Got hired.....and fired within 2 weeks. Really feeling down

You are dead wrong man. 70% devs are self-taught in some countries. Your survey only shows education level. You can have a PHD in art and be self-taught. Seriously. Verify your facts. a 10 sec google search gave this https://qz.com/649409/two-out-of-three-developers-are-self-taught-and-other-trends-from-a-survey-of-56033-developers/

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The blunt truth is that you were fired because your skill level wasn’t what the company needed. If I can offer some friendly takes on the advice given above, it’s what I was taught about shame and guilt, things with which I struggle. Shame is feeling bad about who you are. Guilt is feeling bad about what you have done. You deserve to feel neither.

You are an awesome, self-driven, credible programmer. You got through a hiring process that is paved with rejection. No reason for shame.

You didn’t hire you. You applied for a job. There is no guilt in that. You didn’t lie about what you could do, the hiring authority at that company made an error and corrected it. I doubt they feel guilty, because they did the right thing, too. No reason for anyone to feel guilty.

Your skill set is a subset of what you, that same self-driven person I see, will be able to do with more time. The only thing that can stop that from being true is thinking that growth isn’t possible. You have grown up to this point, and as long as you realize the control loop governing your empowerment program hasn’t broken, you will continue to iterate through greater potential. Skills++.

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@dk34

I haven’t been hired yet myself. So, I can’t 100% know what you are going through.

However:

You can’t let this stop you. keep going, keep learning. Someone had a reason for hiring you once, someone else will likely have reason to hire you again. You’ve achieved something a lot of people haven’t. You got hired! that’s something to feel good about.

As far as I can tell from your story. You are not at fault at all. You have no reason to be embarrassed.This will suck for a bit, but eventually you will come out of this stronger as long as you don’t let the experience poison you.

Keep your chin up. You got this.

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Okay, here’s an invaluable tip for everyone who gets frustrated because of not getting a job:

Please consider job finding as being as difficult and complex as programming. As a problem that has to be solved. How can you expect that solving dev problems is so difficult and really needs you to be highly creative and use a lot of brain power and trial and error until you make the app work? While at the same time you expect to just apply for a job and get it at once. Have you ever made an app and it worked at once?

The very same counts for self confidence btw. And for everything else which is part of being necessary to be able to work as a dev.

A problem is a problem. It’s difficult to solve. If it wouldn’t be like that, then it wouldn’t be a problem.

Use all the powers that you possess to solve it!

And of course you can lose as well. But then live is going on somewhere else. And one day it’s going on in the grave anyhow :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:

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Hi armathor this is the only thing I have right now in my mind to cheer you up : “EVERY FAILED EXPERIEMENT IS ONE STEP CLOSER TO SUCCESS”
Denzel Washington.
Please don’t give up none was born a developer :wink:

That seems to be a gross misinterpretation of a graphic.

For one thing, the fact that you’re self-taught doesn’t mean you don’t have a degree. Another thing is “1 out of 10 developers are self-taught” and “9 out of 10 self-taught developers are never hired” are very different statements, and honestly, this specific graphics doesn’t address either statement

That same survey also had about 25% of professionals developers didn’t major in computer related fields. 32% of professional developer consider formal education being less than important, and 90% of them consider themselves at least partially self-taught.

How representative is the survey sample? I believe this says it all.

So beyond interpreting the graphics more realistically, also take the survey results with a grain of salt. Simple survey results and actual statistic are very different things

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@dk34
Please don’t get down on yourself. :slightly_frowning_face:

This company had unrealistic expectations based on this alone:

5 days??!??

That’s insane, specifically because they said there would be on the job training for the first few months.

It sounds to me like there was a massive disconnect between what your coworker expected from a colleague in this job and what the recruiter hired for.

