If the option exists to keep doing the horrible job, that means there is no direct pressure to quit it. That means sustaining your family is never a problem, you can hold on to the job while you are looking for a new one. You can even have someone else (a headhunter) do the looking while you work the job.
Maybe you should stop giving your self syndromes and acknowledge that you know how to program. Businesses are looking for people who know how to program, why do you think the market is not great? Last thing I heard many businesses are still scrambling for web and app developers.
It is a well kept secret, but the kind of team leader that doesn't think he's a good team leader often is a good team leader. If you position yourself as just 'one of the boys' you get a lot more honest feedback, and you'll be less of a cock to your team.
Doing a startup as someone who lacks confidence and needs to sustain a family seems like a bad idea, unless you could get into YC or something.
Also.. maybe I'm naieve but you should do something about your confidence, aren't you raising a child?
>Businesses are looking for people who know how to program, why do you think the market is not great?
Because basically the only interviews I got in the last months were in other enterprisey gulags. It's not enough to know how to code, you need to be able to market yourself, be part of the attention-based economy (I am an introvert, I don't really know how to leave an impression in the web 2.0) and presumably invest a ton of time in grooming your open-source projects.
I am no complete failure, over the years I have done quite some stuff - but a lot of that is NSFW, so not so great as a showcase.
>maybe I'm naieve but you should do something about your confidence, aren't you raising a child?
I don't really know what to make of this - I do, but it's not like I can just pull myself together to raise my self-confidence. I have been making gradual improvements, but I just can't flick a switch.
>> maybe I'm naieve but you should do something about your confidence, aren't you raising a child?
> I don't really know what to make of this - I do, but it's not like I can just pull myself together to raise my self-confidence. I have been making gradual improvements, but I just can't flick a switch.
I'm sorry I am not trying to say that it's something you can just do, but you were sounding a bit defeatist. If you say you're making gradual improvements I respect that.
The attention-based economy is simpler than you make it sound. The idea is just to build something you like, NSFW or not, and put it on github. Use some hip technologies to show you have the ability to learn new technology.
For fun, here's a small recipe:
Pick a combination of 3 technologies that have been up on HackerNews lately, say AngularJS with MongoDB and Node.js, do 2 small projects with them, and maybe an Android app in Java (or whatever your enterprisey language of choice is) that does something silly like open your garage door or plays words your child said.
Now you have 3 original projects on github that show aptitude in frontend dev, backend dev and app dev, fill out your github resume with at least 3 forked open source projects you find interesting, and another 2 you submitted a patch to (just fix a spelling mistake in their docs or a trivial bug in their tracker).
I bet you could build this github resume in 2 months of free moments in evenings/weekends. Accomplishing this will give you a confidence boost ('hey I can do hip stuff') and I bet it'll do your resume a lot of good :)
Maybe you should stop giving your self syndromes and acknowledge that you know how to program. Businesses are looking for people who know how to program, why do you think the market is not great? Last thing I heard many businesses are still scrambling for web and app developers.
It is a well kept secret, but the kind of team leader that doesn't think he's a good team leader often is a good team leader. If you position yourself as just 'one of the boys' you get a lot more honest feedback, and you'll be less of a cock to your team.
Doing a startup as someone who lacks confidence and needs to sustain a family seems like a bad idea, unless you could get into YC or something.
Also.. maybe I'm naieve but you should do something about your confidence, aren't you raising a child?