I share personal details below if you want to help me in particular, but your personal story or general advice is of course very welcome. I imagine many of us are looking to do something at least a little different.
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My resume doesn't scream competency with any particular technologies. I've just been "the web guy" for marketing teams. I enjoy being a generalist but it seems to be backfiring on me now. I probably couldn't swing it in a front-end role or a back-end role. I've gotten by, by writing mostly HTML and CSS with some snippets of PHP and Bash. Roles tend to be looking for a React specialist or a Laravel expert. When years of experience with a technology come up, the best I can usually say is: "I used that for a thing once."
I'm contemplating taking a break from tech altogether and doing--something with plants? Recently, it occurred to me that technical writing is a possibility. I might be able to stay proximate to my old roles but still do something different for a while. Honestly, getting into an "actual" developer role feels as daunting today as it did when I had no work experience. Is this just a confidence thing? I've enjoyed playing with computers since I was a child, but still the idea that I could even be a developer feels like a delusion. As a kid, I wanted to cobble together a website, not become a PHP dev, so, I learned enough to make my toy projects. Now, I'm 26 and after some professional experience, I feel semi-capable at a lot of things, but I don't think that's what most roles are looking for and I can't blame them.
