You don't have to code all the time

Honestly, this is something that I have to remind myself all the time. There’s always this voice in the back of my head that tells me I’m wasting time if I’m not practicing or reading about the hip new javascript library that just came out. Being self-taught I always feel I lack a ton of skills that people that have a degree in computer science have and feel very insecure when I’m stuck on a task at work which makes me feel very dumb.

I know it isn’t true and there are endless examples of people that don’t have a degree in CS that are extremely smart and are doing exceptionally well in the field and I guess this is something I just need to get over. Mostly what I think it is, is burnout from trying to get in to the software development industry. I have a tech, non-CS background but worked manual labor jobs after college because I was still unsure of what I wanted to do career wise. Software / web development was something I always came back to because at the time it was really fun and I liked creating cool things in the browser. Two years ago I started studying endlessly to get a job as a frontend developer and would use any free time I had to learn. While it was very tiring at times and I would get frustrated I still enjoyed it and still do.

I did end up getting a job as an intern last year but I think at that point the burnout had already set in. I did enjoy working at the place I was hired at but I would be really hard on myself when I couldn’t do simple things and would have mini breakdowns some days. While I still love web development I think I need to turn my brain off for longer breaks and just relax a bit. I enjoy working hard but not to the point where I feel depressed all the time. If I have any advice for people that are in the same situation I was in I’d just say step away from the computer and do things that make you happy. No job / profession is worth driving yourself insane.