
Ask HN: How am I supposed to start over as an amnesiac ex-software developer? - Tabula_Rasa
I’m a late 20s female ex-software developer. What happened? Well, not going to go into details, but I ended up with retrograde amnesia about a year ago. The memory of the last 4 years was most heavily affected, which sadly were the most prolific for me in terms of my graduate education and job-wise - I’d worked my way up to an actual developer job, and was doing quite well for myself.<p>It’s been an incredibly difficult year, and I’ve really had very few advocates along the way. My past employer failed to communicate with me properly post-amnesia, and I’m currently in bureaucratic hell trying to work with my University to see if I can retake the classes that I now can no longer remember.<p>I’ll often get something like, oh, jump on CodeAcademy/etc., get right back into things! But it’s not quite that simple. It’s - for back of a better word - downright PAINFUL, and I feel like I need more support going forward.<p>I feel like the best options for me would be some kind of class, workshop, or internship, but I’m having trouble finding the right fit. It’s going to be hard for me trying to find the right level, given that I’ll probably be rolling my eyes at how simple some things are but also getting stuck on relatively basic things until they click again.<p>An internship could be great for me, but I don’t have any contacts, let alone any contacts who would be able to place me at a company that understood my situation. For example, how am I supposed to explain a resume that I know nothing about? It’s pretty unavoidable, and I’d need a company that was understanding about the situation.<p>I just want to make it clear I’m not looking on advice on how to deal with the burden of this, but any advice you would have for me to get back into the field given these bizarre circumstances. Maybe there’s some avenue that I’m just not realizing? Thanks so much!
======
tinco
My advice: Take it slow. You express that jumping onto CodeAcademy and such is
painful, that's probably because you are overexerting your brain. Programming
is a skill that takes years to develop. I understand this is extremely
frustrating, but you can't expect to relearn something you learned over the
course of 4 years in just a few months.

People who are good at programming often forget how bad they were at it the
first few years they did it.

The most receptive mind according to researchers (the violinists research) is
one that is relaxed and well rested. If you pace yourself and do things you're
uncomfortable with no longer than 2-3 hours per day you'll grow faster than
anyone around you.

If however you do more than that hoping somehow to make up for lost time, I
fear there's a good chance you'll be let down and perhaps even burned out. Be
careful and healthy :)

I don't know where you live, in The Netherlands you could probably get a
psychiatrist confirm you are currently unfit for work you were educated for
and receive income from the government. I personally would do that and use the
time to take it slow.. I think.. I hope :)

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
Thank you! Yeah, I've taken this past year for myself to figure things out and
go slow.

I'm in the US and sadly things aren't that simple - memory loss in and of
itself is not grounds for any kind of financial support since it doesn't
qualify as disability.

I do really wish that I was in Europe since I've found the lack of proper
medical care I've received shocking and I feel that perhaps the government or
local programs would offer support that just isn't available here.

~~~
eaurouge
Are you sure you can't qualify in the US? A quick Google search for "memory
loss disability" suggests you may have some options. A recent story on NPR [1]
suggests the examining MD has some discretion in deciding if you qualify for
disability. I hope things get better soon.

[1] <http://apps.npr.org/unfit-for-work/>

------
lxt
If you can afford to do so, hire a 1:1 tutor, so you can work faster or slower
as needs be, and focus on the areas you need to fill in. One size fits all
coursework is not going to help you at the moment. (You may be able to get
someone to mentor you for free, too.)

A story, to give you hope:

When I was a college student I tutored a woman who was in much the same
situation as yourself. She had escaped an abusive marriage where she was
severely beaten, and as a result of the head trauma she had completely lost
math. I mean everything: she couldn't remember how to add 2+2.

I tutored her twice a week for a couple of years. Some things came back
easily, and some things were astonishingly difficult, and not the things you
might have expected. As time went on it got easier and easier: relearning was
easier than learning it the first time around. Eventually she didn't need me
any more.

She got it, and and got into college, and is now a registered nurse. Best of
luck to you.

