
I Am Not a Real Programmer - evo_9
https://dev.to/andygeorge/i-am-not-a-real-programmer-1ogo
======
Pinbenterjamin
Another imposter syndrome article.

I agree that the condition is real, but at some point we all have to take
responsibility and control of our own careers.

Chances are, you were hired and qualified for the position you hold, with the
understanding that there is room to grow within that position, and ideally,
that is where you want to be your whole career.

Walking in to work everyday with a complete mastery over everything you do and
write is a problem of its own.

For those odd jobs that are somewhere between support and development, calling
yourself 'not a real programmer' is a ridiculous mentality to have. Being able
to comb through a codebase to insert 5-10 lines of code that fix an issue is a
delicate art. I know because I did it for 5 years. Editing black boxes is
scary, especially in those instances where tests are scarce.

Embrace your role, and do the best you can. You will be happier for it.

~~~
Delmania
> I agree that the condition is real, but at some point we all have to take
> responsibility and control of our own careers.

Impostor Syndrome is, or has, become like Asperger's, where every dev thinks
they have it. It's a "humblebrag". I honestly tell people I mentor, be
confident, but humble. You have this job because you're qualified (or you made
yourself qualified), so have confidence in your skills - sit up right, answer
questions, take ownership. But also be humble. Don't be afraid to say I don't
know, admit you don't know everything about developing.

It's OK To say "I don't know, but I'm doing my best, and if I did, I could
answer you."

~~~
gizmo385
Maybe this is me being in a bubble or something, but I've never heard a
developer (in school or at work) claim to have Aspergers. I've encountered
many software developers who have experienced Imposter Syndrome.

~~~
HashHishBang
It came weirdly into vogue around 2013-2014 I think? It wasn't a massive thing
but I do remember it coming up far, far more often than it has before or
after.

------
honkycat
I'm all for not gatekeeping who "real" programmers are. But I feel like we are
doing entry-level developers a disservice when we repeat "Learn to code, it's
easy FREE MONEY!" It's not. It's a slog. Programming gets very boring
sometimes. It takes time.

Anybody else sick of the "Just gluing stuff together" and "I just copy and
paste from stackoverflow hahaha" lines? It does not reflect my day-to-day at
all. Whenever I hear someone say that, it shows they are early in their career
or they are not spending their time learning outside of hacking together code.

More than anything, I find that NOBODY has already done what I'm currently
doing, and that online resources other than primary documentation is mostly
useless.

Programming is hard because you have to be constantly learning and there is SO
MUCH TO LEARN. Not just programming languages, or mathematics, although THAT
is a whole mountain to climb in itself. But other skills:

\- Communication, both internally and with customers

\- Project management, requirements gathering

\- Writing good documentation

\- Management, mentoring new developers

\- Marketing

\- Leadership

\- Other random software and tools that are NOT programming.

And NONE of this knowledge is going to come without study. We have worked hard
to develop technologies and techniques to try and increase the probability of
our projects succeeding.

"If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a
lot and write a lot. There's no way around these two things that I'm aware of,
no shortcut." \- Stephen King

To be a great ANYTHING means being a great student first. Which means it
behooves you to study and learn from the past before charging ahead.

~~~
commandlinefan
> Programming gets very boring sometimes

Not to be contrary, but I've never found _programming_ to be boring. What I've
found to be the biggest frustration of working as a professional programmer
(25 years now) is the expectation that programming, shared by apparently
everybody who doesn't program for a living, that programming is easy as long
as you've read the "learn programming in 24 hours for dummies" book and put
ridiculously unrealistic expectations on anybody who calls themselves a
programmer of any level of experience. And, in my experience, protecting that
what they're asking for is unreasonable is a waste of breath - "I can't
deliver that in that time frame because I still don't even know what it is" is
always met with "you have to, figure it out, lowly programmer".

------
navd
I think like anything else, there are tiers to this profession. It's fair for
someone in this position to call themselves a programmer but I think the OP is
doing themselves an injustice by not taking the time to actually learn how to
write code. Writings like this are fine, but a point should be made that
progressing ones skillset is just as important as getting into the profession.

