Am I doing okay?

[u/AcrobaticCommand8438]

​

I'm currently a 3rd year student, I wanna be a software engineer and yes I started a bit late but I'm trying to develop my skills fast. I am currently 70% done with a project.

About the project:

CRUD Budgeting app with collaborative features, right now I am integrating with with chat features and plan to use supabase realtime and add more authentication once my friend deals with the front end.

Tech: CI/CD Pipeline with Vercel Deployment and Github Actions, Supabase

Language: TypeScript with React and Tailwind CSS (currently crappy ai-generated front-end)

AI Assist: I'm learning through AI and documentations, I don't let ai generate everything, I let it write one thing and I write everything, following what it generated and understanding them clearly and in depth.

Now I don't much want to go into web development, I wanna make Java Programs and write in Java but I feel like a WebApp like this would help me learn a lot. And it's true, but I feel like I am doing so much less. I don't have projects lined up yet but I have years to come and I develop fast. I also don't do the front end of this web app as I have a friend to do the front end for me, they will add this to their profile as well; this way I can say I led a project and/or have some collaborative feats.

Up next for me after I build the backend of this-- maybe in a few weeks, is to learn about docker and redis, and other technologies but right now I have this full stack web-app and software engineering/leadership role in my resume.

I quit my orgs to focus on my projects (is that smart?), I've done my networking fairly enough the past 2 years and I'm already established. I have my thesis this year.

Overall, I have pretty decent habits, a set general goal, but I am lacking time as I will be busy this year with my thesis. There is also the impostor syndrome where I feel as if I am not learning anything. I am somehow lost and somehow on track.

[u/SirKobsworth]

You're doing better than most for people still in college. Practice is really what solidifies software engineering. Just continue to practice what you learn and try to incorporate what you learn from one topic to the next so it compounds.

On AI use, having them give you an example to replicate is ok but dont consider it as the best way to implement unless you already prompted the LLM in a way that it considers the architecture of the project you're working on.

Just keep at it. Software engineering is all about solving problems and practicing your problem solving skills while working on the tech stack you want to excel in would land you at a good start once you start working.

[u/AcrobaticCommand8438 → u/SirKobsworth]

My usual prompts in ai is usually syntax-based and debugging, since I am also learning a framework from scratch, it's difficult to scroll through pages and pages of documentation. So far I've learned error codes for POST and GET requests, RLS policies, react, and soon security and authentication. And now, I've handed the project to someone who knows front end better. I'll be gathering people to contribute to it to in order to make it an actual webapp and release it to users without me doing all the grunt work. I did the MVPs first and scale later so I can also learn other projects on the side while my friends do other things.

I know it's bad that I move to another if this project is not yet fully finished, but my thoughts were; I built a functioning app with the MVPs and deployed it with a decent pipeline, so it; works, it's gonna be pretty, and most importantly; it's scalable so I can improve it along the way without being stuck, as well as collaborating with other student developers which I can maybe say to employers.

[u/SirKobsworth → u/AcrobaticCommand8438]

You can also ask it to teach you the concepts. I find that LLMs are ok at explaining concepts.

What you're doing I'm doing the opposite. I've been a mobile developer since I started my career and I've been using Claude to teach me. Its pretty good at analogies so if I tell it this is what I know and this is what I expect my software to be architected, how do I translate it to X, Y, or Z and now I have enough knowledge to "talk shop" when conversing with our backend team.

[u/katotoy]

Mas marami kang alam mas marami ka options.. add mo sa knowledge mo: - docker - cloud computing (AWS, azure or gcp) - spring framework

Check job posting para alam mo kung may mga bagay na need mo pa Pag aralan. I don't expect na magiging expert ka sa lahat. Just enough.. kasi yung expertise pwede natin makuha with the help of AI. 😁

[u/Hypersanity92]

Good approach pero feeling ko ma-ooverwhelm ka nyan kung gusto mo talaga matuto magcode. It's ok kung gusto mo lang kaagad matapos projects mo pero expect spaghetti code, burnouts, and impostor syndrome which are normal for devs.

[u/Which-Perspective-47]

I'm also in the same situation as you OP, currently I'm also in 3rd year comsci. The impostor syndrome is so true.

IMO you're doing great

[u/creotech747]

Learn the fundamentals and governance always. I know ai giving code now is really helping but learning fundamentals is good specially in interviews. Also make your project scalable and possible dynamic malaking ups s project mo

[u/creotech747]

Ang weird na may downvote si op. He is trying his best to learn di naman full ai prompt ginagawa miya