
Ask HN: Am I an imposter software engineer? - throwaway-aaaaa
I learned to code because my company desperately needed engineers. Learning was very slow, and I was never good enough to contribute. Then, I built a (crappy) side project that got some surprising traction, and found myself briefly &quot;CTO&quot; of a startup! We hired some engineers, and though I kept writing code I was not the CTO. The startup failed. This process repeated itself a few more times.<p>I&#x27;ve now been writing code full-time for 6 years, but always in the same language! I&#x27;ve written hello world apps in a handful of languages and I understand the basic concepts, but every time I start to build a new project, I feel like such a newbie in a new language. I hate googling to debug syntax for  some trivial task when I could already have finished the whole project. I also have to go through the learning curve all over again to come up with best practices for that language.<p>I&#x27;ve worked with a bunch of frameworks, DBs, distros, VCS, etc, so I don&#x27;t think I&#x27;m incapable of learning. There&#x27;s just something different about your core language.<p>I fell into doing some part-time contracting work 2 years ago, and I was shocked when a company agreed to pay me $100&#x2F;hr. Fast forward 2 years later and now I charge $250&#x2F;hr. I made $400k USD cash last year working reasonable hours. Everything I can find says I&#x27;m <i>really</i> well paid. My friends with CS degrees from MIT&#x2F;Waterloo don&#x27;t make this much.<p>The company I consult for the most has asked me to come on full time. They&#x27;re offering to pay me what I made last year, with more stability and benefits. They want my title to be Principal Architect. A lot of the engineers I work with here come from big software companies you know of, went to great schools, are experts in many languages, etc. They don&#x27;t make nearly as much as I do. They know my code, but not my background.<p>Am I an imposter? I don&#x27;t even feel like I meet the bar for &quot;Software Engineer&quot;!
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flukus
Doesn't seem like you have an issue writing code, nothing wrong with googling
for answers if you apply them correctly. You meet the bar for "Software
Engineer" but I'd be skeptical of "Principal Architect", it doesn't sound like
you have much experience designing and building complex systems.

I hate the term software engineer though, what most of us do isn't
engineering. I stick with the software developer title myself.

> My friends with CS degrees from MIT/Waterloo don't make this much.

CS typically doesn't cover many/most of the real world skills needed for
software development. They might learn a lot of stuff you don't know, but very
little of it will be applicable in most software development roles. I've
worked with CS grads that couldn't code their way out of a paper bag, even if
you aren't writing "good" code, it sounds like you're writing functional code,
which is infinitely more valuable.

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danielvf
You are well paid - rock on!

Who cares though if you are or are not a "real" software engineer or not. You
are clearly creating value in the world.

Given that you've been working for the company for a while as a freelancer, I
think the person hiring you has a pretty good idea of your relative
productivity. It's certainly possible to be 5x more productive than your
average developer - and schools have little to do with that.

Good luck and have fun!

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DefaultUserHN
Typical symptoms of Imposter Syndrome. Meditation can help to reduce the
effects of Imposter Syndrome.

