My perception of interviewing

I had an interview this week.

They said, “Alright… next up, questions to prove you can actually code.”

I laughed, but yeah… it stung just a little.

Not because I can’t, but because I learned it the slow way. No shortcuts, and no AI doing it for me. Just me, my screen, and a lot of 2am debugging 💻 Plus, a lot of help from a trusty mentor.

Figuring things out across code, VS, Linux, bash… getting lost in AWS ☁️, breaking things in Terraform, then rebuilding them. GitHub becoming a knight in shining armor. Somewhere in that, learning to adapt because nothing ever works the same way twice 🔁

So how much do I actually know ? I suppose that's why it stung, a glimmer of self doubt.

And I get it.

We’re in a time where things can look impressive without being understood. I have aimed for understanding over flashy products.

However, the current trend is go big or go home...

I’m not the best software engineer. Not yet…hah!

Even still, forever learning how to build, how to adapt, and how to use AI without depending on it 🤖

Sometimes I wish I could move faster.

But I’d rather understand than just generate.

Because even if it’s slower… at least it’s real.

The irony? I used AI to design this image but the words are mine. I guess that’s the world we live in. I still want my voice to be my own 💙

And if you made it this far I accepted an internship this week. Paperwork’s in progress 🌻🥹