~~~
8ig8
Can anyone suggest resources for finding a 1:1 programming tutor?

A great programmer is not necessarily a great tutor.

------
samegreatsleeve
Retrograde amnesia doesn't impair implicit memory. Priming effects are still
shown for amnesiac people.

This means that you'll be able to relearn your skills much more rapidly the
second time around.

As far as the best way to do that, I would give the same advice that is given
to anyone: find something you would enjoy working on and try to have fun
working at it.

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
I have experience this and do think it will help me out. It also does put me
in a weird spot starting as a complete beginner though, say in a basic class,
due to this "advantage".

------
smoyer
Given what you've written, I guess I have a few questions. I think the idea of
an internship (or maybe apprenticeship) sounds about right, but obviously
there has to be a "fit".

1) What was your area of expertise before the amnesia?

2) What do you want to do when you've recovered your abilities? (this might be
a good time to switch if you've had your eye on something).

3) Where are you?

4) Would you be comfortable working with a (small) team of people?

5) Would you be comfortable being the subject of research?

I don't want to make any representations for my employer (a major university),
but after almost 30 years in industry, I've been amazed at both the positive
and negative difference between a university and a company. I think a
university environment would be a good fit for you. One of the positives I've
seen is an amazing willingness to adapt to a person's needs. There are all
sorts of classes close at hand (and you can audit them for free), and I think
you could probably find a "champion" in someone who is interested in the
process of rehabilitating those with your condition.

I imagine that most other major universities would be a similar environment.
Ours even has an office that helps students, staff and faculty adapt to their
disabilities (or adapts the workplace as needed). If you want to stay in your
current area, try the university that's local to you. If you're interested in
moving for the right opportunity, I can try to find someone at work to see if
something can be arranged. I'm sure there are 30 others here at HN that can do
the same at other universities.

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
Let me get back to you about your questions. Still not sure how public I want
to go with this.

I mentioned briefly in the intro about the issues with my own University. In
theory I think you're correct about the difference between a university and
company environment, adaptability-wise, but in my own experience, I've been
really shocked by the treatment I've been given by my University. I've spoken
to my old advisor and a number of departments trying to figure out what I
could do to start classes again. They're even getting tripped up on things
like, what does the registrar do when someone takes two classes and gets two
satisfactory grades? I actually don't believe auditing is free, and they've
been telling me that were I to go this route, I wouldn't be able to take
exams, homework, and so forth.

