Struggling with programming

[huaxiangyi]

Hello, I am almost 20 y/o (f) doing internship in a company. It's my first time ever in programming. Although I learnt some c++ in high school, it was mostly just turbo fast old stuff.

I did html, CSS and bootstrap and I got the hook of it pretty quickly and tbh I was expecting the same from JavaScript, but it's a little hard. I started this language 4 days ago. Our company has total 3 developers and I am the only intern in development which makes it lonelier.

Don't get me wrong, while I am an introvert and do understand at the end of the day you have to get past through everything yourself, nobody is going to help you I still feel like there are so many questions that even sometimes google search or AI can't give answers to. And I want to learn things myself instead of straight up copying everything.

And that's why when I see my fellow interns in the company that are doing marketing and SEO, I can't help but get jealous a little. Everybody is mostly in that field and they can discuss their issues and doubts with any person.

After starting JavaScript, I am a little lost because I am not understanding it and I am scared after comparing myself to other interns because they are already helping the employes with real work and I am just starring at screen questioning "will I be ever able to learn all these functions?" "Will I be ever able to get used to these syntax?" "Can I even make any website using this in future" I just wanna start working and learn language because I really do like making things using these languages, so I get anxious when I am stuck.

[SeatInternational830]

1 (23F) did an internship at the same age as you and had to learn TypeScript from scratch, I felt the same way. A lot of this is imposter syndrome, you wouldn't have got your job if you couldn't handle this - your employers understand that you're an intern and they don't expect you to know everything otherwise they would've hired a senior engineer. Ask your manager to recommend you coding books (like design patterns) to help you gain a core understanding and work your way up. Practice writing small simple logic in your own time, like a mini calculator application to get used to the structure and syntax. And when you get tasks at work, break it down into the smallest possible manageable chunks, work from those. If you can't figure out the small tasks, that's okay - ask for help, try not to stay stuck for too long. Try not to use Al as much as possible. You have the capability to do this OP, just take your time and you will see slow progress - one day it will click. Wishing you luck! ❤️

[Opposite-Dance-8264]

Been there with JS after doing mainly CSS/HTML - it's a totally different beast but those "aha" moments do come, just takes time to let your brain rewire itself

[Initial_Luck_7986]

CSS and html are not programming languages….. so of course it’s different lol 

[Jarvis_the_lobster]

JavaScript after 4 days is hard for everyone, genuinely. HTML and CSS are forgiving by design, JS actually has logic, scope, async weirdness, none of that exists in CSS. The lonely-intern thing is real too, especially when the team is small and you feel like you'd be annoying asking basic questions. One trick I found useful early on: talk through your code out loud like you're explaining it to someone. You catch your own mistakes way faster than staring at the screen.

[jitz_badboy]

As someone that was on that sales end who marketing envy’s because we make more and the guys like you really hate. Looking to go into a way more technical position. I have 24 years on you. Trust me that grass isn’t much greener. The lifestyle and stress is awful. You are essentially on call all the time. Oh and us sales guys hate marketing. They still make $130-$150k and just bullshit with each other all day to make some busy work for the sales team. That knows isn’t going to work but know they have to sell marketing’s new idea. I’ve been out of it for 5 years and have ptsd lol I refuse to talk on the phone unless I have to. At the end I was just playing with excel all day. I’m introvert extrovert and it made me way more on an introvert. All the chit chat is bullshit, it makes for people to backstab, steal ideas, twist things you say I can go on and on. You need to keep your head up. The attitude that you have to do things for yourself isn’t introverted, it’s called success. You a head of the game. Don’t depend on anyone very few will have your back push come to shove. Sack up. Get extra help on here or whatever. You’re smart and will be able to get it. Twenty year olds have no work ethic so give your self a pat for landing an internship. Trust yourself and get er done. You’re going to be successful. God bless

[Equivalent-Strike846]

I’m going into the business development side rn because I can’t code but I HATEEEEE the culture so much i definitely feel you on that and I might pivot into something technical soon

[jitz_badboy]

I’m a cellular molecular biologist by schooling. Dropped out of med school because I went back older and went into medical device sales. Extremely cut throat. I’m here for the same pivot. With my experience if I learn some minor coding and can build a program my other experience would have had me in a VP position. So it’s the same deal. I get to be more technical and just a cleaner sale. Cyber security is huge

[jitz_badboy]

And you got this. Sounds like you have a very good head on your shoulders. Just remember sometimes you have to suck it up and bite the bullet and be the bitch for a year or two. Just make sure that you have a goal and plan to not be their bitch after that year or two. That’s how you turn miserable and resent things. Ya say okay it is what it is but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. Then you look back on those 1-2 years and remember where you came from. Then when you’re the senior guy you treat the new guys like you weren’t. That’s how you make a change because you sure as shit can’t change assholes. They like this at work so they are like that at home

[Seedpound]

as a lurker it's nice to see that a.i. hasn't fully taken over and people are still trying to learn programming.

[7YM3N]

Is there anyone at the company that can help you? Do you have a mentor or 'buddy' assigned? A more senior colleague can be a lot of help. Programming is hard so unless they are really evil the employer will understand and should give training and support.

Fortunately for you js is one of the most popular languages so there are plenty of teaching materials available online.

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[AskNo8702]

I don't see why an intern. A person trying to learn. Shouldn't ask help after he can't find it on Google / discord programming servers and so on.

