HACKER Q&A
📣 FrenchDevRemote

Contacted for senior roles but I'm not, am I overselling myself?(I'm 22)


I started to code at 10yo in 2010(some crappy php/sql websites and a tiny bit of C)

A few OK projects at 15/16yo.(like a free music streaming app)

Then I went to college, at 18yo I quit my first internship at a successful startup after a month because I felt like they were taking advantage of me/not respecting me.(low salary, lied about part-time remote, founders being a bit condescending, the tasks given to me were also boring...)

Then I participated in entrepreneurship programs for 6 months, made one MVP there and a few very basic MVPs in my spare time(zero success)

Then I had a few short gigs, mostly as a freelancer(~1 year total)

All of this is mentioned in details on my resume and linkedin(from 10yo to today)

Now I'm looking for a job, and in the past few weeks I got offered at least 5 interviews for senior roles.(and more junior/intermediate roles than I can count)

But I don't consider myself a senior at all, I'd say I'm intermediate, at best. I didn't even graduate.

I also got rejected for junior roles at companies that I would have really loved to work at(not even ultra selective companies, I didn't even get interviews), so I'm really wondering: am I overselling myself and people think I'm better than actually am?(i.e good enough for senior roles, but overqualified for junior roles?)

Depending on who I talk to, I feel like I'm either underestimated(to lowball me?) or way overestimated.

How do I show my worth without looking better than I actually am?

I really don't want to be under-delivering and disappoint everyone at my next job

  👤 jstx1 Accepted Answer ✓
Interview for the senior positions if they're coming your way, as long as you're not misleading anyone about your actual experience, you'll be fine.

Relevant thread from this week: How fresh grads with zero experience get hired as senior engineers - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30303891

👤 tedmiston
The thing about leveling is there's no standard.

In general, higher titles are more easily attainable at smaller companies. Senior at one company could be equivalent to intermediate at another or staff at a third.

Consequently, deciding where you fall at level-wise, is the job of the company you're interviewing at, not your own. Your job is to talk through, and accurately represent, the experience that you have, and their job is to assess that experience with respect to their leveling framework / matrix.

For reference examples, check out GitLab's [1][2], or progression.fyi [3] for a collection of others.

That said, I would agree with others in this thread on the junior or junior to intermediate guesstimation.

[1]: https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/engineering/career-develop...

[2]: https://about.gitlab.com/job-families/engineering/

[3]: https://www.progression.fyi/

👤 giantg2
Interview for all the ones you're interested in regardless of title. The definitions of what constitutes one level versus another are wild (even internally at my company the differences can be crazy).

"lied about part-time remote"

I work for a company that has a reputation for doing the right thing. They lie often. My conclusion is that almost every company does, but it's just a matter of if it negatively affected you and you stuck around long enough (both necessary so you could observe it).

👤 davismwfl
Knowing nothing else then what you list, I'd consider you junior to maybe intermediate, it would all depend on how you do in an interview.

I'd echo a couple of comments, apply for roles you think fit your skills. Startups call people with 2-3 years senior all the time and I'd not consider the vast majority of people filling those roles as senior. It all depends on their categorization.

I've seen people create career levels in startups that are totally out of line with reality but they use them. So worry less about title and just make sure based on the job you think you can do the work and deliver. Don't be afraid to reach "up" though, plenty of people with your type of experience can out deliver more senior candidates, it all depends on the person.

👤 zaphar
I've managed people who were performing at a senior level after 3 years of experience and I've managed people who were performing at a junior level after 10 years of experience. Both categories are outliers but they do exist.

As long as you are truthful and honest in your resume and your interviews I would just let people make their own determination. If you can get a senior level role take it.

👤 emteycz
Interview for the senior roles, be 100% open and honest and let them make you an offer. Many programmers don't add as much value as you might think, your capability to deliver is highly valuable even if you're still inexperienced with particular technologies.
👤 tanseydavid
If you interview for a couple of these position, you'll have a much better idea whether or not you are overselling yourself.

You might discover that you are overselling yourself, but only slightly. If that's the case you may be able to level-up that gap quickly.

👤 yuppie_scum
You do realize that most recruiters don’t have the first damn clue what engineers do and are just searching for keywords in your online profile right?
👤 faangiq
Take what you can get. Let other people worry about it.