Sadly the whole experience has really turned me off to the University route,
well, at least in my former program, but were I to figure things out finance-
wise, switching fields seems like a pretty good way for me to go right now. I
haven't particularly got my eye on anything, but at least starting fresh would
free me from some of the issues that are holding me back.

~~~
kyllo
If you can't audit in person, in a lot of cases you can audit courses online.
Many university CS programs publish all their course materials on their
department websites. Then there are the MOOCs--Massive Open Online Courses,
like Coursera, edX, and Udacity. Coursera in particular has some great
programming classes right now.

------
radicalbyte
Don't Panic.

When you start a new job, you'll always have a 2-6 month period of getting to
know your colleagues, platform and library stack. Use that time to learn. At
the end of it, you'll be back to where you were.

Remember you're in software. An industry that where everything changes every 5
years. After you have a baseline affinity for software & technology, what
matters is how fast you can learn and adapt.

Me? I've taught myself everything I know. I moved from UK to Holland at 26 so
had to start again (I didn't speak the language, and don't live in Amsterdam -
so that was a problem).

Now I'm 32, married, speak fluent Dutch, and have an awesome job working at a
start-up in the enterprise space (think Meteor for grown-ups).

Where are you based?

------
aretus
As a software developer, university education is not particularly necessary
beyond having the degree, which you still have, so I wouldn't worry about
that.

As for relearning programming, well, just program something, while reading
tutorials, books and courses as needed.

You can either program something that fancies you, something that you believe
can be monetized, hack on an open source project or possibly do freelance
work.

The only general CS knowledge you need to know that you won't automatically
learn by just programming is general algorithms and data structures, which you
can easily learn by reading the classic "Introduction to Algorithms" by
Cormen, L., R, S. or similar books, or looking at online course materials for
a class.

As for the "resume you know nothing about", why not just ask ex colleagues
tell you about what you did with them, etc.?

Of course however it strongly depends on your exact background, personality,
condition, etc.

------
xijuan
For courses, are you talking about undergraduate or graduate courses? Could
you approach the profs directly and asking them if you could just sit in their
classes? I did that and audited two graduate level courses this year...
Whether you sit there or not doesn't really affect the profs in any way as
long as there are seats in the class.. They are usually pretty fine with those
things, especially given your condition.

------
alcuadrado
Stupid advice maybe, but I think that if you make a reddit AMA you'll get a
lot of attention, and if you are lucky enough you'll get someone who can help
you (like offering an internship).

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
No, not stupid at all, actually I've thought about it. A friend suggested it
to me, but I'm not sure if I'd ever be comfortable with it. Not to trash
reddit or anything, but I find the posting community here really awesome, and
would probably have a pretty low tolerance for any trolling that would pop up
there or pretty much anywhere else. It was hard even posting this and I'm not
quite ready to "go public" because things may blow up and get out of hand.

It's kind of funny though, because there's at least one case (can't find the
link right now) of some guy making a totally BS claim about amnesia in order
to get attention and a book deal. A lot of news places ran the story and as
someone with the real deal and more than a lay person's knowledge of memory
and language, it was obvious to me that he was making it up! I don't even
think about it these days as so unusual and attention worthy, since people -
either due to being self-involved or discomfort with the situation - often
don't really even react when I tell them about it.

------
S4M
What is your (current) stack and where are you based? I know that my company
is currently looking for software developers roles in Europe, so maybe I can
help (my email is in my profile).

In the meantime, if you are currently unemployed, I would suggest to code
_something_. It will help you rebuild your skills, and you will have something
to show to get another job.

Good luck!

------
whereismymind__
If you have brain damage you will probably have to start all over again, maybe
it will be easier this time, and the good thing is you are already officially
recognized as a software developer so you don't have to care about grades,
colleges fees and learning unnecessary and/or outdated crap because you need
the credits, plus your working experience will make your CV look awesome, even
though you don't remember any of that and you will have to learn it all again
if you want to perform as you used to, of course.

On the other hand, if your amnesia is not the result of a physical injury, but
a psychological trauma, you should focus on working on your issues with a good
psychiatrist: your well being and sanity are far more important than your
career, and maybe forgetting all that is your brain's way to tell you it
wasn't doing you any good and it wasn't a good idea to learn it in the first
place.

------
qeorge
In theory, I've always understood that Math is Programming is Math. Or at
least I accepted it as true. But I swear, it only really "clicked" for me a
few weeks ago. I've been programming for almost 20 years, and I feel like I
just joined the party.

It made me think - how different would my programming and math experiences
have been if I'd "gotten" it sooner?

So if I were you, I would stop focusing on programming for right now, and dive
as deep as you can into math. Its another path to some of the same epiphanies,
and perhaps you won't feel so much like you're wasting time reaching a point
you'd already attained before. Climb a different hill instead.

And don't forget that life is about learning, not what you already know. None
of us ever stop learning. There is no beginning and no end, indeed there is no
path. Only Now :)

------
crucialfelix
I met an artist in New York who had her studio in a basement and got, I think,
Mercury poisoning and lost her memory. She told me that she had all these
photographic prints and she doesn't remember making any of them, but they're
hers, so she was mounting a gallery show with them.

She seemed strangely relaxed about it so I almost didn't believe her. Maybe
she had just dealt with enough already.

Just an anecdote for you.

If it is painful for you to relearn then you might consider changing to a
different field. But you'll know yourself better if that's worth the start up
time. Probably the knowledge will come back after you push through the
resistance.

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
I found a bunch of old love-letters in my house, kind of like Eternal Sunshine
of the Spotless Mind. I thought they were kind of funny, so I can be relaxed
about it :)

That sounds like a pretty different experience though. Honestly the best way
to explain it that I can think of, is imagine that you used to be some Gold
Metal Olympic runner, and now you're fully paralyzed and slowly recovering.
It's just humiliating and frustrating to take these baby steps when you _know_
that you have this past standard to look up to. You want to be happy for your
friends, who are running local races, even jogging, but seeing them pass you
by while you're still just hobbling is so, so, painful.

The different field is a really possible idea. I guess I'm just hindered by
the fact that I apparently enjoyed my job, I was good at it, and I still have
a lot of technical knowledge that wormed itself into procedural memory...I
could find jobs well suited for me and jobs that were flexible, and I was
intellectually stimulated. I don't know if I could say that for other jobs.

I don't know if the memory will "come back" as such, but from past experience
I've been a lot faster picking old things up. Just getting past this block is
what's hard.

