We’ve all worked with people who are great engineers and if they aren’t at a senior level in title they either should be or are on their way to becoming one quickly. The best way I can describe these people are they are the ones you want to go to when you need clarity. You want these people to review your code, not because they will just rubber stamp it but because it will make you more confident you didn’t miss something or make a mistake. You want these people in meetings to decide how long something will take to do and if it’s even worth the investment, you want these people around when something breaks, etc…

I don’t feel like I fit the description of this kind of person very well and it gives me massive imposter syndrome. I’ve always been more of a generalist so my breadth of knowledge is pretty wide but I don’t go too deep on any specific thing which I feel has become somewhat limiting. I don’t ever feel like I become the go to person for really much of anything and it makes me feel like I have to try even harder to prove myself. I attribute a lot of this to the fact that I just want my job to be my job, I want to go home and not continue to work or do side projects. A lot of the best people I’ve worked with have been the opposite, they live and breath work and honing their craft. I think I’ve hit an awkward point in my career where the amount of experience I have qualifies me to interview for senior level positions, but it’s not because of skill or knowledge, and this only becomes apparent after the interview.

I want to feel like I deserve the title and am contributing at the level I should be, and I would also like to not eat sleep and breath work. What can I do to work towards this?