The latest articles on DEV Community by starbowie (@starbowie). https://dev.to/starbowie https://media2.dev.to/dynamic/image/width=90,height=90,fit=cover,gravity=auto,format=auto/https:%2F%2Fdev-to-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fuploads%2Fuser%2Fprofile_image%2F243047%2F2bc9b319-d397-49a7-b4fb-7c641f3fec32.jpg https://dev.to/starbowie en starbowie Sat, 05 Oct 2019 02:21:53 +0000 https://dev.to/starbowie/software-engineer-or-not-56d https://dev.to/starbowie/software-engineer-or-not-56d <p>It is a chilly October night and I sit on my uncomfortable chair sipping captain Morgan with grapefruit soda. I am a professional software engineer working for a big car company. I write software for their electric vehicles. I just discovered this website and the first thing I did is to subscribe the beginners thread. Sigh.</p> <p>I did not do it because I wanted to refresh basics or help out new developers. I did it because I feel that I am not any better. I probably am, but that is not how I feel and that's important too. I have this feeling of having to prove myself to the super-mega-ultimate developer overlords (i.e any person who proclaims to be a developer). Is it low self programmer esteem? maybe, maybe not, but I know that despite having acquired good amount of knowledge in both my bachelors and masters in computer science I feel inferior to a person who has completed a crash course and written much more apps/ games in their own time. I do not do that. I do not code after work. I play video games and switch off my brain and binge porn/ Netflix. </p> <p>I probably should not publish this post. I don't even know why I garbled up these paragraphs. I plan to code at home for myself. Do you guys think that would change things for me? I am seeking a sense of belonging as a software engineer. It might be nice, to belong.</p> microservices java devops azure