~~~
trifalte
Part of it is learning to forgive yourself and another part is framing your
situation in the right light. Essentially, you may no longer be up to gold
medal standards and that's ok because that's just for now. It's also perfectly
ok to be frustrated. But then you have to to think about whether you are doing
well for where you are now because that's what matters.

You can also try picturing it as a treasure hunt. You have buried all this
hidden treasure (technical knowledge), but the map you left yourself got
washed in the laundry so now you have to go around piecing it together, but
hey, every once in awhile, there is treasure!

------
gte910h
RA has few "fun" causes. Sorry you had/have one of them. Many of them are very
recoverable, so hopefully that ends up being your path.

My personal greatest fear is have cancer, have the executive function portion
of my brain destroyed by chemo, then survive. I empathize strongly with your
situation here

If your former employer had LTD insurance, you may still be able to qualify
for it. Look into that for financial support.

Look up your old professors directly, explain what happened. Explain why you
can't recognize them, then just ask them to audit the course again. They'll
remember you, and will likely offer something.

Additionally, bring yourself up on exceedingly new technologies (ember,
helios, etc), that NO one has experience in. Then when you're someone who
knows all the latest stuff, rather than someone who forgot some slightly stale
stuff.

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
Doctors were initially telling me that I'd "recover" within 6 months, whatever
that meant - I imagined myself suddenly just having everything come back to me
like a lightning bolt 6 months out on the dot - but whatever they meant
doesn't seem to quite be the case. I've pieced together some things due to a
combination of experience, facts, and slight memory jogging, but after this
far out it's pretty clear to me that a lot is just lost for good. The good
thing is that I don't seem to have any additional memory impairments, and I
didn't end up with antrograde amnesia!

Sadly the lack of informing me about LTD or any options was the "communication
issue" I mentioned about my former workplace. In addition, they're no longer
in business. I did have quite a bit of savings though and I'm making use of
what public resources I can. Both the administration and my former advisor
(only person I can think of that I knew personally) seem pretty unwilling to
go out of their way for me. Not only are there technical issues with taking a
class twice, but I think auditing is also pretty expensive, and I wouldn't get
to take exams/do homework. Not to be overly negative on these two points, but
it's what happened, and this kind of general (even basic) lack of support has
been really tough for me.