NONE of the above is your fault. These are all organizational failures at the company that hired you. :rage:

Instead I think you should be remarkably proud of how you acquitted yourself in the two weeks you were there, I mean wow, look at this:

I think that you being able to take these on and complete them is a testament to your ability to learn and adapt to a changing job situation, both things which you should be proud of!

I’ve been where you are where I’ve been hired by companies with unrealistic job expectations. At least once I had to go crawling back to my previous job. Unfortunately, it’s par for the course in IT in general, and appears to be more frequent in the programming world.

Please stick in there and don’t give up. Your plan (continuing learning, working on more projects/resume material) is the right course of action and while you may have the scars to remember this one, you’ll know what to look for in the next role!

Hang in there!!

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Don’t be so hard on yourself. I have failed many interviews.The key thought that always keep me going is “That company has lost a very hardworking and passionate employee(which no doubt I am) and it’s their loss”. In this case, recall all the positive things you have done while you were on the job and be proud of yourself. It’s the company’s loss that they didn’t see the passion and the hardworking beast, “getting shit done” attitude in you. Good bosses don’t just see the result but also how you achieved it. Each failure is one step closer to success.

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10 years ago, I got into this biz at 50 years old. That was in 2008, when the economy took the big dump. I was interviewing for jobs and only getting offered $12 an hour, and I was freelancing for $50 an hour. I stuck to freelancing for the next couple of years, because I could make as much in a day doing that, than I could in a week working at a J-O-B. I had enough in my portfolio after 2 years that I was called to fix a state agency’s website. this turned into a full time gig at $40 an hour. I graciously said that, with the bennies, I was ahead of the $50 an hour, so thanks – I’ll take it. Also, when talking to clients, learn to explain what you do in such simple terms that you could explain it to your grandma.

keep coding everyday and keep track of the time you spend, so you’ll be able to estimate jobs. I usually estimate 6 hours for the home page, because that includes creating the template and design for the rest of the site. Then I figure 1 hour to put content on each page. I also add 10-20% for a fudge factor, because clients always want something added. You give them the first change order for free, but if they start seriously adding to the scope of the project, then you need to tell them that it will cost extra. Always be firm – you are a pro!

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Yeah i suggest not getting hired by that company then. Rather that then getting into a terrible job that proceeds to burn you out with long projects, tight deadlines, and bad management.

Billions do not have access to the internet or education. You do and being able to learn a jQuery library in a couple days shows you can use it wisely. Life is too short to get caught up on your first attempt or failure or pride over one success.

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Thank you for sharing that with me!

The time between I talked to that client till now is two months, and I spent this two months learned more about javascript as well as keep doing front end projects. I can definitely say that I learned a lot during these time.

If later I still decide to go for the freelance route, I will keep your suggestions in mind!

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Freelancing can be an ongoing side gig. Always keep your ear to the ground for opportunities for small jobs that you can do in just a few evenings, or over a weekend. It’s a great way to make extra money until you’re making what you want per hour.

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This is completely wrong that 9/10 self-taught will never get hired. Probably 10/10 can get hired if they learn and work on projects. The actual count is no way true which you are mentioning.

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I’ve been looking through past posts and I’m wondering if How people are applying, what they are applying with and if they are using the tools properly is a bit of an issue.

mya…heres an article on freelance jobs and which ones to choose for better growth.

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@Sheaface, did you mean to provide a link to an article that I am missing?

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[Aside] @millerxcrunning I edited your post. You can @ reply to users. Linking to their profile does not ping them.

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no such thing as failure, just opportunity

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@JacksonBates Thanks! Always learning!

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Some of the advice on here is just plain bad. Don’t blame other people for shitty things that happen to you. That’s an outlook on life that will get you absolutely no where.

The other advice is good. Shrug it off do whatever you can to improve your weaknesses and keep looking for that dream job (it’s out there). Don’t hope for the best, DO your best!

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oops, yes https://hackernoon.com/5-real-examples-of-freelance-projects-junior-developers-should-apply-to-9e67f7bdfd5e

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