This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Andrew Moody
when I first started out as a developer, I felt like an outsider. I didn’t come to the job right out of college with a CS degree behind me. I had taught myself, by reading books and a good deal of learning from practical application.
While my colleagues it seemed, were moving around in the codebase with no issue I was questioning everything:
💭 Am I overthinking this?
💭 What if they figure out I don’t know what I’m doing?
💭 Does a real developer look up this much?
I didn’t ask a lot of questions, because I thought that I had to prove that I could do it on my own. Therefore, I used to work at nights and on weekends in order to try and bridge the gap, which I assumed every other person had closed.
One day though, I realized something. I have just found a bug and not only did I know how to fix it, I just pushed the code. Without overthinking, without a second thought. This was the moment I thought to myself: I have every right to be here.
It wasn’t about knowing all the answers. It was about knowing how to look for the answers. And here’s the thing: Guess what? Looking for information is a form of intelligence. Even the most experienced developers do it. If I could give my past self one piece of advice, it would be this:
👉 You shouldn’t try to be the smartest person in the room. You just have to keep on learning.
That’s why I am interested – when did you finally think that you actually knew what you were doing as a developer?
Or are you still searching for that moment? Let’s talk about it in the comments! ⬇️
This content originally appeared on DEV Community and was authored by Andrew Moody
Andrew Moody | Sciencx (2025-03-07T22:46:37+00:00) The time I Realized I was No Longer an Impostor In the workplace. Retrieved from https://www.scien.cx/2025/03/07/the-time-i-realized-i-was-no-longer-an-impostor-in-the-workplace/
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