The last one is a neat angle - maybe I'll expand my search to include things
like that, thanks!

~~~
gte910h
>Sadly the lack of informing me about LTD or any options was the
"communication issue" I mentioned about my former workplace. In addition,
they're no longer in business

If there was a policy covering you, them being out of business may not matter
there. Something to check into at least (sounds like you might have already).

Good luck!

------
xijuan
Btw, I like your username, Tabula_Rasa. I guess you want to say that you are
like a blank slate now?

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
Thanks, thought it was appropriate :D

I was about a year ago. Acted like a teenager in the beginning! I've since
developed a few scribbles here and there ;)

------
logn
I don't know anything about this medical condition, but if I were looking to
rebuild my brain/skills, I'd go here:

<http://projecteuler.net/problems>

You can do the problems in whatever language you want. That would help you re-
learn both the language and programmatic thinking. After that it's just re-
learning APIs and design patterns right?

~~~
venomsnake
Project euler is awesome. Maybe the OP should try learning something close but
not quite to her original skills - like FP or golang in hope that the new
stuff will help unearth and reconcile with the old.

All my best wishes for her.

Talking about patterns - yesterday I saw the phrase "strong track record with
MVC" in a job listing. My head almost explode ...

~~~
logn
> Talking about patterns - yesterday I saw the phrase "strong track record
> with MVC" in a job listing. My head almost explode

Ha, I hesitated mentioning design patterns. So much of it is bogus and
overblown, but there's definitely some skill at organizing an application that
must be learned.

Also, I vote for learning JavaScript. I think your point on learning slightly
different skills is great. It might be like trying to re-read a book you
started and stopped and have no idea where you left off. Why not pick up a new
book?

------
hopeless
Like almost everyone else here, I have no real experience or education in this
area but...

Have you set yourself a realistic expectation? Honestly think about this.

If you've lost 4years of learning, is it reasonable to expect that you can get
back to the same place in the space of a short internship or course? No, I
really don't think so. I doubt it will take 4 years either but I think you
need to set yourself a reasonable expectation so as not to stress/depress/burn
yourself out. Perhaps 1-2years?

What were you working on 4 years ago? Was there a side project or something at
that time which you could revisit. Ease yourself into it and practice the
skills you still have (i.e., your 4-years-ago self). Maybe that's a month or
two. Then look at growing your skills from that position. DO NOT look at where
you were just before the amnesia and try to get back to that. You might even
take a different path.

------
alexsilver
Hey there! First off, really sorry this happened to you but it looks like
you're definitely on the path to recovery - you're not just wallowing in
depression and actively looking for solutions! Stay strong and keep it up,
soon this will all look like a bizarre dream. :)

Where are you based? You mentioned you're in US, if you're in the NYC area
give me a shout! I'm a gal coder too, would definitely meet up for some
"coding sessions". I'm currently also learning some web stuff like JavaScript
so we'd be in the same boat and help each other. I can also do Skype/chat
sessions if we can't meet face-to-face so let me know!

Stay strong and try to look on the positive side. Things will definitely just
go up from here! If not, there's always lolcats to lift the mood :)

------
bkanber
I'm currently hiring at my company. If you want to have a chat we can try to
see if an internship or a part-time job with us would make sense for you. Just
let me know! Wishing you the best of luck!

------
mooism2
Are there any local user groups in the technologies you used to use?

(a) They may put on tech talks, and these may be useful for relearning some of
the knowledge you've lost.

(b) You can network, and possibly then find a company that understands your
situation... although I suspect this is more of a long shot.

Btw, if you tell us which city you are based in/near, which technologies you
used to use, and give us a (new, pseudonymous) e-mail address to contact you
on, somebody here may be able to help with (b)... again, this is probably a
bit of a long-shot.

------
zyphon
I'd recommend having a mentor over your shoulder (or available online.) It's
hard enough to get started the first time around without battling your own
brain. Frustration to the point of being painful is how I'd describe it, and
the fix (for me) is to have someone there to spend 5 minutes describing how
[esoteric thing] works instead of banging my head against intangible
