[PhilWright]

It would be helpful to get more detailed information in order to provide more targeted suggestions. What is your educational background? What is your work experience? What languages/domains have you worked in?

[hoboon]

C/C++, learning python, ruby over the lst couple of years. Been working for several years, graduated with bachelors from a cow college no one has heard of.

bug fixing. that's all i've ever done. anytime i try to move into a dev role they shut me out. Writing new code was not an option; tinkering with new code was not really allowed. I thought about what I could do to make things better but they're already fairly optimzed. doesn't matter, I'd just make it worse.

You'd think they'd hire for c/c++ but not me.

[PhilWright]

I think it would be worth stepping back and taking a higher level view of your skills, in order to see where you are best suited and can provide value.

For example, I know that I am only an average programmer when it comes to detailed systems level work. I would fail at a Google style interview because I do not know the Big O values for common algorithms. I cannot tell you how a Red-Black tree works without having to look it up. But I discovered that I was very fast at writing software of average difficulty that has few bugs. So I work at a small company and crank out lots of software that saves the company money by automating manual processes. By aligning my best skills with a company that needs them it becomes a win/win.

Maybe in your case you are very detailed orientated and so software testing would be a good fit. Maybe you are great at translating users needs into requirements and so should be a business analyst. Maybe you have a wide range of skills but lack depth in one area, so work as a jack-of-all trades in a small company. Stop thinking only about your ability to write some code and look at the wider context and where you best fit in.