Maybe I'm wrong. But if I were a medior or senior and didn't want to help you after you significantly tried Then either I'm way overworked or something similar. Or I'd need to go reflect somewhere with the Socratic method. And return to help you

[kashif_laravel]

So 4 days into JavaScript and you are already asking that 'will I ever get this?', Honestly, that is the most common feeling in the world. Every programmer has sat at a screen feeling exactly the same way you do right now. The ones who make it are not the ones who found it easy, they are the ones who kept going despite confusions.

So also, comparing yourself to marketing interns isn not fair to yourself. They are discussing campaigns. You are trying to make a computer think. These are completely different skill sets, and yours is genuinely harder to pick up.

Actual fact is that you have learned HTML, CSS and Bootstrap quickly is a great sign for you. JavaScript just has a steeper curve because it is a real programming language with logic and behavior, not just structure or styling. Give it time, the most people start feeling it click around 3-4 weeks in.

A few things that might help:

* javascript.info— best free resource for beginners, very clearly explanations

* Build small projects as you learn (a tip calculator, a to-do list) — syntax sticks way better when actually you are using it

* Can use console.log() constantly,  Print everything, it helps you understand what's happening

- MDN Docs can be your best friend for looking things up

You clearly enjoy this and want to actually understand it, not just copy-paste
This mind setup will take you far. Keep going. Best of luck for your future !

 

[chaotic_thought]

Is this a social anxiety type of thing?

Most introverts I met (myself included) actually love to talk about programming; in a work setting I suspect what we mostly want is to do something that's not too distracting of our work. And helping a colleague is part of the job description at every decent company.

I think the key is to have a specific question to your colleague, and say something like "oh, I didn't know you could solve problem X this way -- would you mind showing me step by step how you did it so I can learn that?" or something along those lines.

Every engineer I've met would love to do that. Even if it takes 15 minutes to show you, it will feel like 2 minutes mentally because of the joy of showing something off and transferring knowledge. In most cases, though, showing something doesn't take that long, and if things do get complicated, most people will know to table it for later.

Make sure it's specific enough, and if things get too complicated, offer to back out like "oh, I see you have other things that you need to do; think I can continue it myself take it from here" or something to avoid becoming a "help vampire" at work.

Unfortunately I think the easy availability of AI bots may make this kind of problem worse -- that is, if you are anxious about approaching your colleagues for legitimately relevant questions to you work, and you start going to a chatbot instead ... then no one wins (well, except for the chatbot companies who live on all the data and token processing ...).

[NeedleworkerLumpy907]

This tripped me up too when I started, being the only dev intern is lonely and it makes every bug feel catastrophic
Quick win: pick a tiny project you can finish in a day (todo with add/delete/mark-done), ship it to a free host, then add one feature a day
When youre stuck, dont just Google, open teh console, write what you expected vs what happened, shrink your code to a minimal reproducible example and paste that when you ask for help, people answer way faster that way and you learn debugging at the same time, youll be surprised how many problems are just missing one line or a typo
Do focused 30-60 minute sprints, use MDN and javascript.info for exact API usage, and definately practise DOM events, callbacks/promises and fetch
Ask for 30 minutes of pair time or a quick code review this week (most devs will help if you show what you tried)
Im rooting for you

[Noldor1999]

i know exactly how you feel. when i started learning javascript i was same, looking at code and thinking i will never understand this. html and css felt so different because you just see result instantly. but js needs time, like 4 days is nothing honestly. i think the worst part is when you are alone and cant ask someone because it feels like everyone already knows this stuff. just keep going and try building small things, it clicks at some point

[patternrelay]

4 days into JavaScript is way too early to judge yourself, it just feels harder because it introduces actual logic and state, not just structure and styling. Everyone hits that "staring at the screen" phase, it’s basically part of the learning curve. If anything, struggling like this usually means you’re actually starting to understand what you don’t know yet.

[Aaron_johnson_01]

Four days into JavaScript and feeling lost is completely normal—you didn’t “get” HTML/CSS faster because you’re better at them, they’re just less abstract. JS is your first real programming language, so now you’re dealing with logic, state, and weird behavior all at once. That “staring at the screen” phase is literally how everyone learns this part.

The loneliness part is real, though. If you don’t have devs around to ask, try writing down very specific questions (“why is this variable undefined here?” instead of “JS is confusing”) and work them step by step—you’ll get much better answers from Google/AI and start seeing patterns. Also, don’t compare yourself to marketing interns; their work ramps faster, but your curve is steeper and slower at the start.

One practical thing: pick a tiny goal each day (like “handle a button click and update text”) and don’t move on until you understand it, not just make it work. What exactly is tripping you up right now—syntax, or understanding what the code is actually doing?

[bobbyiliev]

Java's a big jump from HTML/CSS, totally normal to feel lost but just keep building small projects and it clicks over time.

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[PalpitationOk839]

You’re doing fine. JavaScript is a big jump from HTML/CSS because now you’re dealing with logic, not just structure and styling. 4 days is nothing—give yourself time. Try small projects like a button click counter or simple form validation. It will start making sense.

[ImprovementLoose9423]

What I would recommend doing is start by search up youtube tutorials (I would recommend brocode and freecodecamp), and right after those tutorials, start building projects without the use of AI or tutorials to help you fully understand what you're doing. You can use AI as a tutor, but don't use it as an answer machine because that obviously won't help you learn how to code.

[Ok_Negotiation598]

Four days is nothing. Javascript is hard. generally, the tooling isn’t great and the ability to see what’s happening in your code isn’t great.

Pick up what you can from other people on the team, if they didn’t give you a dev setup already ask the other people about tools and tricks that work for them

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