frustrations.

Start on meetup.com and hackerspaces.org or just google for <city/state>
<topic> user group.

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
Thanks for the advice, and getting the mentor thing! I went to a Ruby meetup a
few months ago, but I didn't have my laptop so I just ended up standing around
awkwardly. I've been meaning to look for other groups though, and things that
could be a bit more friendly and less opened ended such as talks, workshops,
and so forth.

------
httpitis
> how to deal with the burden of this

Maybe I don't understand your situation well enought but is this really what
you want to do?

I got interested in software development when I was 13 years old. Since then
I''ve done software devlopoment both as a hobby and professionally. Now, in my
mid 40's I work as a software developer and I'm having the time of my life!

My $.02 would be (as others in the thread has recommended) to take it slow.
Also, try different things and focus on the things you find exciting!

------
kemofo
First you'll need to decide where you want to be and when that is, i.e. set
some goals. Next, exhaustively assess your remaining skill set in order to
figure out what you don't know. Third, devise a plan for getting to your goal.
Last, be willing to alter the plan as you learn and grow.

This might seem oversimplified, because it is. The plan is simple, the reality
of execution is not.

------
droopyEyelids
I know you wanted to skip over the details to get the heart of your problem,
but amnesia is one of the most interesting aliments I know of, and if you feel
comfortable sharing any of the details, I'll read them in rapt attention
without sharing any pushy opinions or giving un-asked-for advice! (I'm a bit
of a biology of the brain nerd!)

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
No no, it's a fair question. I'm generally quite open to discussing what it's
been like for me since I got amnesia. I do have quite a few anecdotes. I know
it's not quite the same for everyone but I do have some classic symptoms that
people screw up when they get "Hollywood Amnesia" - my older memories are more
intact, presumably due to neuroplasticity, but without giving it much thought
one may assume that the newer memories, being fresher, are the ones that are
more intact.

A lot of things ended up going into more procedural memory than I was
expecting. I can't actually tell you how I was able to still log into my
online accounts with my password - I suspect muscle memory has a lot to do
with it. I often will have a sense if I knew a person if I see a picture of
them or I read their name, but sometimes linking it further than that goes
nowhere. Music/language is interesting, yet mostly expected. You're probably
familiar with the case of Scott Adams, who worked on overcoming Spasmodic
dysphonia using a nursery rhyme. So certainly different pathways there - I
will remember tunes, lyrics (even in languages that I can barely use anymore),
but not the context, artist, etc. I can read all the non-latin scripts that I
used to be able to read.

------
alimoeeny
It must be very hard,

but make sure at least on the medical/psychiatric side you are getting the
best professional help you can,

on the tech/career side, if it was me I start with basic Internship and work
my way up, this time I am sure it will be much faster and possibly after a
month or two you may find your confidence/skills improving exponentially.

------
jason_slack
I dont have a job for you, but I have a lot of C++ and other programming
books. I'd be happy to send you some if they would be useful.

------
peterjancelis
Stories like this is why I am really focused on becoming financially
independent asap. All the best to you, OP.

------
darrikmazey
i can't offer an internship or any really sound advice, but my email is in my
profile, and i can offer mentorship and answers to questions from a software
developer of over 20 years. feel free to contact me if that will help.

------
orangethirty
Shoot me an email, I might be able to help with an internship.

------
lonetwin
I do not claim to know much about the condition, nor can claim to understand
what it might be for you. However, trying to put myself in your shoes, in
whatever manner possible, I can think of a few things:

a. Get in touch with people with similar problems and learn from their
experiences.

As I read this, I remembered the story I read not too long ago:

[http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/mayank-sharma-
amnes...](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/13/mayank-sharma-amnesia-
facebook_n_1772944.html)

[http://www.facebookstories.com/stories/32/mayank-sharma-
his-...](http://www.facebookstories.com/stories/32/mayank-sharma-his-illness-
and-recovery)

..and his blog:

<http://opensourcebrain.geekybodhi.net/>

Now, although the situation is not quite the same, only slightly similar (in
