How it all began…
I remember my first internship interview like it was yesterday — partly because of the trauma, but mostly because I laugh at how I managed to survive the entire 5-minute ordeal.
So, there I was, walking into the room, a bunch of tech gurus waiting for me with friendly smiles. I thought, Okay, not bad, this seems like a cozy tech family. Little did I know, the heat was about to crank up real quick.
They started introducing themselves, and these folks were like the Avengers of programming. Each one more impressive than the last. It was all fine until it was my turn. And that’s when things went from “Welcome to the team!” to “Welcome to hell! 🔥” in record time.
I kicked things off with, “Uh, this is my first time… please don’t go too hard on me.”😅😅 Trying to lighten the mood was my strategy, you know, to distract them from the fact that I didn’t really know what I was doing.
Then, like a pro, I rattled off my so-called tech stack: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, React, Python, and Flask. You know, the works. That’s when one of them — who I can only assume was the silent but deadly lead developer — asked, “So, you’re a full-stack developer?”
Pause.
Panic.
“Uh, yes… yes, I am,” I said, with a smile that didn’t reach my eyes. Full stack? More like **Empty **stack, but hey, fake it ‘til you make it, right?
So, we moved on. They asked me about my frontend work, and I proudly opened my laptop, ready to _blow them away… _with a PHP project. Yeah, you read that right — PHP. I had forgotten to mention that in my little "tech stack" spiel. Small detail, right?
Now, let’s get one thing straight: I didn't really build the project. I had, let’s say, borrowed it from GitHub (thanks, open-source world!). I'd done just enough Googling to sound like I knew what I was talking about — at least, that’s what I thought. Spoiler alert: I didn’t.
The whole demo lasted about 5 minutes, but it felt like 5 hours of cringe. One of the developers politely led me to the door, and with a smile that said “bless your heart,” they told me, “You’re welcome to come back anytime.”
But I had one burning question before I left. I asked, “What should I do to improve?”
The response was simple: Code and Code. Do more projects.
That was it. No secret sauce, no shortcuts. Just code.
A year has passed since that interview, and between hackathons, late nights, and networking, I no longer feel like a total imposter. Well, unless I run into senior developers — then my imposter syndrome comes back like an old friend ready to remind me who’s boss.
Moral of the story? You don’t have to know everything right away, but you have to be willing to learn and grow. Fake it if you must, but follow through by actually learning to code, not just memorizing tech stacks for interviews!
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