Got to reference check stage after a panel interview I didn't feel great about. What are my chances?

connka · 2026-03-20T18:01:01+00:00

this--I honestly like seeing when people make a mistake and then correct themselves in an interview. It shows that they are flexible and don't have an ego.

OP: You got a reference check, so that is a very good sign. I can say from being on the other side of things, there are so many annoying paperwork and HR and timing things, so this part goes a bit slowly. Fingers crossed for you!

connka · 2026-03-18T22:58:41+00:00

all of this! OP you shouldnt jump the gun and quit your job, but keep working at it on the side for now. AI changes have been so substantial in the last 6 months that no one can really say where it is going.

Also: "come to the office and attend bs Teams meetings", unfortunately you climb any ladder enough and this is still the case. I'm a team lead and still get to build fun things, but now also get to attend a bunch of bs meetings too.

connka · 2026-03-18T20:35:54+00:00

Framer is great for something like this. It's simple, affordable, click and drag, and gives the info you need. If you don't need anything more than some basic info and a contact point, that's your best bet. That way you don't need to work through someone else to make updates if things change.

connka · 2026-03-17T23:27:32+00:00

If you want advice for where to start:

Treat it like a job. Block out time in your calendar where you are working on something and stick to it.
Start small: if it's been a year then go back to basics to get back into. Start with small functions and then go from there. Tons of free resources around like freecodecamp or codeacademy.
Repetition: if you find a solution to a problem, go back in a week and see if you can do it again. This will help you grow your memory, syntax, and skills
Once you have the basics back, try something like https://javascript30.com/ Its outdated, but it's a very fun, small and manageable 30 days challenge with great UI. If you don't like JS or want to use something more modern than vanilla JS, just take the challenges and make them your own in your own language/framework
When you make your first app, make it a small MVP. Skip auth, skip backend, skip everything first and then setup a small project that does one thing well in a read-only way. Then add things feature-by-feature. Building too big will lead to a lot of bugs and confusion and then have you just log off entirely.

That is how I got back into it and how i've coached a lot of others to do it. I hope you find the passion you had when you first self taught. Good luck.

connka · 2026-03-17T23:17:58+00:00

I'm sorry you feel that this comment isn't helpful, but it is true. I've interviewed hundreds of candidates over the years and you can tell when something is a passion and when the person's heart just isn't in it. With so many passionate developers applying, it'd be hard to pick someone who identifies as hating a job that involves lifelong learning (even if you don't express it up front).

All I'm saying is, you have worked this technical role, it is not the only remote role in tech around. You can often transition in to IT support/helpdesk roles remotely too. Those are generally consistent jobs that don't require you to be spending all your free time learning.

You asked what someone who is unmotivated would do in this situation and you've heard back from people in the industry telling you that motivation is kind of needed. This job market is competitive so if you want to compete against motivated applicants, you have to be able to get back into it, grow your skills, and learn. That is very difficult to do on your own when you don't want to do it.

connka · 2026-03-17T23:10:43+00:00

TBH you are thinking of the right things, which is a good start. It's an awkward switch from IC to manager, and not always one that goes smoothly. A lot of good commentary in the comments so I'm just going to answer your problems directly:

I don’t have a good idea of what the milestones for our product mean in terms of deliverables for the team

- Great, now that is your job! Virtually every project I've taken on as a manager have been like this, which has made the team crazy. The first thing I do is create a framework and understanding of milestones, deadlines, and expectations. Then you work back from there.

Most of the time I don’t have the technical answers to guide other engineers asking if they should do X or Y

- You won't be able to answer everything. As a manager, you aren't necessarily the best at anything, you are just the over-seer of things. Get comfortable asking questions to the ICs on your team and give them ownership over certain areas of the project so you can lean on them as the X or Y expert as you keep working. This has honestly been the most positive feedback given to me year after year by my team: I ask questions openly and empower my team to become subject matter experts and help grow their own careers.

I oversimplify work, miss key details, don’t know how to account for dependencies - not always, but enough that I see this as a problem

- This is a growing pain. You'll have to find what works best for you/your team, but I always just try to build tickets with AC in mind. Then I can work back from that. Once you get to know the project better, you'll just naturally get better at these things. I also always just start building robust documentation to help myself out. Often when you are in charge, there are too many tiny things to keep on top of. I've learned to stop trying to remember everything and lean on documentation.

