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So many. But it all boils down to not understanding how commercial software gets built.

I changed careers and did a 4-month “boot camp”. All the real learning was after that, the hard way.

My first job, I was left to work on a government project by myself. Everyday was mild panic. My only interaction with my boss was a weekly email saying what percentage of the project was complete. No one ever looked at my work, or cared to look. So I bumped it up a few percentage points every week. I declined a permanent position after the contract was over to spare the embarrassment of the state of the project I was building.

After that, I got hired by a consulting company. Over and over again, my total lack of experience was causing issues with clients, and I was in a daily state of stress and anxiety for 2 years until I was let go.

Finally, I got a job building enterprise software, with a well-defined lifecycle, and got my career on track. Eventually I became team lead. Now I work on the Standards and Framework team, building foundational components, libraries and templates for the other teams.

You will make mistakes. They are valuable to you.




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