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Because of some bad life choices I have gotten myself into a really bad situation jobwise and I am trying to find a way out of it. I am currently studying computer science, however my current study time is already more than double than normal. Responsible for this are mostly two reasons: My heavy depression and the fact that out of interest I pretty much attended all optional courses and some master courses too.

At the end of last year I ended up in a hospital for over three months because of the first reason. After that I got myself one year pause from studying and found a first job as first level support. I don't mind the job itself but it doesn't pay well and the future perspectives for growth and advancement are not there, so I would like to find a new job. However I am not sure how to determine the right position for me.

I like paperwork, bureaucracy and documentation. I also like programming, but I approach it quite differently than my friends. I tend to write a lot of specifications, diagrams and tests with expected results before I even open IDE and I have little experience programming in teams. I would like to find a job which allows me to grow in the direction of my interests, but also pays my bills. I concluded that junior jobs in the area of IT/consulting/development would be a good fit, however I don't meet requirements in job offers including completed degree and job experience.

I am also not sure how much my strengths are worth in job search. I am a quick learner, which I demonstrated some years ago, as I moved to Germany from a different country with little language knowledge, but managed to learn German, normal high school lectures and Latin as new foreign language without skipping a year. I am good at organizing things, which was usually my job during team work. I also tend to put a lot of weight on my communication skills. The reason, why I took first level support job, was to improve it even further though interaction with hard to deal with and sometimes angry customers. I learned there a few tricks, but I feel like my growth has stagnated.

So how would I determine right positions for me to apply and how should I present my strengths so that I appear desired by the employer?

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  • @JoeStrazzere If i would get some days off from work to attend exams then yes. The answer to the second question is a bit more complicated. I abbandoned threatment cause it gave no effects. However I am good at hiding my condition, so it deosn't affect my work. I have been hiding it for years and no one noticed. Same currently, customers who speak with me regarding their problems always get a professional, friendly and merry response with assurance that they will get help ASAP. My condition does not affect my work.
    – Arkathor
    Commented Oct 5, 2019 at 13:57
  • how long did it take to become stagnant? Three months in hospital doesn't seem like you're good at hiding your problem
    – Kilisi
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 7:11

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Apply even if you think you don't meet the requirements. You would fit pretty much any position as a junior developer if you have some coding skills already. With your background it sounds like you could grow past the "junior" stage pretty fast when you get a bit of experience.

Consider also applying to jobs as an IT architect because your planning skills might come in useful there.

Make sure to push your communication skills. Software development is very much a team work.

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  • German employers generally won’t hire if not certified, namely no degree. They have a relatively strict education system and countless trades and titles to prevent exactly the hiring of talented but noncertified workers. Which would erode their system..(i think its ridiculous, but thatsa different discussion) Its rare to find a job that will accept a person, and if they do, you won’t advance past a low level position because there is always a person with a degree to hire. What should to OP do in this case, considering they want a job with future perspective.
    – DrMrstheMonarch
    Commented Oct 6, 2019 at 8:26
  • I worked at a software development company in Germany that had exactly three employees with degrees. In geology:-)
    – gnasher729
    Commented Oct 8, 2019 at 11:43
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I like paperwork, bureaucracy and documentation. I also like programming

I worked for about 20 years as a programmer, with countless programmer colleagues. If one thing is certain, is that programmers HATE "paperwork, bureaucracy and documentation". Also, programmers are usually not very "good at organizing things" - besides their software.

It is very good that you push forward to improve your education. However, this might not be the right time for you to look after programming jobs.

Here are some ideas, still connected to your interests:

  • requirements engineer, business analyst;
  • testing;
  • development process implementation / coordination / improvement;
  • project management (possibly as an aid to another project manager, since you do not seem to have a lot of experience);
  • other administrative tasks (depending on the specifics of the company).

So how would I determine right positions for me to apply ...

Just study what is available, asses if you are at least partially suitable for the job, and apply. Most of the times, the job descriptions in advertised jobs are very far from what is actually expected.

... and how should I present my strengths so that I appear desired by the employer?

You just create and maintain a good CV, write in it everything that is true and is in your advantage, "forget" to write about the things which might hurt you.

Health problems are one of the things which are never written in CV's.

Here are some links to answers I gave to other friends around, on the topic of CV's.

https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/143739/98881

https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/130629/98881

https://workplace.stackexchange.com/a/129894/98881

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