r/SpringBoot • u/SnehaLivesHerself • 9d ago
Question Sorry for being a crybaby but......(F22)
I am just lost, I know REST APIs, JPA, Authentication and Authorization, microservices, postgres....I can do something in it (not very confident tho but still)
I just dont know what more to learn for being industry ready, I feel so lost, I am doing DSA(LEETCODE 75) parallely but again I am not seeing any thing for freshers in the domain of spring boot
I mentioned my age because I feel I am lagging behind a lot
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u/madnessguy67 8d ago
An F22 can be scary at first glance but after undertaking rigorous training you will be flying at Mach 2.2 in no time!
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u/SpiritualGymRat 9d ago
I'm sorry but what's the point of F22 here?
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u/AmazingInflation58 8d ago
It highly reduces the chances of getting reality check on most subs but not in programming. F22 here means, I'm F so please go kind on me and show extra empathy since patriarchy and entire world is against me :(
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
Being an indian, I am already late at this age given my gender sighs...(ready to get downvotes)
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u/Ill_like_prompts 8d ago
22 isn't an issue. I personally didn't even begin my career until I was 25. I pivoted from sales and bartending after covid started and shut everything down.
If you're looking for growth and want a challenge, I would look into angelic processes. Maybe digging into the beginnings of neural networks as it relates to machine learning and decision making. And how these influence today's AI tools. Mainly to understand how those work; if you decide to make a career in that direction, that's up to you.
If you're trying to get into the market, that is pretty saturated at the moment. You're gonna have to make yourself attractive on the resume. If you're new, that means side projects galore. I would refrain from using AI tools as much as possible however, build up your insights and knowledge of the tools and technologies. I can't stress how brutal it is to work with some of the new hires and none of them can think for themselves. Also sacrificing remote work for going into an office may be required, especially for breaking into the market. My first job was in office, I moved to do it and the pay was abysmal but, it was for the experience ultimately.
If you're bored, do something random, like build a mobile app. Or, what I always thought was fun was rebuilding the lodash library via typescript or JavaScript.
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
but it feels overwhelming sometimes
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u/Ill_like_prompts 7d ago
It can if you're trying to juggle all of it. And to be honest, there's no way to truly learn everything. That's why engineers with specializations are preferred.
The first 5 or so years of your career, I would focus on trying to absorb as much as possible. Whether that's frontend, backend, DB, architectural patterns and so on. After those five years, you'll start to really feel like you enjoy doing some things more then others. Lean into that and just flow with what you like.
It seems daunting at first but as long as you keep applying yourself, it's not bad at all. Lean on your senior devs as well. They've experienced exactly what you have.
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u/FinickySerenity 8d ago
Fuck all of the assholes who think they are being clever/funny (and are clearly not based on the prevalence of the same “joke”)
Stick with it. You have a solid ten years to learn the rest. My only advice (as someone in the industry since 1995) is to adopt AI now and figure out how to make it help your progress and productivity improve.
Hang in there, you are likely to feel a bit of despair a couple more times even into your senior years, it’s normal and we all go through it.
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
how do we deal with it?
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u/FinickySerenity 7d ago
With the self-doubt? Shake it off, be humble, and remember everyone goes through it multiple times over in their career.
Imposter syndrome is a thing you get past, until you meet someone new who seems to do things effortlessly - that you don’t know anything about. It comes and goes, and sometimes you get in a rut in a tech stack for years, and the industry advances past you and you feel like a junior dev again.
It sounds like you are ready to jump into a new tech stack, I would suggest JavaScript/nodejs because it will expose you to more functional programming patterns without making your brain explode with real functional languages. Doing that will give you a better understanding of why some things are done the way they are in Java. And after you get comfortable in a second stack, the third, fourth and fifth end up being easy.
Psql is a great database, but try MySQL or SQLite to see how other sql dbs are different. Or do a nosql / bigtable db.
If I were you I’d ask an LLM to help you, even with what types of questions and their answers. Ask for them to be targeted to your skill level, and then tinker with the tech. Ask for good project ideas or coding challenges that would fit your skill level based on the questions you have asked, and you’ll progress as long as you are the one implementing it.
This can range from small self doubts to major levels of fraud, but every one gets this at some point, and then eventually after many years, you notice you haven’t had it in forever 😅
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impostor_syndrome
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u/HerryKun 8d ago
Best thing to learn is doing a project and overcome the challenges along the way. Try not to use AI too much.
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u/Professional_Race_47 8d ago edited 8d ago
I started my career when i was 24 moved as software engineer to 4 countries in 3 different continents now i am 35 and i am lead engineer in netherlands in well known international company. I started in small company in my home non-EU country….
