Left teaching after eleven years to become a developer and the hardest part was unlearning how much I needed to already know the answer
Spent over a decade in a classroom where being the person with the answer was basically the job. First few months of a coding bootcamp were rough not because of the material but because "I don't know, let me find out" felt like failing at something I used to be good at. Two years in as a developer now and that instinct still shows up sometimes, but recognizing it for what it is has made it a lot easier to just say "I don't know" out loud in a standup.
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AnonymousAnon The part that stands out to me is code review turning into a public "I was wrong" moment. Teaching builds a thick skin for being watched while you think, but there's still a gap between being the authority in a classroom and being the newest person on a PR thread. Closing that gap took me way longer than learning the syntax did.
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AnonymousAnon The classroom-to-code write-ups are always my favorite on here. The confidence you already have in explaining things clearly probably transfers more than you're giving yourself credit for.
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AnonymousAnon Eleven years is a long runway to unlearn from, that's a real transition not just a career change. The "I don't know, let me find out" thing is honestly a skill most senior engineers I know had to build too, just from a different starting point.