I Am a Self-Taught Software Engineer — And That Is Not a Weakness

I recently walked out of a technical interview early.

Not because I lacked experience. Not because I lied on my CV. But because something familiar surfaced — the quiet, corrosive belief that maybe I don’t belong here at all.

I’ve spent my entire career as a self-taught software engineer. No formal degree. No prestigious institution. Just years of building, breaking, fixing, shipping, and carrying responsibility for real systems used by real people.

And yet, in interviews, that story often collapses into doubt.

The Unspoken Bias in Technical Interviews

Many interviews reward recall, not competence.

• Trivia over judgment
• Perfect articulation over lived experience
• Clean answers over battle-tested intuition

Self-taught engineers often don’t think in textbook phrasing. We think in systems, trade-offs, failure modes, and recovery paths.

That doesn’t always translate under pressure — especially when the room expects a specific vocabulary instead of a working mind.

Using Search Engines and AI Is Not Cheating

I’ve used search engines my entire career. Now I use AI.

So does every competent engineer I know.

Modern software engineering is not about memorization. It is about:

• Knowing what to look for
• Understanding why a solution works
• Recognizing when it will fail
• And owning the outcome when it does

Tools don’t replace skill. They amplify it.

Why This Feels Like Failure (But Isn’t)

When you’re self-taught, every setback feels existential.

If you fail an interview, it’s easy to think:

“This proves I was never good enough.”

If a startup doesn’t work:

“This confirms I’m a fraud.”

But here’s the uncomfortable truth: Impostors don’t survive in production environments for years.

They don’t lead teams. They don’t ship systems. They don’t fix outages at 2am. They don’t accumulate scar tissue.

People who don’t belong don’t last this long.

What I’m Learning (Slowly)

• Interviews are a narrow lens — not a verdict
• Self-taught does not mean underqualified
• Depth is often invisible until it’s needed
• Building real things matters more than performing well

And perhaps most importantly: Walking away from environments that trigger shame is not weakness. It is self-respect.

If You’re Reading This and Feeling the Same

You’re not alone. You’re not late. You’re not a fraud.

You’re someone who learned by doing — and that kind of knowledge runs deep, even when it’s hard to explain under a spotlight.

I’m still here. Still building. Still learning.

And that, quietly, is the opposite of failure.