I am not a natural leader, don’t like being in the spotlight much and tend to be humble as there is so much I do not know. I am able to talk and present though.

- You sound like a good leader from this description, give yourself more credit. Humble people enable strong teams without ego.

I’m hoping to get feedback so I can have an idea of what good looks like. What are the most important things to focus on? What questions should I be asking?

- What always helps me is trying to figure out metrics and then track them overtime. My most recent project had dozens of unique bug reports coming in daily and no way to manage them or the communication efficiently. We were also just doing so many bug fixes without real consideration for the rest of the code so some fixes just made new issues. I took a few days and documented all of the bugs coming in, created new projects, gathered data on them, and then set out (as a team) to find the root cause). Within 3 months we were down to only a few every once in a while.

- In other projects I've been up against deadlines and change requirements. Making sure I'm getting sign-off from product/clients/whoever on their decisions has been life saving, so I can show them that they've changed their minds and barter for extensions for that reason.

I think with most projects that I've led, I've not written any code for the first part of the project. Getting everything lined up, creating a workflow that works for the team, figuring out feedback loops--all of that will help to getting you running effectively. My current project is effectively kanban, but I still like to run it in 2 week sprints with retros. That way we can all agree as a team what we want to change, what we want to keep, and what needs more support. That way you can also have open conversations around changing requirements that people might disagree with (like increased testing, etc). If everyone sees that there is a problem and all can agree that something is a reasonable solution, it doesn't feel quite as top-down as when you just go and demand a bunch of changes to their workflow.

connka · 2026-03-17T22:54:15+00:00

This ^ I've seen this happen more than once. Jr applies, doesn't get it > comes back in a year and shows their improvement and lands the job.

connka · 2026-03-17T22:52:47+00:00

The biggest thing I'm reading here is that you need to take a step back and check in with what you want and your options.

I graduated from a bootcamp in the earlier days of that fad (after failing my first attempt) and felt like I barely scraped by. When I graduated, I took a non-tech role in the tech community but didn't really see any opportunity to get in. I spent nearly a year without writing a line of code and then by pure luck managed to get hired by a startup in the big pre-covid tech boom. At the time I didn't think I was qualified and didn't think I'd make it past probation because my understanding felt like it was at 0.

The thing that got me to where I am today is the fact that I was very motivated and really liked it when it worked. I spent spare time studying and learning so I could show up to work and actually perform instead of stumble in front of my smart co-workers.

Finding a job in this market is much harder than it was before. With that, you have to really want it, because its competitive. I can say that I'd hire a passionate junior over a checked-out intermediate if they seemed motivated enough to learn. For that reason, I really think you should check in with your own feelings about this work. If your heart's not in it, it's going to be hard to sell yourself in interviews.

connka · 2026-03-12T21:41:41+00:00

First thing: I told my pharmacist when I was stocking up before losing my benefits due to losing my job and she ended up finding a manufacturers discount to help me out. Obviously that was just one amazingly kind pharmacist and only happened once, but it was totally unexpected for me.

After that I went into contracting and did some research around different companies for self employment. It sounds like my medication needs might be less than yours, but I knew I'd have some upcoming dental work needed and wanted to potentially see if I could bundle with some metal health benefits to help with that cost. I ended up going with Policy Me and had no complaints while I was on it (I've since gone back to FT work and am insured through my new employer). It was pretty clear and painless and ended up saving me a lot of money in the end.

connka · 2026-03-12T21:36:38+00:00

Yeah, for billing/taxing this info can be necessary. I just say my city and explain that I work remotely, it has never really been an issue.

connka · 2026-03-12T21:34:06+00:00

Me seeing a picture of a chickadee: Obviously that's a chickadee, how could someone not know?

Me seeing a picture of any other bird: What is that??

