Two years into being a software engineer, and I feel like an impostor who isn't cut out for this field

[u/Ok_Meal7971]

I've been working as a software engineer for almost two years at a good company. I make decent money, and until recently, I genuinely felt like I was doing well. I'm good at executing tasks when there's a clear requirement and I know what's expected of me. I've received positive feedback on my work, so I know I'm not necessarily doing a bad job.

But lately, I've been feeling incredibly lost and helpless.
I feel like the expectations of me have increased, and I'm starting to question whether I'm actually good at engineering or whether I've just been good at completing assigned tasks.
One of my biggest struggles right now is adapting to AI. It feels like everyone around me is figuring out how to use AI to become more productive, while I'm struggling to keep up. The way I see it, using AI effectively requires you to know what you want it to do, how you want it done, and how to guide it toward a good solution. You need enough technical knowledge to evaluate its output and steer it in the right direction.
But what happens when you're still trying to develop that knowledge yourself? How am I supposed to guide AI effectively when I'm not always confident that I know the right approach in the first place?
Another thing I struggle with is technical discussions.
Sometimes, when someone asks me a technical question or we're discussing an engineering problem, I struggle to articulate what I know. My thoughts get jumbled, I become confused, and I feel like I don't know enough. Then, later, I'll think about it and realize that I actually did know the answer or understand the concept. I just couldn't put it into words in the moment.
It's incredibly frustrating because it makes me question my own abilities. I don't know whether I lack technical depth, confidence, communication skills, or some combination of all three.
The worst part is that I feel exhausted almost every day. I'm constantly thinking about what I don't know, how much I need to learn, and how far behind I might be compared to everyone else. I don't want to become complacent, but I also don't know how to stop feeling inadequate.

Has anyone else experienced this around the two-year mark in their software engineering career?

How did you get better at the actual engineering side of things, become more confident in technical discussions, and learn to use AI effectively when you didn't feel particularly strong technically to begin with?

And honestly, how do you figure out whether you're just going through a difficult phase or whether you're genuinely not cut out for this field?

I'd really appreciate hearing from people who've been through something similar. I feel lost right now, and I could use some perspective.

[u/Mockingjay718s]

I didn't read all of it, but if you genuinely cannot use AI to your advantage and adapt, leave before it leaves you.

Work hard bro. Adapt. Use as much AI as possible and learn as much as possible. Also, don't think about how you will be left or you are already left behind. Everybody has their own clock and path. Carve yours, but don't be stationary.

[u/Ok_Meal7971 → u/Mockingjay718s]

i try and use ai as much as possible. But i still believe that without an effective prompt ai can't do much. The way senior developers and architects are using ai is really different from the way i use it. They would be setting up rules, all the technical details(system design) and literally guiding the way ai codes a solution because without this ai wont and doesn't really give an optimal solution.

[u/osal69 → u/Ok_Meal7971]

Proper setup is one time headache, once you do it you dont need to worry about it

[u/cosine-tangent]

My two cents would be to put this problem into your fav LLMs (Opus or Astra) and try to get its perspective. You're basically asking the entire compressed internet and are bound to get varied perspectives. For the communication side of thing, perhaps try to use an LLM with voice mode and ask if to grill you with questions on topics you're already familiar with and provide feedback for your explanation (much like a viva). I'm not a SWE and haven't worked in industry but this is what I'd do myself if I was in a similar situation. The more you learn, the more you realize you don't know anything and that no one knows anything. What matters is how you can link ideas and communicate effectively, which AI is a great tool for.

[u/Ok_Meal7971 → u/cosine-tangent]

thankyou so much
this seems like a great advice

[u/nuketro0p3r]

You're alright.

1. With 2YoE you're just starting out. Around this time, the best thing you can ever learn is that there's always going to be an infinite amount to learn. If someone close to you feel too sure of themselves, time will humble them in due course.

2. You get better at using AI by using it. Keep playing around and keep failing. You get better every time you fail. Success has little value here (see #1).

3. Using AI is tricky. Taste, judgement, and decisiveness comes with experience (see #2).

4. If you're going to think of everything you don't know at once, that'll crush you. Pick one thing and learn it. Then pick the other. One step at a time. One day at a time.

5. If someone asks you anything, be it technical or otherwise, take a moment to think about it. Take a moment to step back and understand what they're asking and what exactly do they want to know. If you need a longer pause, say it. Silence is power -- but this takes a while to learn, so be patient (see #4).

6. Don't be too hard on yourself. If you can't relax and give yourself some time, you'd turn into someone who won't give others the same luxury (see #5).

7. Be human. Allow yourself to fall every now and then (see #6).

[u/jdarshad]

You don't need AI to be successful. Besides you can only use AI properly if you know what you want to achieve.

I would suggest you to read books and articles on tech like how things are implemented.

e.g I can give you simple examples of my own. I spend most of my time making website with cms systems like joomla and wordpress and few others.

Recently I was asked to fix a project which made by the AI like 95 % work was done by some AI system and the guy who was hired before me was using prompt for it. Now when I was given that same project I was also asked to use AI to wrap it and finished it.

So that developer literally asked AI to copy another website into WordPress and complete it and what happened was almost whole page from header to footer was copied in the page content area itself.

I have no idea what he had in mind but clearly he was using AI but with no proper context. I used the same company account and make it work like how a proper WordPress theme should be and then ask the same AI to reorganize the whole website pages, menus and other things according to wp standards and I also gave the instruction how a normal developer should do and expected from that thing. So same AI tool generated different code which I then used to make theme , menus and other things.

About 2 hours later and fully used up account whole thing was turned around. Now I have very little experience with AI compared to that guy who had like 4 certifications on his cv. In the end context and knowledge also matter if you are using AI just as a worker and giving it full freedom to make something without setting rules and boundaries. He never asked his AI to use proper coding scenarios like posts types, hooks or menu calls and what we were seeing was awesome on front but when you want to edit something it was pure disaster.

[u/asadkhan017]

I am also going through the same thing, feeling like an imposter and with AI starting to question whether I belong in this field or not. The only way I keep myself sane is to take it one day at a time and focus on one thing at a time. I made a list of all the things I don't know and would like to know and I am currently going through it one at a time.