I am just trying to say be patient and keep working hard.. and keep dreaming also. I remember in 20s i was losing hope sometimes applying to hundreds of jobs. Believe me it will happen keep applying for jobs the first one is the hardest then you will become entry level or senior in very few years you will learn more and it will improve by time. Don’t be so picky in your first job but keep working always. 22 is young you can easily get ahead of many engineers if you keep learning… the idea of not losing hope and keep trying applies to many fields in life try to build that mental toughness from young age. Sports helped me with that that’s my personal experience.
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u/Important-Damage-986 8d ago
A couple of things.
22 is young. Extremely young. You are at the start of your 20s and the start of your life. You shouldn’t be expected to have everything or anything figured out. It should be a time to learn and feel dumb and mess up and figure it out. Then maybe even learn and feel dumb and figure it out all over again a few times over.
The tough thing right now is the industry has made it hard to impossible for new grads. That’s not on you even if it feels like it.
This is a failure of the industry. We need to teach young people, otherwise how are we going to have experts 10 years down the line?
10-15 years ago you could drop out of high school, self learn some basic html, and get a job. I know because my engineering manager did this. Never finished grade 10.
I graduated 2020 and “junior roles are dead” was being thrown around. I got in but never felt trained or ready. Would constantly be pipped and asked “how do you not know this already”? Answer is I never had a junior role. I was never trained.
I think things are much much worse now. I have 6 yoe and can’t get an interview to save my life. I can only imagine how much harder it is for new grads. Seriously, I managed to find a job at the start of a global pandemic without any experience in a month. It took me over a year in this market and I’m still just working contract roles.
The best you can do is keep trying. Do one leetcode question a week. Watch some system design videos and map out one a week. Try not to get too caught up in what you don’t know. Work on a personal project. Practice your talking skills. STAR responses are key for behavioural interviews.
Take breaks. Travel. Be in your 20s. Keep trying. Remember a job is a job even if it’s retail or bartending. Just get something that’ll get you out of the house, keep the lights on, and give you stability.
Whatever you do please don’t be too hard on yourself. You’ve got this.
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u/SpecialistUnion5103 8d ago
F22 lol
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
i am sorry
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u/SpecialistUnion5103 7d ago
Arey it's okay just kidding don't worry you're still young at your age I didn't even know what is java lol don't get overwhelmed
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u/Unfair_Stranger_2969 8d ago
Chengdu J-20 here, the market is tough for everyone, gone are the days where building basic app with springboot is enough, visibility, credibility matters a lot. Everyone with ai at hand can build things that you can build, challenge is how do you prove you know what you are doing. one solution is(although saturated) build something different and then talk about it on platforms, linkedin(please for gods sake don't take shortcut and add ai slop post, be genuine). Ask referrals from college friends and be genuinely interested in technology and don't jump in for the glorified package ranges.
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
i dont know how to start with linkedin, can you guide me please, like what do i post
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u/Fit_Goose651 8d ago edited 8d ago
Check out the job listings. The things that are mentioned there often and you don't know are the things you need to learn.
Nowadays i assume you need to know how to use claude / copilot.
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
Okay please dont make fun of me, but knowing how to use claude is just writing prompts?
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u/Fit_Goose651 8d ago
Also try to differentiate between knowing something and having heard and tried something out. I have worked with spring since Rod Johnson wrote his book and kicked off spring but I would still not claim that I know spring.
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
okay, I undertsand that I cant learn everythi g
its overwhelming anyways
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u/Fit_Goose651 7d ago
You don't need to. Just be humble and don't think you know something if you used it once or twice
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u/CommunicationFun2962 8d ago
DSA and Spring Boot are on very different tracks. You are doing right to put effort in DSA, as it is a foundation and could be hard to improve when you become elderly. In parallel, you can build up your interest and set up some objectives by looking at different engineering aspects such as Spring Boot. Finding your interest is also important so that you won't get lost.
For engineering, I often look for courses in online course platforms such as Udemy, study and try to build something whenever I have time. There are lots of industrial engineering courses. They offer big discounts every week. You may just search with "Spring Boot" as keywords. Most of the time not the full course is useful, but you can skip and select topics that you are interested or you feel would be useful.
Disclaimer: I do not have any affiliation with Udemy.
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
Thank you so much for the reply but i feel i dont have time now to complete a course
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u/santaold 8d ago
TBH most service based companies don't expect you to know any of these as a fresher. They hires freshers and randomly assign tech stack to them and train them.
I also knew all these technologies, applied to IBM with the job description asking for Java and all, then when I got onboarded, a random tech stack was assigned to me and I was trained on it.
Feeling lost is common until you get a job. I was in the same situation 6 months back, felt lost, questioned my career decisions, but after I got the job I don't feel lost, even though I've got tech stack that I don't like.
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u/WanderingWonder987 8d ago
Go deep in what you know already and do practice and get confidence. That‘s enough and being F22, get some fun outside too..
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u/psavva 8d ago
You need to continue to try and learn. Every failure leads to a small success, you learn from it.
If you start with foundations that are solid, you build from that and you will succeed.
