Another vote here for that sub. Helped me realise just how bad my junior developer job was, and gave me the knowledge and confidence to leave and find a pretty great new job.

They are a little... harsh there. It's hard to get through all the negativity, especially when you are looking for a job.

Harsh in what way? Some resume critiques have seemed a little rough to me, but generally speaking I haven't noticed too much negativity.

"It's easy to get a job in programming. If you are having problems you must be a moron. If you can't find a job, it must be your personality." ...But that's the whole point of asking for help. We want to be programmers and we want jobs, not to be treated like we're trying to take advantage of people. It's also a huge circlejerk, people are just gloating about how successful they are and picking on those who didn't get as lucky.

I've skimmed through the sub-reddit. He means that they are absolute in ways that are simply not true and could discourage a newbe.

That said, IMHO it's better to ask then to hold it to yourself. Here or on Reddit doesn't matter.

It's good to keep in mind that there are infinitely diversified ways through which people achieved "a successful career" (whatever that means).

Whenever I talk to successful people they just say it was easy for them so I must be stupid if I can't get things to work out for me. There doesn't seem to be any place for programmers to get actual advice on how to get jobs.