Overcoming imposter syndrome as a Self-Taught Developer
Today, I was at my local coffee shop, following along with a PHP tutorial. For the past two years, my learning process has involved watching tutorials and then trying to replicate the projects on my own. Sometimes, instead of following a tutorial step-by-step, I’d just Google what I wanted to create and work through it line by line until I finished the project. I’ve heard this approach referred to as “question-driven development.”
I often doubted my ability to become a software engineer because it felt like I was just spending hours Googling rather than actually “knowing” things. I’d think to myself, “This isn’t what software engineering is. Real developers must already know all this stuff — I have a long way to go.”
But about an hour after I finished today’s tutorial, I was watching some of my favorite content creators on YouTube, and one of them shared that he was recently hired as a Vue developer, even though he only has experience with React.
I’ve been following this developer for a while, so I knew he had zero experience with Vue. Yet, when he was put on the spot for a job, the hiring manager told him, ‘Since you already know React, I’m confident you can just Google what you need to get up to speed with Vue. You’re hired.’ He mentioned that the interview only lasted 10 minutes. His experience made me reflect: if all he needs to do is Google what’s necessary to do the job, how is that different from me Googling what I want to create and then building it?
As I was leaving the coffee shop, I bumped into a developer I know locally here in northern Atlanta. During our conversation, I shared my thoughts about someone being hired for a tech stack they weren’t familiar with, and just Googling what they needed to know along the way. I asked him what he thought about that. He told me that in his 10-year career as a software engineer, he relies on Google every day. He said, “None of us can possibly remember all these technical concepts — we’re human, not robots. What’s important is understanding the basics and knowing how to find the rest.”
His words made me reflect on my own journey of learning software engineering over the past two years. I’ve often doubted myself, thinking I’m not a real engineer because of imposter syndrome. But now I’m starting to realize that maybe I’ve been more of an engineer all along than I gave myself credit for.
So, if you’re on a self-taught journey like me, don’t be afraid to embrace the process of learning as you go. Remember, every great developer started where you are now — keep pushing forward, and trust that you’re becoming the engineer you’re meant to be.