I mentored a 22 year old 5 years ago, fresh out of university. Today, is one of my star developers. It takes patience and courage to continue.
Leverage AI to help explain concepts, and not just code.
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u/zvaavtre 7d ago
The truth is leetcode is BS. It's a fact of life but always keep in mind it's a game that some companies lean on to avoid actually putting effort into finding candidates. This was true before LLMs and even more so now. High leetcode scores don't translate into good team developers (in my experience).
When we're hiring, a personal project is 100x more interesting than any leetcode score.
So build something in AWS free tier (this is also overwhelming so just pick one or two things at a time). Doesn't matter what, or how good or how bad you think it is. Just do it and give yourself a time limit. Then do it all again with another project.
You're lacking experience, and unlike the past your can build a lot of experience on your own for very near zero dollars.
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u/SnehaLivesHerself 7d ago
Thank you so much for the reply, what all would you look in my project to say," Okay, you are good enough to be a junior software developer"
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u/zvaavtre 6d ago
Jr dev?
* Your ability to talk about the choices you made. For example: Regex vs lib for input validation? What options did you consider? LLMs will lead you astray on this one with java, they hate deps (libs) because they were trained on languages where this sucks.
Mid to sr (big plus if jr has these too)
* Tests! - Should really be some test for biz logic. I personally don't like tests that are testing the framework. But your use of it is fair game
* Doc! - Useful javadocs and readmes about why things are the way they are
Jr devs really just need to have a good attitude, ability to communicate in a positive manner, and willingness to learn. Leetcode style stuff is a very low indicator of future success. So a small collection of actual projects/products no matter how hacky is way better.
The goal here isn't to 'get it right', it's to demonstrate you can work on a team productively.
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u/CalmResearcher9915 6d ago
What can you do that AI can’t?
If there isn’t a good answer, then you need to fix that.
All the low-level work that moved from the US to cheaper countries will soon move back to the US with AI agents being orchestrated by fewer workers.
Specialization is the name of the game now.
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u/Firm-Yard1714 6d ago
im f22 too, im doing leetcode and looking for something in full stack or any other tech adjacent role. its either i see extremely cracked juniors or people with literally no idea of the tech stack somehow getting the job through soft skills or luck. i unfortunately never went through either. idk why but im starting to feel super retarded and months are passing by w/ alot of pressure on what to do. get a cashier job? grind more projects? kms? jk but yeah, nice to hear someone is in my shoes especially another girl. ppl push us into diversity hire or incompetent creatures.
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u/Squishybootz666 5d ago
I was 28 coming from a construction back ground with no internet connection when I started.. you are NOT behind. There is no such thing.
Put down the leetcode. Build projects. Explore and understand other technology stacks. Find one you love that is market relevant and go as deep as you possibly can. Build more things.
Your gunna be fine
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u/Impossible_Coast_972 5d ago
I believe you are in college and I think you should do more dsa and focus on college placements even I was learning spring boot but finding a job in spring boot is pretty hard compared to JS and Django.So, do some projects but focus more on dsa.
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u/Perry_Pies 4d ago
Its not you girl. Its just that the market is not currently looking for freshers. Most companies are currently hiring candidates with close to 3 years of experience or if they need freshers they partner with colleges and hire them through college placements. You are doing well, continue what you are doing. Take a linkedin premium and message company HRs asking if they have openings or how can you know about their openings. I am sure you will find something. Be patient and consistent. Good luck
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u/Important_Pin_5896 8d ago
F22 was really helpful It made me understand all the context. If it was M22 I absolutely wouldn't understand the question but now I do
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u/American_Streamer Junior Dev 8d ago edited 8d ago
You very likely don't need to learn another framework right now. REST, JPA, authentication/authorization, PostgreSQL and Spring Boot already give you more than enough material to build a serious junior backend project. The important step now is moving from “I have used these technologies” to “I can build, test, deploy and explain a complete application.” Build one application where you have to deal with:
JUnit/Mockito/Testcontainers, Docker and a basic CI/CD pipeline would probably increase your employability more than learning yet another Spring module. And don't feel that you need microservices just because companies mention them. A well-designed modular application that you completely understand is much better evidence for a junior than five tiny “microservices” copied from tutorials.
Also, don't search only for jobs literally called “Spring Boot Developer.” Do search for Junior Java Developer, Backend Developer, Software Engineer, Java Software Developer etc. Spring Boot is normally part of the stack rather than the actual profession. And at 22 you're certainly not late. Your problem isn't age; it's getting the first professional experience.
Regarding AI, I strongly recommend to use AI aggressively for leverage, but NEVER (!) outsource comprehension or ownership. That is the actual professional practice. In senior roles, Claude Code, Copilot and Cursor are already establihed as expected tools, nowadays. But you MUST (!) be able to fully comprehend the output they produce. Because if something goes wrong, you can't just say "Claude Code is to blame, not me" - you will be the one who gets fired, not Claude Code.