I’m dealing with a tough situation right now and need some perspective from the community.
I just got let go from a position after about 2 months. The CTO made this decision following a code review session with him and another mid-level developer. What really stung was when he told me my code quality was at junior level, even though I’ve been coding since mid-2020.
During my time there, I worked on a Next.js project with Tailwind CSS. I had to continue where another developer left off - the codebase was pretty messy when I started. I managed to build several key pages including the landing page, login/signup modals, and item detail views. I also reorganized the project structure, refactored the layout system, and rebuilt existing components while adding new ones.
I’ll admit that maybe I haven’t been growing consistently over these 5 years. The past year or two felt stagnant, and I spent almost a year working with React Native instead of web development. Also, the code they reviewed wasn’t my final polished version - it was more of a working draft focused on getting the UI looking good quickly as requested.
The feedback session was brief and didn’t include specific examples of what was problematic. Now I’m left wondering what I should learn from this experience beyond feeling discouraged. How do I move forward from here?
Five years of experience getting dismissed as junior level definitely warrants some reflection, but without concrete feedback it’s difficult to assess whether this was justified criticism or poor management. The fact that you were working with a messy inherited codebase and delivering working drafts under pressure suggests the evaluation may have been unfair. However, you mentioned feeling stagnant recently, which might indicate areas for improvement. Consider seeking out senior developers for mentorship or code reviews outside of work pressure situations. The React Native detour likely didn’t help your web development skills stay sharp. Moving forward, document your learning goals and actively work on advanced concepts like performance optimization, testing strategies, and architectural patterns. Some companies have unrealistic expectations or poor evaluation processes, but taking ownership of continuous improvement will serve you better than dwelling on this particular experience.
that sounds really frustrating, especially without specific feedback! what kind of coding practices or patterns were you using in that next.js project? im curious - did they mention anything about testing, component structure, or performance stuff during the review? sometimes different companies have wildly different standards too.
honestly this happens more than you think. ive seen devs with 8+ years still get called ‘junior’ by some companies becuase they dont match specific expectations. without concrete examples from that CTO its hard to know if it was actually your code or just company culture issues. maybe focus on getting better feedback in future interviews about their standards?