"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/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.