Ask HN: Self-taught devs, what are your biggest challenges?

3 points by yn37 9 years ago | 1 comment

I am curious what challenges you are facing in your job or in your team?

From what I can gather

- some struggle with technical issues (like not having a deep enough understanding of a technology or an architecture)

- others struggle with the lack of theoretical background (when optimizing for performance, or deciding which algorithm to go for, etc)

- others are facing mental roadblocks / self-identity challenges ("why should they listen to me, when there are ten CS grads with years of experience in the team?")

- and I'm sure there are more

So, from your experience, what's been the most frustrating or challenging thing so far, as a self-taught dev?

owebmaster 9 years ago |

> - some struggle with technical issues (like not having a deep enough understanding of a technology or an architecture)

this one for sure not, it is more common that I have a deeper understanding of a technology or architecture than most of the colleagues with a CS degree, because as a self taught dev I started like 10 years before most of people that go through college.

> - others struggle with the lack of theoretical background (when optimizing for performance, or deciding which algorithm to go for, etc)

But this is a real challenge. Although I also try to self-teach me CS theory, it is hard to know what I don't know and might be missing in my theoretical base.