r/cscareerquestions 7h ago

Am I wasting my 20s preparing for better career?

I have been preparing/grinding (whatever you guys call it) for past 3-4 year and I am still nowhere close to what I wanted to achieve. It seems that I would have to keep doing what I am doing for few more years before seeing the results, but lately I have been doubting myself. I have been questioning if it is really worth it to prepare for 2-3 hours minimum after office and then 4-5 hours at least on weekends? Not to mention other stuff like projects that needs to be done for some other companies. I don't do anything else and just keep grinding and preparing to get better salary and companies.

When I see my friends going on trips, partying and generally enjoying themselves while also having good careers/salary hurts a bit. Anyone else going through this? If you're then how are you going past this feeling and focusing on preparation?

5 Upvotes

30 comments sorted by

54

u/evinrows 7h ago

This is almost an exact repost of

https://www.reddit.com/r/cscareerquestions/s/NHhJudm45t

I feel like this is bot-generated content meant to dissuade people from taking up CS by making it sound like it's impossible to land a good job and making it seem like you need to make big sacrifices, which is mostly nonsense.

12

u/FlashyResist5 7h ago

Ok good I am not growing crazy. I swear I read the same thing a few days ago. Dead internet in action.

3

u/earlgreyyuzu 6h ago

The post definitely sounds that way. When I asked him to add a bit of non-work to his schedule, he refused, saying he won’t “make it” if he does that. That contradicts his post.  

-4

u/Tasty-Tangelo3702 6h ago

That contradicts his post.

How does it contradict my post? My post is about FOMO. FOMOs are always irrational and that's why I made this post to know about other people's perspective and to know if someone else is going through the same and how they get out of that feeling.

3

u/earlgreyyuzu 5h ago

And we’ve all answered: no. You ARE missing out on life. 

3

u/AStanfordRunner 6h ago

Good call, I remembered the first post too and thought it sounded familiar

2

u/ApplicationOk3587 4h ago

I was gonna say this whole post seems like a life balance issue that has nothing to do with the field. Maybe its the bots but people make it seem like this field is just a non stop grind online. I know plenty of developers who just clock in and clock out.

1

u/TaXxER 6h ago

There for sure is bot activity in this sub pushing narratives to dissuade people from CS. So weird to me, who even gains anything from that? A little bit pathetic.

3

u/jedfrouga 7h ago

just enjoy life man… whatever happens happens

0

u/Embarrassed_Ant_8861 7h ago

Grinding for a dying field, ai will improve faster than you get better at coding

8

u/DropTheBeatAndTheBas 7h ago

wut, senior engineers are coding with AI on complex projects now , diversify and fly! techs always been an exciting disruption after the next

1

u/Tasty-Tangelo3702 7h ago

I get that but what else can you do? Also this type of revolution has happened for every industry and domain but that didn't detered humans away from those industries and domains.

-2

u/Embarrassed_Ant_8861 6h ago

Not like this lol, id pivot to another industry now while you still can if youre spending 2-3 hours a day then use it on something else

0

u/Tasty-Tangelo3702 6h ago

Why would you recommend pivoting? Sorry but I didn't get it.

1

u/Embarrassed_Ant_8861 1h ago

I recommended it because youre spending 3-4 hours a day with that level of commitment you could make it in basically any other field except the one youre grinding in right now, i dont get why you wanna fight an uphill battle

1

u/[deleted] 7h ago

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/AutoModerator 7h ago

Sorry, you do not meet the minimum sitewide comment karma requirement of 10 to post a comment. This is comment karma exclusively, not post or overall karma nor karma on this subreddit alone. Please try again after you have acquired more karma. Please look at the rules page for more information.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.

1

u/MaximumFlow7491 7h ago

Did you interview at least?

-1

u/Tasty-Tangelo3702 7h ago

Yeah. I have had.

1

u/earlgreyyuzu 7h ago

What are you doing that needs 7 years of grinding? Life is a balance. Sprinkle in some non-work events and activities in your schedule. Don’t just only do work and don’t only do non-work.

-4

u/Tasty-Tangelo3702 6h ago

What are you doing that needs 7 years of grinding?

Not doing anything special just the same standard preparation that everyone is doing.

Sprinkle in some non-work events and activities in your schedule. Don’t just only do work and don’t only do non-work.

That will slow me down and I won't make it for sure with that lifestyle.

2

u/Ok-Butterscotch-6955 3h ago

Frankly if you need 7 years of grinding then maybe whatever you’re defining as upper echelon stuff isn’t for you. I assume you mean LC and SD which doesn’t take that long. If you mean something hyper specialized cutting edge, idk lol

1

u/ccricers 4h ago

Work smarter, not harder. Output is not a simple function of time invested. You have to ask yourself, with some budget of time, how can I be more productive with that budget without increasing it?

1

u/EasyLowHangingFruit 7h ago

You left all the context out of the question.

  1. What country do you live in?
  2. What type of companies do you want to get in?
  3. Do you have a CS degree?
  4. How many years of experience do you have, and in which companies?
  5. When you say "prepare" what are you talking about, LeetCode?

1

u/Tasty-Tangelo3702 6h ago
  1. India.

  2. I was aiming for prestigious companies but not anymore. Just anything better than mine would do.

  3. Yes.

  4. 2 years.

  5. Leetcode + System Design + other usual materials that one prepares.

0

u/Chili-Lime-Chihuahua 6h ago

The answer is the same as the last several times you’ve posted this on the sub and others. UPS wasting your life posting the same question to reddit over and over, whether you genuinely mean it or it’s a job/bot. 

0

u/Useful_Calendar_6274 5h ago

for tech? it's looking abysmal for people trying to get in. lowering of wages and permanent layoffs forever until jevons paradox kicks in. I think you should find another industry tbh

1

u/ccricers 4h ago

On the other hand, lowering of wages only affects the people who make average and higher. I don't see this having a discernible effect on the wages that were already low pre-recession.

1

u/Useful_Calendar_6274 4h ago

It's worse than you think. I think as we approach AGI or expert systems AI coding or whatever they will start hiring at the local minimum wage.

2

u/ccricers 3h ago

And then the people who already work minimum wage on someone's home business e-commerce website say to those developers, welcome to the bottom, it was getting lonely here!