terms of loss of memory), it serves as an example. Social networks work
excellent as a support group in situations such as these. Not only does it
help to learn from people out there who are dealing with the same issue, but
also technically speaking -- reusing existing resources is the most optimal
and efficient way to (re)build something - be it software or one's life :)

b. Decide on a longer term objective first. A couple of examples:

* You probably are in an unique position to think about how to use technology to help people who are affected by the problems you are facing. Does that appeal to you ? If it does, can you think of a way to use technology as a means to build a platform/app/resource ...etc ?

* If not that, try to answer, what would you like to do ? What, in your definition is a 'software developer' -- do you want to get back to exactly what you were doing earlier ? Or do you want to explore technologies that you probably never worked on before ? ...and why ?

c. When you've got a rough idea of a longer term objective, you shall
hopefully know what are the short-to-mid term goals you'd have to achieve in
terms of the necessary skills. Write them out. Prioritize and then get
cracking.

I know it is easy for me to say it and although I don't suffer from amnesia,
every once in a while I try to 'brush up' skills that I don't use in my daily
work (read: C :) ) and I suspect that I do. So, I share (at least) a bit of
your frustration -- exactly as you said -- "I’ll probably be rolling my eyes
at how simple some things are but also getting stuck on relatively basic
things until they click again."

...though, I do not think there is another way to approach (re)learning.

d. Do you have access to any of your own code ? ie: code you have written from
scratch yourself (as opposed to collaborated on). I would imagine re-
reading/re-implementing bits of that might help. I say this because,
experience has led me to believe that every programmer has a very individual
'coding style'. Much like prose, coders tend to express themselves in a manner
that can be identified as their writing. From choice of variable names, to
control flow. Relearning the technologies you knew might be easier if you did
it with your own code.

e. Understand that university education will only help you gain a certain
level of self-confidence in your abilities. To actually learn anything, you
have to 'do'. So github might serve you better than coursera.

f. As far as employment is concerned, that is a different question than the
're-learning' process -- others have suggested options and I do not have any
opinion to offer there except that putting your code out there (eg: on github)
as well as progress (eg: a blog) might help.

wish you the very best \- steve

------
L0j1k
Honesty is the best policy. While it's reasonable that you can't expect an
employer to "price" you to include those years of experience that are now
gone, any employer that treats you badly or as though you were smoking weed on
your couch for those four years is an employer you do not want to work for in
the first place. If you are as dedicated, honest, and hard-working as you say,
you'll be a desirable hire regardless of your circumstances. Also, don't let
this situation eat you up: I lost six years of development experience to
infantry combat deployments that I could not avoid. That's not fair, but
life's not fair. If you treat this like a challenge instead of a detriment,
you _will_ be a stronger and better person than the next guy (or gal). Chin
up, and best of luck to you. :)

~~~
Tabula_Rasa
Thanks for the support :) It sounds like you were able to get back into things
after the deployment then?

~~~
L0j1k
Yes, certainly, though I must mention that things were never quite "back to
normal" after all that time over there. I've resigned myself to probably
always being affected by those tours in some form or another. But again, I'm
stronger through courage, perseverance and force of will than almost anyone I
know (excepting naturally tough people who have seen more than their share of
life challenges -- such as other veterans, or you, five years from now). I
firmly stand behind the adage that what doesn't kill you makes you stronger.
:)

------
wnight
Learn quickly. Don't waste your time on 'blub' twice. If you can't live-code
in it it's not worth using, let alone making a student use.

Legitimize yourself enough to cover for anything. Take the pressure off.
Perhaps find friendly independent consultants at local gatherings and get
assistant jobs. A few current references from active professionals in your
field is worth more than 3+ year old history anyways. Just remember to follow
instructions accurately and you'll be a great assistant at almost anything.

A strong showing now is what matters. Be what you are now. Always be working
to improve anyways and don't worry about rebuilding things like they were.

------
__del__
Clever girl.

