Feeling stuck in career, need guidance or refferal :b
Hey everyone,
I’m a self-taught developer from Mumbai and wanted some career advice from people with more experience in the industry.
I graduated in Management in 2020. During lockdown, because of my love for computers, I started learning web development from scratch with zero technical background.
I initially tried learning JavaScript multiple times and failed badly, so I switched to WordPress and got a remote internship at a small design studio in Delhi for minimum wage. I worked there for almost 2 years.
Eventually I gave JavaScript another shot, and this time it finally clicked. I moved into the MERN stack, frontend-focused, because I genuinely enjoy CSS, UI, and building products.
After that, I joined another internship, again with low pay. Around 6 months in, another founder approached me for a part-time role and gave me a very difficult assignment. Later I found out around 40 people received the same assignment (saw it in the Figma file), and I was apparently the only one who completed it. The feature itself was something their own developers were struggling to build.
That moment gave me a lot of confidence.
After that, I joined an early-stage Berlin startup where I’m currently working. The pay was good by Indian standards, and over time I’ve learned how to build products from 0 → 1, understand systems, ship features fast, and handle ownership.
But now I feel stuck.
Throughout my entire career, I’ve never really had strong technical seniors or mentors above me. Most of my growth came from figuring things out alone. Because of that, even though I can build and ship products, I still don’t feel confident applying for senior roles.
I feel like my next phase of growth requires working closely with experienced engineers in a strong team environment. Also, after years of remote work, I don’t really want another fully remote role.
So I wanted to ask people with experience:
- What should my next career move look like?
- Should I target product startups, bigger companies, or something else?
- How do self-taught developers usually bridge this “stuck in between” phase?
- And how do you know when you’re actually ready for senior-level responsibilities?
Would genuinely appreciate any advice.