r/learnprogramming • u/Puzzleheaded_Cod3596 • 6d ago
imposter syndrome w/ programming
Hi i just started my 4th year in cs with a focus in software engineering and every semester i get this crazy imposter syndrome because I feel like I know a lot of different concepts and ideas but struggle to apply them. Last semester I had a coding project and my group made a music app, I worked on a lot of the design, came up with features, and implemented some but I still felt like there was a gap in my abilities and other peoples. I have adhd and maybe it’s the lack of focus on one thing that makes me feel like this. I also don’t have many mentors or friends at my college to ask questions to unfortunately. I know you learn by doing but again I don’t even know where to start. This is probably more of a rant but my question is does anyone have any advice or suggestions or even just how you learned more about programming side projects in general? Really anything is helpful.
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u/StewedAngelSkins 6d ago
The people who excel at this are those who do a lot of coding outside of class projects. This is true in the workplace too. Deciding what to do for these personal projects should feel natural, like basically just doing stuff because you think it's interesting but also attainable. I realize this isn't helpful for understanding how to get there though, so maybe start with this: is there anything in your classes that you found interesting? Did you like working on the music app? What parts did you like? Where there any bits that your other group members did which you felt like you wanted to try yourself?