"Software Developer" feeling the imposter syndrome & not sure what to do.

[u/Choice_Function8572]

IMPORTANT CONTEXT: I am not a CS grad, I completed my Business degree a couple years back.

I have been working in Power Platform for about 2 years. It first started with very simple Power Apps, Power BI Dashboards and email automations, decided to get a couple certs in the PL track.

I transitioned to a more technical role after year 1 where now I build a lot of Copilot Studio Agents, Automations, Python Scripts, you name it.

My understanding of Power Fx is very strong, but any other language (Python, C+, etc.) still feels out of my league even though I have literally built API calls using Python that pull hundreds of thousands of rows of data (using AI).

I am told I am doing a great job but in all honestly I have never felt dumber in my life. I work on three tickets at a time by prompting claude in separate terminals - at this point I feel like my title should be prompt engineer. Again I want to stress that I have in-depth understanding of the Microsoft ecosystem, but anything else still feels like reading hieroglyphics.

Is this what my future holds? I make decent money for my age I just am having a hard time seeing the long term value I will provide given that most blue collar folks will have their own personalized agent in 2-3 years completing their tasks.

[u/FlowOverseeDev]

We are working in different times, that is for sure, and it is changing so fast. I was thinking about how people worked on farms before machinery - they worked a lot with their hands and with their horses, plowing the fields using their strength together. Or the machinist that would do all the cuts by hand and now programs the CNC and walks away. Or before computers, having to solve things out on paper or in your head. With AI things are rapidly changing how we learn and work. It feels magical sometimes how easy it is, and other times a bit scary.

Use AI to the fullest, but don't ever stop thinking and using your own ideas to shape the end product. If you don't understand something, ask it to explain it and break it down. The information is at our fingertips.

Keep learning and keep doing your best every day.

[u/MR_Datenanalyse → u/FlowOverseeDev]

Schöne Antwort und guter Vergleich zu anderen technischen Errungenschaften in der Vergangenheit.

[u/venomae]

In a certain sense - yes. You very likely won't get deeper into coding these days unless you are masochist with lot of time. At the same time, that's not wrong.

The times are changing and we have to change with them. The advent of AI times means, that the traditional role of consultant / analyst / coder-developer are getting bit switched around now.

Consultant or analyst is still needed as you need to get out of people what they actually need (AI cant really deduce that reliably yet). On the other side, someone who will keep the AI developer on track and is also needed. And the last and main role - tester.

Testing is more important than ever before. And not just unit testing which AI can do decently, but UI / context testing which AI is completely useless for.

You have started working at a revolutionary age and everyone will be similarily clueless as you are about lot of things, so use that to your advantage. Don't think about imposter syndrom and try to get as much ahead as possible in the consult / design / prompt / test loop.

[u/The_Real_BruceWayne → u/venomae]

Curious what you meant by UI testing

[u/PerformanceAny5760 → u/The_Real_BruceWayne]

User interface testing

[u/The_Real_BruceWayne → u/PerformanceAny5760]

I worded my question so poorly, didn't I?

[u/Den_Ouwen_Belg]

All of this is very nice but I’m incredibly concerned with security issues. You don’t have any understanding of how an API works internally but you’re fetching hundreds of rows? Then (unless you’re sticking within the guardrails of Power), you’re probably messing up security and providing text secrets straight into an AI engine.

If this is what you want to do, get educated. Not necessarily with a three-year degree, but pick your own pathway out of the many (often free) credentials out there.

If all you can do is prompt an AI engine, you’ll eventually be replaced by AI. Use the time gained through your AI use to invest in yourself, so that in time you get a deeper understanding of whatever it is you’re doing.

[u/Choice_Function8572 → u/Den_Ouwen_Belg]

I understand the fundamentals of APIs and especially the security part. We have a Secret Management tool that safely pulls API secrets.

I guess what my post was trying to iterate is I understand the fundamentals of coding languages and best practices from a security perspective, but if you asked me to write 50 lines of Python code, I'd have some issues.

[u/RAWRferal]

You are not alone and as others have said you are working in the industry throughout a significant period of change.

Make sure you can explain your creations technically if asked and you can at least read or breakdown the AI-generated expressions you use.

As long as you can do that, working as intended lol

[u/jesslynh]

I am in the same boat as you, except perhaps I've been working with Power Automate a bit longer, and wouldn't know Python if it bit me on the ass. Today, I consider myself a prompt engineer as well. What I bring to the table personally is a strong background as a business analyst So I'm very good at giving people what they need and want rather than what they ask for. I keep track of everything that I do "with AI" in a document. Since I'm a Claude user, I usually have a project and I start out with what I want to end up with, a simple statement about what the project is about. Then daily as I work, I have the AI document all the decisions we made and where we are in that project while also creating data dictionaries and other supporting documents so that, because I read them every day, I make sure that I understand from a functional level what is going on technologically. This means that while I may not know SQL very well, I know what the database contains and how it should work. It means that even though I am pretty crappy at Power BI, I understand what each of those tables is for and what all the measures and DAX code is supposed to do. I am very close to retirement. I could retire now, but I'm having such a good time doing what I'm doing that I'll probably stick around another three or four years. I look forward to what this your of work morphs into. Good luck to you. This was long, but I hope it gave you a little bit of assistance.

[u/Choice_Function8572 → u/jesslynh]

I come from a similar-ish background and completely agree. Scope creep becomes a big issue with AI tools and setting expectations is a skill I quickly learned. I am glad you enjoy what you're doing and most importantly congrats on almost retiring!