I've enjoyed working as a developer whenever I had a full time job, but I've rarely felt the need to work on side projects whenever I was employed full time. I was laid off a while ago after finally getting a job that I was finally happy with, and I haven't been able to get back into the job market full time. I found a freelance/part-time gig that uses some very old tech that I can at least use to tell recruiters that I am working on something.
I've not been good enough at leetcode interviews and I tend to choke and freeze during them. I've been trying to practice but it's hard to progress beyond a certain level.
The job market now is terrible and there's the AI-replacing-devs doom and gloom going around.
I feel like a lot of folk here are truly passionate because the discussions here seem to be very technical and hobby-oriented, whereas I have rarely felt the need to build something outside of work. These days I do try but end up nowhere, primarily because I can never find a problem/idea worth pursuing.
Maybe I'm not cut out for this job because of these reasons, and even if I were to consider similar jobs in the field like product management and so on, those seem to be more saturated and likely to be automated/AI'd away in the future.
Any advice would be helpful.
It’s also ok to never program outside of work, to have no side projects… it’s probably healthier, in fact. You’re on a website where your field’s overachievers are at their loudest, but most people turn it off when they clock out for the evening.