Hi, I'm a passionate programmer and have been programming professionally for 10 years. I started with Unity games and developed mobile apps for Android and iOS, but mainly Java, often developed as a full-stack with React/React Native/Angular in domains such as banking and e-commerce.
For most of my career, I've been developing technically – my main interests were application architecture and DDD. I also did a lot of programming for my own projects after work.
I've been stuck at one corporation for four years because the job was relatively easy, well-paid, and allowed me to build a house and buy my dream car. Unfortunately, I haven't developed much technically during that time.
I've been devoting a lot of my free time to developing my entrepreneurial skills (market validation, marketing, SEO, sales), and I've launched a SaaS company and currently have one paying client. However, the niche is quite challenging, and I'm not sure if anything will come of it. Nevertheless, becoming an entrepreneur and owning my own product and business has always been my dream, goal, and long-term vision for life.
I recently took stock, analyzed my career, and came to some very sad conclusions that are incredibly frustrating.
Perhaps my problem is comparing myself to others, but I simply compared my career development with other friends. It turns out I invested heavily in technical development, and in terms of skills, I'm above them, and sometimes they even advise me on certain things, but I don't know if it's luck or what. I think they're in a better place.
One of them still works at the same company, writes terrible code, but he's learned the company's processes, had a bit of luck, and now he's something of a CTO, making design decisions and helping to secure contracts. This company started small, but was acquired by a large player, and because there were no other people around, he had the opportunity to do interesting, important things and probably has a chance to become a director or a board member for a lot of money in a few years.
My second friend also writes poor code, isn't as passionate about programming, but also worked at smaller companies and now has a much better-paying offer thanks to connections he made there, simply because he was lucky that the people he met there started a startup.
My advantage is that thanks to this current job, I bought a house faster when it was still cheap, and they either overpaid significantly or don't have one yet. Owning your own house/apartment is important in our country.
And I feel like I'm screwed. On the one hand, I haven't developed technically in the last four years (apart from learning NextJS and Tailwind, which I needed to build SaaS) and my product hasn't been successful yet. On the other hand, I still work at this large corporation, earning a good salary, but there are no opportunities for development or interesting activities... I just write code and sometimes help other programmers.
I don't know whether to focus on building my SaaS and possibly other products, or whether to catch up on some technical stuff in line with current trends and try to change jobs to ones where I can do more important things than just coding, so that my career path will allow me to advance to much better-paid positions in the future. I don't want to be an ordinary programmer my whole life.
Besides, please help... how can I get rid of these negative, jealous thoughts in my head about my friends? It's really weighing me down, and I feel like lately I've been constantly focusing on work and career to outdo them, and I've stopped enjoying life. Honestly, I think I'm happiest when I'm not thinking about work but simply riding my bike, watching sports, or solving puzzles—just doing simple, enjoyable things. I don't want to put myself under that kind of pressure anymore and compare myself to others, but I can't let go.
For most of my career, I've been developing technically – my main interests were application architecture and DDD. I also did a lot of programming for my own projects after work.
I've been stuck at one corporation for four years because the job was relatively easy, well-paid, and allowed me to build a house and buy my dream car. Unfortunately, I haven't developed much technically during that time.
I've been devoting a lot of my free time to developing my entrepreneurial skills (market validation, marketing, SEO, sales), and I've launched a SaaS company and currently have one paying client. However, the niche is quite challenging, and I'm not sure if anything will come of it. Nevertheless, becoming an entrepreneur and owning my own product and business has always been my dream, goal, and long-term vision for life.
I recently took stock, analyzed my career, and came to some very sad conclusions that are incredibly frustrating.
Perhaps my problem is comparing myself to others, but I simply compared my career development with other friends. It turns out I invested heavily in technical development, and in terms of skills, I'm above them, and sometimes they even advise me on certain things, but I don't know if it's luck or what. I think they're in a better place.
One of them still works at the same company, writes terrible code, but he's learned the company's processes, had a bit of luck, and now he's something of a CTO, making design decisions and helping to secure contracts. This company started small, but was acquired by a large player, and because there were no other people around, he had the opportunity to do interesting, important things and probably has a chance to become a director or a board member for a lot of money in a few years.
My second friend also writes poor code, isn't as passionate about programming, but also worked at smaller companies and now has a much better-paying offer thanks to connections he made there, simply because he was lucky that the people he met there started a startup.
My advantage is that thanks to this current job, I bought a house faster when it was still cheap, and they either overpaid significantly or don't have one yet. Owning your own house/apartment is important in our country.
And I feel like I'm screwed. On the one hand, I haven't developed technically in the last four years (apart from learning NextJS and Tailwind, which I needed to build SaaS) and my product hasn't been successful yet. On the other hand, I still work at this large corporation, earning a good salary, but there are no opportunities for development or interesting activities... I just write code and sometimes help other programmers.
I don't know whether to focus on building my SaaS and possibly other products, or whether to catch up on some technical stuff in line with current trends and try to change jobs to ones where I can do more important things than just coding, so that my career path will allow me to advance to much better-paid positions in the future. I don't want to be an ordinary programmer my whole life.
Besides, please help... how can I get rid of these negative, jealous thoughts in my head about my friends? It's really weighing me down, and I feel like lately I've been constantly focusing on work and career to outdo them, and I've stopped enjoying life. Honestly, I think I'm happiest when I'm not thinking about work but simply riding my bike, watching sports, or solving puzzles—just doing simple, enjoyable things. I don't want to put myself under that kind of pressure anymore and compare myself to others, but I can't let go.
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