Ask HN: How do I know I'm ready to be a full time developer?

2 pointsby 123fr4569 anni fa3 comments

I graduated in CS in 2008 but all my jobs have been Sales Engineer roles so far, one of which was a long-term role at a top 5 global travel site.

I code every day on my own side projects as well as building multiple internal tools that have been used by numerous staff, and external clients.

I've comfortable in Python, PHP, MySQL, HTML/CSS and JS but how do I know I'm ready to take the step up to be a full-time dev?

My main side project is an algorithmically (Collab Filtering) powered music recommendation site running off an API I wrote and integrated with several 3rd party APIs including Spotify, Twitter, Last.fm, Pinterest and Facebook. The site gets ~20,000 uniques per month and is profitable.

(using a throwaway)

3 comments

patio119 anni fa

Do you need to have someone tell you you're ready? You're ready.

alfredallan9 anni fa

Do your own thing - you seem to have the right mix of skills: dev + some sales exp. Don't bother with an actual dev job.

crzwdjk9 anni fa

You've got a profitable site that you developed, so you're already a developer. Yes, you can do this, and the money coming into your bank account is solid evidence of that.