[codingdave]

My recommendation is not letting your resume of today dictate your future career. If you want to be a front-end dev, then figure out a plan to learn the skills you need to get the experience you need to have the career you want. Don't give up on your desires just because there is a learning curve to get there, even if it does feel daunting. Your future self will thank you for having gone through the trouble.

On the other hand, if you really don't like the idea of being a coder and would be making a change even if the learning curve was quick and easy... that is a good reason to go ahead and make a change.

Either way, step one is to decide what you want your next job to be. It is difficult to give good advice at this point because we don't know where you want to land, so all we can give is a generic path of: Identify skills gaps -> learn those skills -> apply for jobs.

[the_only_law]

I’m reminded of another thread from the other day about resume length. As someone with a huge career change on the distant horizon. I don’t know if I hate resume. If I had to guess, majority of my skills in knowledge comes from outside work and is not something

The problem is this just is not sufficient in covering all I’ve learned and done. I’ve been regularly screened out of jobs that I 100% know I can perform, but it’s fair. If you looked at my resume you’d never think I’m qualified, but I’ve picked up so many skills and knowledge from a cumulation of years of just fucking around. At this point the only jobs I can get it’s [equivalent of old job] + more pay.

[krasotkin]

Thanks for the reply. I appreciate your advice. My "pipe dream," if you will, is that someone here knows of something I haven't yet even considered and will suggest it. I'm also hoping that people have stories of when they jumped from point A and landed at point B, whatever those were. It's nice to hear those sorts of stories, and maybe I or somebody else here will read their story and it will help.

[travisjungroth]

I switched from flight instructing to software engineering, with a stint as a waiter in the middle. Six years later I’m at Netflix.

> Honestly, getting into an "actual" developer role feels as daunting today as it did when I had no work experience. Is this just a confidence thing?

Yes. You know more today than you did when you started, so it should be easier. The problem is your rate of progress is low. If after 4 years you feel 10% of the way there, it’s going to feel way worse than 0 years and 0%. Remember that every software engineer knew less at some point than you do now.

You need to do something to dramatically increase your progress. Pick a technology or topic and start making stuff. This stuff is all free. It’s not like you want to be a ship captain and you need a boat. The only thing in your way is your mindset.

On that note, you need to become a different kind of humble. I get this “I’m no good” vibe. You need to replace that with something more neutral and concrete. Something like “I’m a beginner”. It’s the difference between “I’m weak” and “I bench 55lbs”. The latter can change.

Approaching it as a career change is really the way to go. I don’t know if you were just talking about the plants, but it applies if you want to stay in software. Look at it as switching from “software guy in marketing” to “software engineer”. Its a big jump, appreciate it.

Something you might not have thought of: move. That can really get things going. You could get a house in the rural part of a poor country for a few months for real cheap. Bring a few books and a laptop with you, good to go. Start sending out resumes to junior jobs when you have a month or two left. This is how I ended up at Netflix, more or less.