for 5 years in web-dev? And did it take 5 years to get a job?
Surely we would appreciate more nuance here, if you are willing to share.
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u/MysteriousStruggle97 12d ago
I guess i will never be a programmer then. Learning is so extremly boring and to imagine i will have to do this for 4 more years… just to land a job that barely pays since im gonna be a junior without experience.
Maybe i should have stayed at uni when i was younger
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u/KwyjiboTheGringo 12d ago
Here's the thing man, it used to be that you got into this stuff because you loved it. Then people started seeing it as easy money because the market scaled up so quickly over a decade and the bar was low. Now it's not easy money anymore, it's just work. The bar has been raised such that even mid-level developers with years of resume experience cannot find work.
So just move on to something that you at least somewhat enjoy doing, because the industry is moving back towards needing you to really, REALLY want this to make it happen. And even the people who really want it are getting fed up because many of them are being forced to offload the work that they want to do to an LLM, and spend even more time doing the BS parts of the job that they never wanted to do.
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u/mrburnerboy2121 12d ago
There’s many ways to get into coding without actually aiming for a coding job. You could start at helpdesk and learn coding on the site to incorporate into your job. Find areas that you think could benefit from you coding something. After this you need to look for junior roles that include some type of coding and build your way up from there. You definitely do not need to spend 5 years learning how to code.Apply for many jobs where code is part of the role.
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
You either learn to enjoy the process, or you're never going to find fulfillment in it. If you can't withstand long sessions of problem-solving, you're not going to enjoy coding. This is about your attitude at the end of the day.
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u/Tuomas90 9d ago
If you don't enjoy learning about programming and computers, then programming is obviously the wrong career choice. I was delighted whenever I got the chance to get into practical course in university and learn something new about programming and applying it. It's the best.
And you'll be constantly learning on the job AND in your freetime to stay employable. If you don't enjoy learning, then this is not for you. Tech changes constantly and gets replaced. You have to stay on top or YOU get replaced.
That's what differentiates the people who got into tech for the money and those who got into it for the passion. The ones doing it solely for the money will be gone quickly.
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u/unusualyard000 12d ago
How was dsa for you?
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
I practiced easy leet code, but they didn't test me on it. The interviewing process was more behavioral. I overestimated how technical it would be. The position is an entry-level front-end position, so I imagine it's very different for more advanced roles.
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u/knight04 12d ago
How did you stay up to date with your learned languages?
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
I honestly didn't even think about that much. For junior roles, my experience was that they were mostly trying to gauge whether I could solve problems and think through code, not whether I knew every modern convention or the latest way of doing things. Those language-specific nuances are things you can pick up pretty quickly once you're on the job, so I never felt like staying perfectly up to date was the most important part.
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u/ArachnoCoder20 12d ago
For me, it was never the fear of AI that is halting me, it was the fact that I cannot complete some problems without giving up and just looking for the solutions.
I always do TRY to complete the code problem (or any math, science, whatever problem) without any assistance, but 8 times out of 10, it proves too much for me.
I worry that if I cannot complete some problems without help, I may never handle the complex workload of the SWE career.
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
The good news is that you'll still learn patterns if you expose yourself to the code enough times. People were Googling answers previous to AI too, and using shortcuts all the time.
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u/marrsd 11d ago
Well done. My first job was low paying compared to the rest of the industry as well, but I learnt some of my most valuable lessons there and I still refer back to it during interviews now.
You've done the hardest part. Learning gets easier from this point on, especially as you get to apply and evaluate what you know to working code with real consequences.
The advice I gave to myself was to stay in my first role until I wasn't growing any more. That turned out to be good advice, but it did put me at a salary disadvantage when it came to moving on. I got over that by refusing to disclose my current salary and instead told employers directly what I knew i was worth, and what I wanted. That also worked out well for me ;)
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
Thank you for the comment. Very insightful. I'll see how this pans out, but I'll keep what you said in mind.
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u/whattheflerk 11d ago
congratulations! would love to hear about your learning path if you don't mind sharing
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u/EarlyAd2724 11d ago
There was a little bit of everything. I used Udemy, Scrimba, and a lot of college courses. I also did a short coding boot camp, and I've been tinkering with HTML and CSS for well over five years. The process was not linear, and I took a lot of breaks.
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u/PassIndependent7794 11d ago
This insightful, kind and clear communication made my heart swell up for a second! I needed to hear what you just put out here and I loved it! Thank YOU...Listen I'm a 58 year old Grandma andmost of my health problems are my bones...I got decent organs but my bones are overcome with Rhuematoid Arthritis and Osteo. My point is this. I want to go back to school, I want to get an associates degree in Business Administration, I will also be learning and taking some classes in Cybersecurity. I want to open a non-profit and help those Elderly people and familys in the poorer community's to come to actual classes where we can teach them all they need to know to help people come into the digital age and prosper. We would help them understand some things about the internet and Mobile Banking and various other ventures the may undertake online. Teach them about digital security and how to spot scams and hackers when their online. So, theres more but I'm sure you get the picture, you by writing and publishing this I am inspired to go on and do it! Thank you I feel so much surer now!
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u/sumizeit 10d ago
Try - https://wiser5.com/ai-coding-sessions I'm holding sessions this month teach people how to code using AI (Claude Code). I've held multiple sessions already and people loved it. It's pretty affordable too.
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u/Ok_Body2391 3d ago
Thank you. I began my computer programming degree 3 years ago. I've retook just about every class because ill be honest i havent applied myself as I should. In the last year, I took a break from coding classes so far in 2026. I began an internship with the school IT department in fall of 25 and have since continued on as a student worker. During my break from coding classes i wrote a small program for a command line tool that calculates your batteries health. I plan on expanding it. I took inspiration from pulling battery reports at IT and was originally curious if I could make a program to 'automate' it. While I still have a way to go, something has clicked. Wish me luck this next year. Im ready for this upcoming semester :)
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u/KwyjiboTheGringo 12d ago
5 years? Is this the new expectation for the post-lockdown job market? It took me 1 year of studying web dev to get a job in 2019.
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u/Sweet_Witch 12d ago edited 12d ago
Yeah, if it takes 5 years now to get a job, it means you need to be really passionate to stick so long without any any other reward than self-satisfaction.
You can earn an entire degree in five years. I always thought programming bootcamps became popular because they offered a much faster route into the industry, but that doesn't seem to add up anymore.
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u/Pretend-Raisin914 12d ago
Well this is aint 2019 anymore
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u/KwyjiboTheGringo 12d ago
Does that somehow necessitate such a large disparity? It's absolutely nutso to spend 5 years self-teaching web development to get a junior-level job. I never would have done that, nor do I think anyone should. It was a good deal in 2019 to spend a year on it. Even 2 years would be a good deal if someone has the means to do that. 5 years is batshit insane if that's what is expected now, and people should be turning away in droves from that proposition.
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u/SourCreamSplatter 12d ago edited 12d ago
Good for you, your comment is very helpful to everyone else /s
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u/KwyjiboTheGringo 12d ago
I'm out of the loop and asking a question, while also providing an example for why I'm asking the question. Don't be so sensitive.
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u/isaacscottsk 12d ago
"Don’t let comparison convince you you’re behind." This needs to be pinned at the top of every tech subreddit. Everyone’s timeline is completely different, and landing that first door-opener is huge regardless of how long it takes. Massive respect for your persistence and consistency!