Turning career frustration into a self improvement project

A personal story about not giving up on my career aspirations

Part 1: Mastering the job

Given my professional experience thus far, I’ve come to understand that there are 2 types of employees — the ones who are eager to jump into a new role because they are hungry for experience, and the ones who settle down into one, because they are comfortable with where they are. Recently I learned that I fall under the first kind — a technical adventure seeker.

Sitting at my desk one day, I realized that the time to jump into something new had come. How did I know I was ready? Well, for starters, there weren’t any complex problems left to solve anymore; at least within my role at the time. I had spent the last two and a half years building an automated test framework for web application testing, covering both unit, and integration testing. The software framework had matured to a point where adding new features to it, was seamless. Implementing new test scenarios couldn’t have been easier.

The performance feedback I was receiving turned from “you never make the same mistake twice” to “you’ve mastered test implementation so well, you’re fast, and efficient”. If I had mastered my job, then why wasn’t I happy? The answer was simple — I had no problems left to solve. Problems are what keep us engineers awake at night, trying to find a solution; problems make engineers excited about coming into work. If we wanted to do a mundane job, then we wouldn’t be engineers. And that’s exactly what my day to day tasks had turned into — a mundane job I was no longer excited about.

Part 2: Frustration

I was in my yearly review meeting with my manager, when I finally approached the subject of “I want more.” I didn’t ask for a raise or for a big bonus, but I asked for one crucial thing — move from implementing test features to product ones. After all, I had made my intent clear by taking on additional product development work for the last couple of years. Because there’s no better way to show you’re qualified for the job than by doing the actual work, right? The response to that request was “We can’t all be developers, some of us have to test.” These words still ring in my ear. To say I was disappointed would be an understatement. It took me some time to understand what I was dealing with.“The curse of the irreplaceable employee ”, is what I call when you have become good at your job, and compliant to your manager. Compliant because I always executed, and never complained. I quickly understood that management was not willing to replace me since doing so would be time consuming, and mostly costly. Interviewing, hiring, and training a new employee takes time, and resources. And why replace an already compliant employee?

Part 3: Proving wrong

“We can’t all be developers, some of us have to test.” — pivotal comment in my story. Also, the words which motivated me to better myself as a software developer. In the country of opportunity, no roadblock is big enough to not overcome.

I went back to the drawing board, and outlined a plan. I started from the foundation of Computer Science — data structures, algorithms, graphs, etc. My office walls were covered with sticky notes, representing a map of my learning path. Every day after work, I made sure to dedicate my evenings to solving coding problems; Websites such as LeetCode and HackerRank were my go to places. In addition, I read multiple books on algorithm design, and problem solving. I was on a mission to train myself on becoming a better problem solver — an essential skill for every engineer.

After about 3 months of preparation, I was ready to begin my job hunting journey. And I was aiming high — I applied to top tech companies only. Not because I was arrogant but because I wanted to get a realistic evaluation of my skills. I moved from online assessments, and assignment projects to first round of technical interviews, then to second round of technical interviews…then to final, in person round of technical interviews. It was an exhausting process; I had interviews every other day after work, and on the weekends I was working on assignments given by recruiters. In the process, I got the opportunity to speak with a lot of smart people in the industry. For every door that closed, I got some constructive, and motivating feedback from my peers. I met people who had never worked with me, yet they trusted my abilities, and were willing to bet on me by hiring me. At the end, I was offered, and accepted a position which matched my career aspirations — software engineer working on product security projects.

Part 4: The Conclusion

If you are in software development interviewing can be hard — it is time consuming, and mind exhausting. But it can also be a great learning opportunity, and a self improvement project.

If our environment is not providing us with an opportunity to excel at our professional passions, then we have to go out and seek that opportunity ourselves. Otherwise frustration keeps on building, and built up frustration has no value. But frustration turned into a self improvement mission can boost your motivation, self esteem, and your diverse set of skills. We can all be testers, we can all be developers, we can all be engineers given the opportunity; so go out there, and seek it!