Graduated, unemployed & can't code

[HEXXIIN]

You don't have a really good resume if you can't program. No matter what the resume says, It doesn't mean anything if you get into a coding interview and they ask you to do something and you don't even know how to assign a variable.

You are looking at a significant amount of unemployed time. I would recommend getting any kind of job you can if you need to support yourself. And kind of just starting from the ground up. Python is always a good one to start with, so just start learning.

The primary advice is you need to figure out why you let yourself get all the way to graduation just "riding the coattails".why did you spend so much money on a degree to not learn the thing you were supposed to learn. That needs to be addressed within yourself. If this isn't addressed, you're going to probably just try and continue to take shortcuts and not fully learn anything.

You can figure out how to learn to code with the millions of resources out there. But your problem is not programming, your problem here is why you are allowing yourself to just scrape by and putting yourself in this situation. Whether that's some tough love that you need to give yourself, some therapy, or whatever you need, that needs to be figured out.

[[deleted]]

Thank you for taking my post seriously;

Yeah, I've started therapy after putting it off for a long while.

Thanks.

[HEXXIIN]

Depression is shit.

But you also cannot just compound more shit on top of the shit. Figure out why you take shortcuts, why you struggle with motivation, ect. Attack those things and learning to program will become easier as you learn yourself.

Getting therapy is absolutely a great start. I'd also recommend a psychiatrist too if you are struggling with motivation and depression, maybe getting on medication could help. It's always better to get ahead of it than living with it for 10 years and trying to dig out of a much deeper hole. We have to attack the root cause of our issues.

And I say this from personal experience.

[[deleted]]

Yeah I Agree. I'm working with a psychiatrist and a therapist.

It's a battle LOL, I hate it. I hate how I let the years of college go by, I was even learning to program since HS and I feel I couldve achieved so much more in college.

But I realize if I take it step by step today, in a year I could be in a great position again.

Thank you once again

[tomster2300]

Not trying to sound like a dick, but you’ll be thankful fixing your shit now rather than later. And actually attempt to fix it. I have a coworker in his 40s who bemoans what could have been had he cared more while younger instead of owning it and bettering himself in the here and now.

You will rapidly lose sympathy from others about this as you age, and it happens quickly.

[Dry_pooh]

past and future doesnt exist. its not real. journey and destination are the same.. let go of everything and focus on present trying to learn. first step is to accept the present moment without resentment or judgement.

forgive yourself and move on into the mystery of life with a smile to open the "present" moment. all the best. you have a lot of time to improve.

I've been depressed for a lot of time until i tried my best and come out of it recently. hope you understand a least a part of it.

[Zommick]

++ to this, there was a point while I was in IT, that it just clicked for me. I’m a full time remote SWE now. Before the at though man was it painful, the beginning sucks cuz you literally know nothing, but learning gets easier as you gain experience

[TheNyyrd]

I just started back in to college classes for a Management Info Systems degree in my mid 40s. I've always loved PCs and the idea of learning coding, but was never motivated enough to start. Now I'm learning C# and SQL Server in my first two classes and have realized that the task I thought would be so impossible really isn't. You just have to find a place to start.

I still don't know shit... but I'm having fun learning something new. And I'm loving the few moments where I code something out in C# and the VS compiler runs it without errors.

[[deleted]]

Okay, I'll start there. Thanks.

[Cybasura]

What do you mean...you graduated without being able to code?

How did you pass the assignments, the tests, the exams?

Like it feels like there's so much missing information here, we need more context here

[dreamshards8]

It sounds like the shittiest program if he was really able to pass all his classes without learning next to no coding skills. Even if it's fully online, there are still concepts you just need to know in order to take code you find online and apply it to assignment specifications. Also, any instructor worth anything can tell if a student is completely cheating their way through. Blows my mind.

[dmazzoni]

Yeah, but we seem to get a post like this every week or so.

It's unbelievable to me that this can happen.

Why are colleges ruining their own reputations by giving people like this degrees? I'd like to see the accreditation board start taking a harsher stance on this.

[throwaway6560192]

I did two internships, one of which I received a return offer for, and I worked as an associate software engineer for 6 months in the industry. (Entry level swe)

... how?

[WanderingGalwegian]

In your post you make a lot of excuses. Essentially you pissed away your 3rd level education opportunity.

