I am from India and presently working in Stockholm Sweden for the last 1.5 years. I have been working in IT for the last 10 years. I started as backend java developers and moved into the Automation engineer role for the last 5 years. For all these 10 years I have been appreciated for the dedication and most of the time classified into groups that exceed expectations. I think I was good at doing the job at hand but never did anything more apart from my regular work. No new enhancements in framework, no side projects, no self improvements. For all these years I have worked really hard and spent on an average 12 - 14 hrs in front of my computer thinking I might become good at programming/language/design but It has not happened.Not a day passes where I go to sleep without watching some video tutorial. My analogy has been like playing soccer without a goal post. Spending endless hours with no improvements, jumping from 1 video tutorial to another. Buying books, reading them cover to cover and when I reached the end I did not remember anything and started to read again.
After I moved to Sweden I realized the problem was in me and not lack of time. I have an opportunity to transition my career into front end developer here in stockholm at my current organization. I have time on my side as well. I started learning React like 6 months back but then again got into watching and reading videos. I have no idea on building any project. While working on React, I think I don’t know CSS when I can’t style something. Then I work for a month on css and after I come back to React I have forgotten most of it and start watching tutorials.
What I want to accomplish:
Become a full time web developer and start as a freelancer. Spend quality time with my kids(4yrs & 2 yrs) at least on weekends and enjoy life without thinking about work 24/7. I am okay to spend at least 3-4hrs every day on my self improvements until I achieve my dreams.
My sincere apologies if I am not able to put my problems/concerns in this email. I am sure having a mentor can address most of my issues. Waiting to talk to you soon. I will be happy if you need more information.
Notes
Suggested that he try freelancing instead of trying to join a startup. He’s not ready to pass an algorithms and data structures interview and isn’t interested in ramping up right now. Let him in on the forhire subreddit and gave some tips on how to better compete for jobs. He also asked how to gain confidence in technologies that are new to you. I told him to build projects and build small proofs of concept for upcoming paid work.