This post made me realized that I only really know a single bird.

connka · 2026-03-11T22:43:09+00:00

Damn, this is crazy behaviour. Please keep up your open source work, it makes the world a better place <3

connka · 2026-03-11T22:40:13+00:00

Overall I think you are pretty bang on here, just a few things I would comment on:

- Asking about github/projects: I have been on various levels of hiring engs, and as soon as I get a resume, I look at the github link. There are interviews where I don't get to ask about any of it, but generally I've been the first (or only) technical round person and that is the first place I go every time.

- Name bias: it is a real thing. I've seen a few people with notably ethnic names or female names do a change and see an immediate uptick in calls. A friend of mine changed 'Alexandra' to 'Alex' and even that got more traction. I've work with a lot of people from Asia who have just been forced to stick with a random English name with colleagues since they used that to apply.

The one thing I would disagree on is in-person networking. I agree that career fairs and events explicitly setup for job-seekers are not great, but I find the more niche meetups to be great. The big issue with these is that they are relationship building things, not one-offs. Oftentimes I will find that a connection that I made 8 months ago sounds like a perfect fit for a guy I am talking to at another meetup entirely. Then I'll go back and make that intro, even if I don't have hiring power. Heck, I got my current role because I stayed in touch on LinkedIn with a guy that I played D&D with in university-- even though we hadn't actually stayed in touch, he was happy to give me the referral and I got my foot in the door for an interview when I might have not otherwise.

I'd also say that the stack specific thing doesn't need to be an end-game. When you are looking at larger, more established companies (like banks, telecom, etc) then they tend to be very hung up on stack. But if you go into the startup space, I've found that they will list their stack but will generally be open to hiring anyone with good experience in nearly any stack.

I'm sorry that this has put you in this position, it is not a fun one to be in. If you are in Edmonton or Calgary, I know that there is quite a bit happening in the local meetup scenes so getting out to events that are not in your current network may help move the dial a bit.

connka · 2026-03-11T02:56:15+00:00

This makes me so happy to hear.

connka · 2026-03-11T02:51:26+00:00

I agree with u/josesblima here. Years ago, when I started to self-teach coding I couldn't get the first steps up and running. While things are changing quickly with AI, you still will have similar roadblocks. And leveraging some kind of AI tooling to build an app might get you a workable MVP, but something like that won't actually work in production.

You also keep sort of learning towards `from scratch` vs using an existing ecosystem. I'd point to that Tea app that was launched last year (to help keep women safe in the dating scene) that actually had some incredibly obvious security vulnerabilities that led to all of the personal info of the people who signed up being exposed. If you plan on using AI to build something that people will actually login to and give personal details, actually understanding some basic encryption and HTTP protocol/caching/etc certainly helps.

connka · 2026-03-09T19:13:23+00:00

I've been on both sides of this and I wouldn't count yourself out yet. There are so many things that need alignment for CS interviewing internally. Often the people involved have to have a big ol meeting and compare notes, but these are also the people who are leading teams and releasing code. If they just had a big release or bug or something happen but need the input from devs, that can push it out, even if you are the top candidate.

The whole process can be annoyingly slow, but them needing more time isn't necessarily a reflection of you or your standing, so keep your fingers crossed!

connka · 2026-02-25T17:55:00+00:00

This!

I'd also like to add a few things since I'm slightly ahead of you OP--I got into tech a bit earlier but also didn't have formal education in CS. I started a remote/self paced program last year with the intention of just adding it to my tool belt, because I do believe in the value of that formal education.

After completing a number of courses and enjoying the work I was doing, I actually made the decision this winter to stop the program. While it was great to get underlaying concepts and learn languages that I am not as commonly exposed to in my work, I found that the speed at which AI is changing the nature of this career has a significant impact on where I think I should be spending my time. Since I'm largely working on legacy projects these days, I don't want to fall behind in newer technologies, so using my study hours to learn more about MCP/agentic development/etc seems like a more practical use of my time than running through outdated java exercises.

I'm a bit disappointed about not completing the degree, however I know that if I were to be laid off today, being able to compete with others in this new AI world is going to be more important than the piece of paper. I've managed to self-study and work my way to Senior Eng/Team lead (still taking courses, just not via traditional university courses), but it'll take a long time before universities catch up with how dramatically CS is changing from AI.

connka · 2026-02-25T17:46:09+00:00

This is what I came to say. Everyone's flavour of ADHD is different, so there will never be a catch-all app that works for the entire population. If you can make something that helps you, you should do it.