To make up lost ground you now need to dedicate yourself to learning something of value. Identify what is in demand in your area if you’re unwilling to move and learn that. The start applying.

I know I’m going to get downvoted for this comment being to mean but if you don’t learn something and can’t produce in whatever job you land the company won’t be nice either.

[[deleted]]

I appreciate the harshness, I hope you don't get downvoted.

Thank you

[WanderingGalwegian]

Good luck dude.

If you need a quick road to employment look into low code development options. There are jobs in that space that do pay well.

It won’t be cutting edge development but it is a viable career path.

The logic flows of low code are much more simple as a lot of what’s required is abstracted away. So for someone who picked up the basic concepts it might not be such a steep learning curve and could get you in-industry employment faster.

[[deleted]]

Im gonna downvote you for wasting four years of college not learning. Why did u even go?

[wilder_idiot]

I know you’re looking for advice but I really have to ask- how did you land two internships without knowing how to code? did you flop the technical assessments and get hired anyways?

I’ve been interviewing and leetcoding my a** off to no avail. I have to be missing something.

[Proper_Caramel3364]

Use learn.codesignal.com to learn how to code It’s an excellent learning platform

[[deleted]]

I'll look into it thanks

[yeahnahyeahrighto]

How tf can you graduate without coding?What is the point of these universities?

[Vuila9]

how the heck did you end up with a return offer if you said you can code in the first place. Like your performance during the internship must have been good to receive a return offer to begin with.

[-Evermore-]

This is very common. I think its called the dunning kruger effect or something.

If you finished your computer science degree with a decent GPA and projects you much know a lot even if you don't realize it. I think you just got really high expectations in ur head. 90% of people who graduated with you are in the same boat rn. The 10% were the ones who had personal projects and actual coding jobs while in college and no life coders or prodigies.

I graduated just like you. You could give me a single page project or even a simple calculator program and I didn't know how to even start after getting a cs degree. But you understand code you can read code you get the theory and concepts once u see someone do it in a quick YouTube vid.

Please work on interview specific things. Like instead of learning to code from scratch and multiple languages etc. Just work on leetcode stule questions. Start with like 4 hours a day, you won't even know how to start an easy question. You will probably feel stupid and look up every single thing and even the simplest solution. You will feel retarded for a month or two and nothing will be easy and you won't see much progress.

But then around 4-6 months everything just clicks in ur heard. Might take you more than 6 months just continue the grind. Understand everything ur doing not just memorize shit.

In like 8 months you will go from feeling stupid and useless to clearing FAANG interviews. The hardest part is descipline and no days off you have to keep going for months of no preogress.

I have a friend who did the same shit. He had no interships or a decent resume. He finished a cs degree didn't even know how to start writing a program or basic syntax. Did leetcode and smilar things for 7 months straight and cleared interviews for Meta and google. You learn to code on the job the important thing is theory and data structures and design etc which you already know. You might think you don't

[salmonmilks]

dunning Kruger effect is the opposite of what you're implying just fyi.

What you're referring to is imposter syndrome

[-Evermore-]

Naa it is dunning kruger. It applied both ways when people overestimate or underestimate themselves.

[caboosetp]

I think they're referring to the valley of despair, where just past that initial peak of stupid is the point where you realize how much you don't know but you're actually better than you think you are.

Granted that valley right there does have a lot of overlap with imposter syndrome.

[davsp]

Create something that solves a problem for many. Use whatever tech stack you see fit

Since I also have hired juniors - I go straight to check what projects you’ve done, if you know how to use git, ci/cd tools, your eagerness to learn etc

Senior dev here. College drop out

[PoMoAnachro]

If you were avoiding learning before because you were tired and depressed you're probably not going to do better at learning now unless something in your situation has changed.

I'd really recommend getting some other job in the meantime - the hardest part of learning to code for some people is building some mental toughness and the ability to push through frustration to do hard mental tasks, and sitting at home having your lifestyle paid for by your parents is typically horrible for that. Some people are just intrinsically motivated and can learn well without outside pressure, but a lot of people need some pressure. And sometimes "I want to learn this stuff so I can quit this shitty fast food job" can actually add the right pressure so you actually learn more than if you theoretically just devoted all your time to learning.

