Asklemmy

Some advice that has taken me over a decade to learn myself:

There are no rules, the titles are made up, the responsibilities and requirements do no matter.

Get what you can from your job, and once you get something do your Best even if that best sucks, and stay until you have gotten what you want out of the job, or realize you can't or don't want to do it anymore, and then start again doing something else.

Don't ever limit yourself thinking you need to "level up" or something needs to get unlocked.

Learn by doing, try your best, you will make things that suck sometimes, but as you do more and more you should be making things better.

In this industry, change is the only constant and your ability to learn, grow, and adapt is going to be more important than any singular technology you can learn.

I can promise you're not as stupid as you may feel you are. You've made it a year, and that means something.

I've been pushing myself hard to get some certifications to really deepen my skill set. You may find that's valuable to you, or you may not. I've found that it's improved my ability to take a step back and understand the systems I'm building from an architectural perspective. It's been helpful for me.

I've helped coach interns and new hires at my company before. I actually like when they ask me questions even if it's something I've answered before, because it shows me that they want to learn. And even better is when they ask "why do it that way?", because it forces me to check my own understanding of the problem set. It also means that I can really dig into the explanation and hopefully they walk away with at least one more tool in their toolbox.

The problem with small shops, and I have a lot of experience here, having spent my first ten years in a development shop where I was the only developer, you need exposure to other environments, other ideas, other technologies and frameworks in order to grow.

I would be looking for other jobs right now. It might take a while in this environment (I've got 25 years experience and been out of work for 3 months, so it's rough finding a job now) and you aren't going to really grow while you're stuck where you are, unless you are learning from an expert in a lucrative niche (and that's still dangerous long term if that niche dies - I spent half my career on Lotus Notes and worked hard to redefine myself as a Java dev).

If it takes you a year to find the right opportunity, it's best to start now, right? That said, you're a junior developer and it takes probably 5-8 years of experience to become a senior dev and command a reasonable salary.

The reality here is simple actually. Try to get another -better- job and, when you succeed, you can consider yourself "ready" because your peers evaluated your skills and they consider you good enough for the job.

Self doubt happens, don't worry. Look to learn your tools, find good teachers and mentors, but don't let it stop your tries for better positions.

Now.

Nothing is stopping you from testing the waters and applying to jobs constantly until you find something better. Maybe keep a dream job or two in your back pocket until the timing is perfect, but may as well apply to other places to test your marketability.

You're always gonna feel stupid. Once you master this part of your job you'll feel stupid about the next part, it never stops.

Honestly, your job doesn’t matter. Study the absolute hell out of leetcode and do mock interviews. Then, when you feel confident you’ll know you’re ready.

One year is nothing.

Learn as much as you can from the people around you at your current position.

Find a new technology or existing one you want to improve/learn and create a project out of it that you can do at home.

Look for ways to improve your productivity.

Become a SME.

One day you will own a project, helping the new guy and be the person people come to if they have questions.

Put in the time. You’ll find your way.

Just do it. Let them tell you.

I also started on a very small company. Worked there as Junior developer for about 3 years. I was on the same spot as you are right now. One day, I received a call from a friend who started working on a bigger company in a different state (I live in Brazil), saying they were hiring. I figured I could at least try their technical tests to see where should I improve.

So I applied for the junior position. They thought my test solution was good, so I got to the interview phase. To my surprise, the interview was not for the junior position, but for the medior one (don't know the correct term, but higher than junior but lower than senior), and receive the job proposal on the next week.

I agree with @MagicShel@programming.dev's comment: "you need exposure to other environments, other ideas, other technologies and frameworks in order to grow". And it goes both ways. Without testing yourself, you'll never know how much you did grow and where you are.

So, my advice to you is: do not wait until you feel "ready" to do the move. It may "click" too late. If you want to move on, just do it. At least you will test yourself, and know how to correct your course, if you need to aim higher ou lower than originally intended.

It's never too early. If you see an interesting job posting reach out and go thorough the process. At worst you learn a bit about what they were looking for and gain some interview experience. At best you get a job offer. Even if you decide not to take the offer you learn a bit about the positions available to you.

It costs effectively nothing to apply. Just a few hours of your time.