Imposter Syndrome: Laravel Blog vs Wordpress

I have been a web developer for a bit over ten years now and to this day I struggle with believing that I am a Senior Developer. Maybe it's just me, but at least once a year, I google what is the difference between a senior developer and a junior developer. Just trying to find some validation that I am in fact a Senior Developer, as my job title states.

Since I was arbitrarily elevated to a "Senior Developer", I have gone through several situations where I believed I was going to be "found out" as an imposter. It's not that I am a bad developer, but I am very aware that I don't know everything and constantly reach for my close friend, Google, to help cover up my short-comings.

Is this not how you do code?

Before I go any further, I am not referring to the elite developers out there, e.g. Taylor Otwell, Adam Wathan, Jeffrey Way, etc. These guys are on another planet and truly make my life easier. I'm talking about the group of us out there that feel like the industry moves faster than our ability to absorb the new information.

I have been "planning" on putting a website for myself for several years. I'm sure I am in good company there. When I finally made the decision that this site was going to happen, no matter what, I went through a weeks-long internal battle deciding what platform I was going to use to build the site. I just wanted to start putting my thoughts out there and didn't want to get bogged down in the details of deploying a Laravel site. I thought to myself, I could just launch a Wordpress site or even a Wix site and go live quicker. This would not be a bad approach. Many of us developers have full-time jobs, side gigs galore and just don't have time to focus on their own site. They gotta be out there hustling to make that next check. I get it. I don't blame any of you.

But with me, I continue to struggle with Imposter Syndrome. What's funny is that I know that I am a good developer. If you read my home page intro, you would know that I am a damn good developer.... lol

Dammit Man! I'm a Developer not a Magician!

So to help me continue to overcome my imposter syndrome, this site needed to be built on Laravel. I know that no one would care if it was on any other platform, but for me, it needed to be. I needed to build out my controllers, put together my blade templates, implement file caching and have granular control over every little bit of the site. So that's what I am doing.

This site continues to be a work in progress. I have a growing to-do list of features and enhancements that I will be adding to this site. This site will be a reflection of me as a developer and as a person. I like to do things a certain way and I believe this drive has continued to propel my career forward. I don't like to deliver sub-par work. I refuse to. Web developers have a very unique place in the business ecosystem. So much of the business' success relies on our deliverables and on our work ethic. So we need to hold ourselves to higher standard. This drive is what calms me down when the imposter syndrome starts acting up. I know I am a damn good developer because I truly care about my work and the fruits of my labor.

I'm not mad at you if you made your site in Wordpress, Wix, or any one of the amazing blog platforms out there. But let your site be a reflection of who you are and what you strive to become. Don't let it just sit as a resume or a portfolio site. This site was not designed to be a resume or portfolio of my professional career, you can find me on LinkedIn for that.

If you read this far, that's awesome and thank you! Because to be honest, I wrote this post for myself to help me figure out what I want in the next phase of my career, but most importantly, how to get there!