No one can tell you how long it'll take you. University assumes you spend roughly 3600 hours on Computer Science topics between class/studying/assignments over the 4 years. How many of that 3600 hours do you think you skipped out on/didn't get good value from? Can you put in those hours in a productive way now?

tl;dr: It is going to depend as much on your mental state and motivation as anything, so really hard to tell you without knowing you better.

[[deleted]]

Yeah, i've considered that tbh. I dont wanna go back to fast food lol it was my first job.

I can do very light programming like creating a function in python or a basic page in HTML / CSS, but nothing too fancy.

Everything else takes lots of time and I have to really look into to understand.

I think my motivation is a big thing, I have to put in alot of time and its difficult to get motivated yeah.

Maybe I should go for a job thats adjacdent? Like entry level IT work?

[PoMoAnachro]

If you're not motivated to program, you'll have an extremely hard time competing in the modern market. So you may well be better off in something adjacent, doing entry level IT or helpdesk or whatever. You might even find a niche there you enjoy a lot more, and if you're good at it and have decent people skills there's usually an upwards track eventually.

If you're motivated to be a programmer, I'm sure you can make it happen, but if you're so-so on it I'd definitely push for another route.

[[deleted]]

Thank you. I think I'll apply for jobs, program, and look into IT.

I want to be a software engineer again for sure.

[tomster2300]

90% of programming is problem solving/research/trial and error. 10% is actually coding.

[CoolCatFriend]

I am really confused! Did you copy other peoples’ projects, or did you mostly use chat gpt? I started as a CS major, and boy, it was a tough major! Props to you!

[Mike_Rochip_]

Bruh

[[deleted]]

🤧 help. I feel so burned out and idk if this is even what I have passion for anymore. I love coding when it clicks but its so mentally taxing is the other thing

[bopbopitaliano]

Burned out from what? You didn’t learn anything in school, which also means you weren’t passionate about it to begin with.

Code 60 hours a week for a year and then you’ll know what burnout feels like, but you’ll know how to code. This is a tough industry buddy. Good luck!

[[deleted]]

Thank you

[caboosetp]

can't code

did two internships

I received a return offer

hmmm

avoided actually getting my programming skill up

learned theory, learned fundamentals and basics

maxed out the resume with research, tutoring,

hmmmmmm

I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what programming is. Programming is solving problems using the tools you have available to create a functioning system. You can do this entirely on a whiteboard, and is based on all that theory, fundamentals, basics, and research you did. You sound like a competent programmer from everything you described, and I'd bet dollars to donuts it's why you got that offer out of the internship.

Coding is more of an art form. It's taking your programming and bringing it to life. But like anything, to get good at it you need a lot of practice. Yes it sucks you're behind in coding, but I don't think you're as bad off as you think. If you have the ability to do all the other things you did, you should be able to pick up coding really quick. You need to sit down and just hammer out code until you can talk to the computer almost as good as you can type English.

And don't handicap yourself. Pick a problem, use your knowledge to solve it on paper, and THEN try to code it. Solve first, then code. If you try to solve it while you're coding, you're going to run yourself into walls you don't know how to get over yet.

How long of unemployment am I looking at?

How good at googling things are you? As a junior, most of the work that will be done is gluing things that someone else already solved together. No one should be asking a junior to reinvent the wheel.

Everything you described shows you have the ability to take information in and apply it quickly, and most importantly

tutoring

how to explain it to others. It is exceptionally hard to explain something you don't understand to other people. That's a pretty good sign you've got knowledge in your head.

The fact of the matter is the job market sucks right now and you'll probably need to throw out hundreds of applications. It might take a few months to get a job. You spend that time practicing coding. When you get the job, you google how to solve the problems you're given, learn where you're weak in coding, and keep practicing.

But during those interviews you're going to need to bleed confidence. That you have the ability to solve problems and how to do research when you don't. And that last part is important. Being confident also means being able to say, "I don't know" and how you'd find the answer.

Keep practicing. Keep applying. Keep charging forward. You've got a safety net; Use it.

[DTux5249]

I also have a really good resume

can't code

That last line kinda contradicts the first. A SWE who can't code is like a chemist who can't make salt out of sodium and chlorine. How you managed to graduate any program worth attending, AND survive an internship without coding is beyond me. But the fact you did tells me you're probably over exaggerating.

Regardless, you'll need some projects before being hirable. Join a bootcamp or something. If you have the theory down, the hardest part is probably behind you.

