10 signs that you are not destined to be a programmer

Maybe you thought being a programmer was a good idea. You heard that it paid good salaries, that there was a lot of demand for professionals, and you decided to give it a try, but after a while, you started to doubt if it was really what you wanted to be. Here I show you some signs that you are not meant to be a programmer.

Don’t feel frustrated if you feel that you were not born for this at the end of the article. It is always good to realize in time that you are not meant for what you thought you were going to do your whole life, and there is always time to change careers. Also, if you have chosen this profession because it allows you to work as a freelancer or because you can travel, I remind you that you have many other alternatives that also have good incomes and the same facilities, like web designer, essay writer online, or marketer.

1. Lack of curiosity

It refers to several points. On the one hand, lack of curiosity to understand how things work. Technology is complex and requires a deep understanding to understand the behind-the-scenes of what happens with the codes you are creating. Without this curiosity, you will be left with superficial knowledge.

On the other hand, curiosity to find new ideas. If you just take the first idea, you come up with, or if you always work in the same way, it won’t be long before you get bored and stagnate.

If you identify with this, here is the first sign that you are not destined to be a programmer.

2. You find it hard to manage your work and time

If you are someone who needs to have a person on top of you to keep you motivated and focused on your work, you are not meant to be a programmer. Programming work can be repetitive and frustrating. You will need to find a way to keep yourself motivated to work day in and day out to write the code you were asked to write or that your application needs.

You also need to be able to regulate your time. You must know when it is time to work, rest, speed up the work, and when you can have some fun. Even if you have a supervisor and you work in a team, the part of the work that corresponds to you will be under your administration, so you are responsible for delivering it on time and in the right way, finding the necessary resources to make it happen.

3. You get frustrated quickly when faced with a problem

When you write a code, any small error makes the system not work, and finding that error can take time. Every project you have to work on will need you to learn something you’ve never worked on before, which makes you feel like you never know enough. All the time, you read or hear about a language, library, or framework that you had no idea about. The documentation is outdated or confusing.

Those are just some of the things you’ll have to deal with every day. And more than once, you will spend a whole day solving a problem that you can’t understand and that solving will only improve a tiny part of what you are creating, and you will ask yourself, is that all that time spent just for that?

In programming, the feeling of frustration arises very often; the important thing is to know how to deal with it; to get out of that emotional state quickly, to have the emotional resources to move forward, and the technical resources to look for solutions.

4. You feel impatient to learn and master everything

Every human being comes with a background of knowledge, has different emotions and capabilities, and learns at a personal pace.

The IT world is like the sea. When you look at it, you realize that it is impossible to navigate it completely. It is so big that you will feel overwhelmed if you want to take it all in. You will feel the pressure of wanting to catch up to match those who know more than you, and that will only lead to frustration.

That’s why it’s important to accept what you know and enjoy the journey of learning. Every time you learn something, enjoy your accomplishment and be proud of it. The same should happen to you when you manage to solve a problem you had a hard time figuring out.

5. You are afraid of making mistakes and look for shortcuts

We all have an inherent fear of being wrong. When that fear stifles your ability to explore and your curiosity, it limits your ability to develop real knowledge, the knowledge that comes from experience and “failure.”

If you make a mistake or something doesn’t work, first try to solve it with your knowledge and how you think it could be solved. Try that before going to an expert opinion, a popular blogger, or a YouTube tutorial. Otherwise, you wouldn’t really be integrating a working knowledge of programming.

You need to develop opinions about what works and what doesn’t work. You need to understand why your solution works and the benefits of applying it.

6. Disorganized and rigid thinking

When you think too rigidly, you refuse to accept other people’s ideas and refuse to ask for help. Then you believe that there is only one way to do things, and you do not realize that in programming, the saying “Every master has his own little book” applies, i.e., that a problem can be solved in different ways. People with a closed mindset also refuse to incorporate the comments they receive as feedback and never change or improve.

At the other extreme are people with disorganized thinking with a messy way of writing code. These people think too much, overthink things and do not move forward because they overcomplicate things. It is essential to know how to take a step back and look at the big picture. Ask yourself: How am I doing things, and how can I do them better or simpler?

7. You are not detail-oriented

In other professions, small mistakes are not noticed. Here the smallest mistake can make something not work. So, you must pay attention to the details of the code. A comma makes a huge difference in programming. So, if you don’t feel like having to pay attention to every detail of what you’re doing, maybe you’re not meant to be a programmer.

But it’s not just in what you write that you have to be detail-oriented. It’s in how the result of what you did looks. A poorly centered div or color scheme that doesn’t contrast should bother you. If you are one of those who say: “It’s pretty good, I’ll leave it like this,” you won’t be successful because the client who pays for your service will notice those details.

8. You prefer rigid schedules

Working in a technology company can be very flexible. You can work in an office, at home, or in a hybrid system. And while they usually manage a normal work schedule, they expect some flexibility from employees when needed.

Most companies value work/life balance, but delivery times will often cause your plans to change. If the code is not ready and the deadline for delivery to the client is approaching, you will have to work overtime to achieve the goal. Are you willing to do that?

Also, keep in mind that you might work for companies that have employees in different parts of the world and that to match everyone’s work schedules, you might have to work outside of your country’s normal working hours one day.

9. You don’t enjoy learning constantly

Even if the most used programs have been the same for years, there is always something new to learn. Whether it’s new languages, new frameworks, new devices, or hardware, if you don’t want to fall behind, you will have to keep studying constantly. Keep in mind that even programming languages themselves are evolving, including new libraries or changing their syntax.

Learning also involves research. If you don’t enjoy research, you are probably not destined to be a programmer. Often, you will face problems for which the solution is not obvious or is not in previous work, so you will have to look for new information, dig in Google, in documentation, on YouTube, in forums, and Stack Overflow, among others. You will have to do it until something, or someone who has the solution, appears somewhere.

10. You prefer to work alone

Among the soft skills that a web programmer has to develop are knowing how to create a network and rely on a community. It will be essential when going through a rough patch or encountering difficulties, either in your career or in a project. These soft skills are important even for experienced programmers, who may need to rely on others who are more experienced in a particular topic.

We hope these points allow you to reflect on whether you are working on what you really want for your future. If, after reading this, you feel that you are not destined to be a programmer, don’t worry; many other remote jobs might interest you.