My Journey to Become a Better Backend Engineer

Hi everyone! this is my first post here on dev. About 4 days ago I realized I'm stuck as a mid-level backend engineer, and honestly, not even a good one. Some background: I have a CS degree and started working as a software engineer in 2022. I spent a year and a half at a financial company, then moved to one in the tourism industry, and now I work at a client-based company doing multiple projects. For a while I've felt like my growth here is blocked, so I started looking for another job. That search made me realize something uncomfortable: I've been relying on AI way too much. So now I'm trying to cut down on AI for my tasks, and I've decided to build a couple of projects that'll actually challenge me and help me learn. I've got two projects in mind: a stock exchange engine and a collaborative music production system. I'll share how it goes, including the parts I get wrong! (English isn't my first language, so I used AI to help polish the wording. The story and the projects are all mine.)