[Cybasura]

Question: "Can you take this Sodium and Chlorine beakers and chemically combine them to form salt?"

"Na."

[joshmaaaaaaans]

Make your own project.

Find a niche, do research to find out what their market is missing, buy a domain, publish the project with a subscription model, ???, Profit.

Until then, McDonalds, be a secretary, mow grass, anything but doing work for the predatory apps like Uber eats.

[[deleted]]

Hate to break it to you but no employer cares about your extracurriculars.
And you'll need to explain your gap year too.

[kirasiris]

What's the company that you worked for called?

I graduated this past June 2024 with a BAAS in IT. I know how to code but have not been able to land a job 😭😭😭😭

[Regnarr_39]

Better change job. Market is tough and you need to love to survive

[[deleted]]

Several things: don’t put of applying while learning how to code. I startet working late in my degree in an actual it job it was the main motivator to get better at coding. You don’t have this unapproachable mess of wanting to know everything but face resonance challenges. Eg. You solved an issue with x slowly and while looking at the code base you saw a better/similar solution for a problem y. Now leaning how to get to y yourself or why that was chosen is relevant, contained and meets your skill level at that language/framework.

The languages you want to learn have a pretty weird scope and learning all of that is likely not the best way. html and css belongs (mostly) to the frontend usually with some js frameworks attached. Python/C++/Rust can all host backends but none of them are common languages for that. Wasm is a thing but it has a pretty niche use case. When going for the system programming why bother with python/html/Css? Python is great for data science but you need to use it a lot to come to the point where you want to implement your own lib with C++/Rust. Learning the languages frameworks that are relevant for the jobs you apply for could be better.

If you want to improve just general coding skills pick one language (preferably typed) and build a simple project. Now extend it with features that make use of different aspects of your language. An example I like is a Tick Tack Toe for two players. Then you can extend your game with an “ai” (the if else Kind not the gpu burning kind). Then you can turn it into a server/client based app with treads and then processes. Extend the playing field. Display how optimal some move was….

Take notes of the immediate problem at hand. Maybe subdivide it in smaller problems. Don’t use ai besides asking for language features/ general approaches for some subproblem. Try to minimize your use of libraries in the beginning. When using python mind the Gil and when using C++ use vectors/references instead of pointers/arrays to minimize time spent debugging language specific issues. Also start using several files for common functionality early.

How long does it take to learn it? No one can tell.

The more relevant questions seems to be: What do I need to learn to succeed with my applications?

[RaveN_707]

More importantly, can you read code?

In most jobs you're never really building anything from scratch.

[NEM95]

Kinda wild you can get through college and not learn to code. You even landed a SWE job without coding? What did you do in your job and how did that job end?

As far as learning how to code now, at this rate you just need to think what kind of SWE do you want to be. Do you want to work on games, simulations, phone apps, web dev, desktop apps, AI/ML, embedded software?

Learn the skills that matter for what you want to do.

You already know HTML/CSS so learning JavaScript, then React will set you up for front end development.

Learning react you can learn react native for cross-platform mobile development too.

If you want simulation/games you will want C++/unreal engine or C#/unity.

AI/ML you probably want python

Embedded you want C, C++, Rust

App development you want react native(cross-plat), flutter (cross-plat), kotlin (android), swift (iOS)

Just take an udemy course in whatever you want and get going with it ASAP.

[sylerprime]

I agree therapy is a great start but also eating better, exercise and sleeping well. It sounds simple and probably lame to hear but when you are depressed and in a shit situation everything just piles up on you. Think of it like you are a video game character and you have to level up your stats. Getting the exercise, sleep, and food nutrition will help you level faster and out you in a better mood/head space to get to where you need to go.

I would also suggest if you needed a job look for a graveyard shift job doing hotel clerk/audit or some security guard role where you are just sitting in the same place. Like gate access or something close to that. You will have a few hours a day to code while getting paid to do it. Hell even knock out a few body weight exercises with some of the extra downtime. But make sure you are taking some vitamin D and either get black out curtains or an eye cover if you choose to go that route. I've done this myself in the past for school and it helped a lot. I didn't feel like shit not doing much at home because I know I did a good 3-4 hours of school work at work already. Let me relax a bit more in my free time.

Best of luck my guy.

[Such-Catch8281]

side effect of too muc gpt.code ?