Overwhelmed?

Pelvis

So I'm a part time student in my 30s, in a degree course and nearing the end of 3rd year whilst working full time. Every now and then I get a little overwhelmed, I feel like at this stage I should know more than I actually do. I have a reasonable understanding of programming concepts and the like but when it comes to actual coding I feel I'm lacking!

Most of my coding experience has been for College assignments (java), and could never be described as being particularly advanced. I have on a couple of occasions started mini personal projects to try and learn more but usually college/work stuff comes up which takes priority, and by the time I get back to my own project it's been so long it feels like I'm starting from scratch again.

On top of this I have no idea what to focus on, more recently I completed a basic web app as part of an assignment that was based on an idea I could use in work. I want to continue developing it for this purpose and have been spending a bit of time reading up on jquery/ajax, but while doing this I feel I should be focusing on Java. On top of this I'm trying to study for MS SQL certification (I can see myself going down the sql developer route, this relates to my current job).

Not sure what the purpose of this post is actually. Basically, at this stage I'm just concerned I'll soon be faced with a 4th year project and not have the skills to take it on. And I'm not sure the summer break is enough time to make up for my shortcomings.

The_B_Man

If u have any spare time, setup a github or bitbucket account, install Tomcat, install eclipse, setup eclipse to use Tomcat (JEE perspective->Servers), and then do an online course (free ones on udemy.com) on Java, spring and hibernate. Every time u make progress, commit it to your github.

If that becomes relatively easy for you by the time u finish 4th year, then you'll walk into a job.

Aswerty

I think it's natural to feel overwhelmed at this point in your development. Especially since when you look online a lot of the people, code, and discussion is to a very high standard. In real life people aren't typically as competent as the internet makes folks out to be.

When you get more experience, you'll know a bit more, but the main benefit of experience is finding comfort in your ignorance with regards to the mountain of information that is out there. Oft described best as "knowing what you don't know".

If anything, the scope of work you're doing is probably adding to the sense of being overwhelmed. College, personal projects, and professional certification is a lot to take on at once. Sometimes it's not a good idea to spread yourself to thin, but you'll be the best judge of whether that's the case in this instance.

Buford T Justice

Its not unusual for someone in your situation to be fair. Colleges are busy trying to teach you the fundamentals but getting any reasonable project up and running isn't an overnight thing. Most of the knowledge for this stuff comes from experience really.

Try not to think too much of the scale of the what you don't know. Focus on what you do no, and what you can do do build on that. For example, you've built a web app so naturally you should try to add some ajax to the site, and expose some api elements while you're at it. Decent idea, and perseverance will pay off over time.

Rome wasn't built in a day.