Otherwise, we support the notion that you don't need to learn how to solve
problems to be a "Programmer". Which at its essence, is what a "Programmer"
is.

~~~
jenscow
I believe this why "coding interviews" are so controversial. Different people
perhaps have a different definition of "programmer".

One person may think a "programmer" should know how to design/implement
algorithms, while another would say algorithms are a library implementation
issue.

~~~
navd
I agree that may be part of it.

I think coding interviews are fine as long as they aren't insane like what you
see a lot these days. We just need a good metric on how to know if the person
I'm interviewing can solve general problems, my problems, and has the appetite
to grow more.

That's really hard.

~~~
mattnewport
I still find a big part of coding interviews to be just looking at the quality
of someone's code. The problem I've used for years as a take home coding test
is not intended to be a test of ability to implement any particularly complex
algorithms or to solve unfamiliar problems on the spot but more to see how
people write code in the small. Many candidates still don't make a great
showing on the basics unfortunately.

------
stupidcar
It seems like a significant subset of the developer community, or at least
that proportion of that posts online, is hung up on questions of identity as
related to their career. E.g. whether they're a programmer or not, whether
they're a "real" programmer, whether they're a skilled programmer, why type of
programmer they are, and all manner of critique of _others_ answers to these
questions and the set of assumptions and prejudices that underlie them.

While I can understand the instincts that drive this phenomenon, does anyone
else not think it's all a bit self-absorbed and unnecessary? Like, why is it
so important? Is your self-actualisation really so dependent on how you label
the activities by which you make money? Bear in mind, to the vast majority of
the population, the difference between somebody who "is" a programmer and
somebody programs as part of an IT role is a barely existent irrelevance.

~~~
commandlinefan
I think it's partly driven by fear - a fear that I myself share in spite of
having a degree (or maybe because I have a degree?) that the standards are
going to change, the ground is going to shift underneath their feet and
they'll find themselves no longer employable as programmers, or as anything
else after having nothing except programming in their background.

~~~
mikelyons
Every failed interview feels like this has already happened. Which is really
not good for someone with a history of depression.

------
jakeinspace
This guy is definitely a programmer ("real" is a silly qualifier imo).
However, he might want to reconsider calling himself a systems engineer, when
it sounds like he means a sys admin (those are quite different things).

------
tombert
I try to not call myself a "programmer" for the same reason I try to not put
specific languages or platforms on my resume: I don't want to be pigeonholed
into a single category. I don't like saying I'm a "Java Engineer" or an "F#
programmer", since I want to be free to move around as needed.

Nowadays, usually when people ask what I do, I tell them that I'm an
eccentric. This started as a joke, but I honestly feel that it has led to me
finding more interesting jobs than I'd have had if I had just said I'm a
"programmer".

~~~
52-6F-62
I understand completely.

I usually describe myself as a Software Engineer or Software Architect because
of the projects I undertake.

My current job title: _Digital Publishing Programmer_.

What does that mean: HR processes made it complicated-to-impossible to hire
someone for generalist software purposes because it didn't comply with
regulated pay schedules within the parent company. In other words, it doesn't
really mean anything explicitly.

------
mikelyons
Impostor syndrome is just impostor syndrome until suddenly you do 20
interviews and nobody will hire you and you don't understand why.

------
gnode
I think the tragedy here, is that people need to view themselves as
"programmers" (by which I assume they mean software engineers) to feel
valuable. It's like a paramedic / EMT arguing that they are "surgeons" because
they perform some surgical procedures in the course of their work; that the
bulk of surgery is cutting and stitching. The reality is that there is more to
being a surgical doctor than performing surgery, yet a paramedic is still
saving lives.

Rather than everyone trying to put themselves in the "programmer" box, and
everyone saying "anyone is a programmer". Maybe the technicians need to see /
be shown how vital what they do is to the business.

------
RickJWagner
I think a lot of us hire into jobs we 'grow into'.

When you find you've reached your level of incompetence, it's probably time to
look for a way to move laterally. But if you find yourself still learning and
growing into your role, then you've still got room to move up.