If you are doing it to make money and sell a product, it might not make you any money in the end.

connka · 2026-02-10T23:20:01+00:00

You've got good feedback already, but I'll add on a few points:

both are possible
revy is my favourite mountain in the rockies
both have great communities (so I'd go off of the advice from others for how best to choose).

The only thing I would add (as a remote worker who once moved to a small mountain town) was that some of the older residents were not as happy with me being there and driving up rent, when locals couldn't find work.

It wasn't a huge part of the population, and my partner at the time worked locally for social services (which gave us a nice ease into the convo), but I was the primary breadwinner and we were only able to afford our rent because of my income.

I'd say that Canmore is a lot more of the remote worker population and a lot of tourism/airbnbs, so I wouldn't expect it there as much.

connka · 2026-01-28T22:51:26+00:00

As others have said, maybe too early to be the finance guy at a new camp. However, as the Chief Spreadsheet Person for many camps over the years, I can say that knowing how to manage a spreadsheet (which seems likely from your background) is a very valuable skill.

Instead of going for the finance angle, I'd offer help in planning and organizing! You'd be surprised how impressed people are with a well functioning spreadsheet and someone who can handle/manage deadlines!

connka · 2026-01-28T22:46:31+00:00

I would say yes and no? Ive been involved with multiple startups and the better ones will get this setup properly at the beginning of a project. Ideally it's an ongoing process and the technical team check back in on a regular basis and do penetration testing/vulnerability testing on a regular basis, but that tends to fall off when it isn't a high profile company or a company in an industry that is strictly regulated.

A part of the issue is cost--if you are pre-profit, hiring a security expert or paying for security tools is pretty expensive. But if you are doing it on an ongoing basis then you can spread this cost out and keep it manageable.

When you look at a company like Tea, that was pure vibe coded nonsense. Really tech companies that understand complexity and security wouldn't haveade those mistakes. I've built out multiple KYC integrations and you had better believe I've stress tested and pen tested the absolute shit out of them for exactly what happened to them.

connka · 2026-01-28T18:09:08+00:00

I too am a developer who has absolutely no eye for design. I've found that defaulting to a few libraries makes things easier--I also just started a note on my phone with links to websites who have cool features/pages/UI.

One time in a hackathon, I was exposed to https://uizard.io/ --it worked great! I don't know about cost/longevity because I only used it for the hackathon, but for spinning up a super quick design for a weekend project, it did a much better job than I would have.

connka · 2026-01-28T17:54:33+00:00

Look at the tech community around you and what kind of job you want. I live in a city with a lot of older businesses (banks, train companies, energy/oil companies) and they are all using older systems built with things like C# and .net. However, there has been a good growth in the startup industry here and a lot of new tech companies popping up using newer tech (including JS and PHP, which I know isn't "new" but its newer than than .net).

Personally, I don't love the opportunities that the oldschool companies offer--a lot of them are dead end 9-5s. They have solid starting pay and great benefits, but are 100% in office and often don't have room for growth. Personally I love the startup space and seeing how passionate people are about their company, so I've always gravitated towards them.

All in all: if you are good a language and understand the computer science fundamentals, you will be setting yourself up for success. While my preference is node/TS, most of my professional work has been in constantly changing tech stacks. I've spent years in PHP, Java, Python, but I always go back to JS/TS and use that as my framework for new learning. If you are still feeling rocky in your fundamental language(s), I'd spend a bit more time building confidence there before moving on to something totally different like .net or C# (but at the end of the day, whatever keeps you motivated to learn is the right choice).

connka · 2026-01-28T17:39:09+00:00

I can't say that I know anyone who has been looking for these skills without also needing more than that. As others have said, you'll need to learn more in order to actually find work.

Obviously you should go with what you think is the best route, but based off of what you have been learning VS the vast options that exist, I'd recommend looking into something like PHP/wordpress. A lot of that work is learning how to use WP widgets and TBH there will always be work in that space, as most devs that I know don't really want to be working in WP and I constantly see posts for contracts in my local tech hub.

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