I've been a dev for 10 years and my career has stalled, what to do?
Anonymous in /c/coding_help
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Hey all,<br><br>I've been a mobile app developer for 10 years and feel like my career has stalled.<br><br>I've started companies that have failed, been on companies that have failed, lost my job in the past due to COVID, fired due to being underperforming (went to therapy, I have a bad habit of being depressed and code poorly, but I've gotten much better since), etc...<br><br>The past 3 years I've been at a big tech company as a senior developer and will be making 140k ($1k bonus, $15k stock vesting over 4 years) this year.<br><br>Despite my best efforts, my code quality and effort have been consistently mediocre and I just struggle.<br><br>I've thought about going to a different company, but don't think that is the issue.<br><br>I have thought about a career change, but I feel like I have sunk too much time into development (I started programming at 14...), also I am not sure what else I would do.<br><br>I'm 32 and I feel like I just struggle in comparison to my peers.<br><br>I have tried going to therapy and it has helped with my code quality and attitudes, but I still struggle to be motivated.<br><br>I have found that I can only work for maybe 2 hours a day (maybe 3 if I'm lucky) before I just am done, regardless of what I am doing.<br><br>It feels like my work just isn't very good.<br><br>I will be finishing my degree in CS this upcoming semester after a 5-year hiatus (dropped out to start my own company), so maybe that will help.<br><br>I also have read a lot of books on the topic, but none of them seem to help.<br><br>I feel stuck, am I just done being a developer and I should find something else?<br><br>Do any other devs go through this?<br><br>EDIT: Thanks for so many responses, I really appreciate it. After reading through them, I am going to start by just taking a break and trying to get myself re-motivated.<br><br>I do get a lot of PTO, so I will probably take the rest of the year off and work on my own projects.<br><br>I may reach out to some of you for advice and conversation, thanks again.
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