What engineering is really about.

From the outside we look really smart. We talk about [insert something nerdy here] without having to google it. We are inventing all sorts of technology that was sci-fi only material. We can explain exactly how [insert a device] works in our sleep. We are after all engineers.

From the inside the view is completely different, as a matter of fact, the opposite. We are not unicorns or superheroes. As a matter of fact if it weren't for Google and StackOverflow we would be utterly hopeless. Here is what typically happens in our typical days

You start a new project, we get really excited about the impact you are going to have... blah ,blah. Then we get a bug, you estimated it will only take five minutes to fix. That cool-little-world-changing application isn't working, at least not as it is expected. Looking at your code you are really convinced that it should be working , except that it doesn't. Not even Stack overflow knows why. So you go get coffee hoping that the break from your desk will refresh your perspective. It doesn't, so you do all sorts of things , watch an episode of [insert your favourite show], browse through 9gag, open 100 tabs on the same topic and forget which one is the useful one and the list goes on. Then it hits you, what if its not your fault? What if the bug is in the operating system,(you become pretty convinced its another Microsoft bug) , what if its in the API's you are calling? What if its in the hardware? What if your code is experiencing stage fright? Then you realize if that were true, it should have been reported a long time ago. Common sense is restored, but then its too late, so you sleep on it, disappointed, hoping to be smarter tomorrow.
And indeed, you wake up with lots of plausible hypotheses, try them until finally the error message changes. Progress! Project cool-little-world-changing application is awesome again, hope is restored. It doesn't even bother you that it took you one day to solve it, you are just too high.


The above scenario is the definition of engineering. An engineer doesn't have all the answers but connects the dots to create. In many cases, you are trying to solve a problem that you let alone don't have a solution to, you don't know if a solution exists. Impostor syndrome will kick in a lot , for obvious reasons.

At the end of day it wont matter, cause a you learnt a lot and you are going to feel like a superhero then laugh at how stupid you had been. You'll be comforted to know that almost every other engineer goes through the same cycle.

Welcome to tech. Stay in tech. We are not super smart intimidating people, we are just up for the challenge and willing to learn ( and a little bit of show-off braggarts).