I'm a software dev with about 4 years of experience, not in a single tech stack. I also have 2 years of experience in teaching it. Double bachelor (information science & psychology), double master (game studies & computer science). I'm in between jobs and I'm taking some time to think.
The issue is this when I had a conversation with a friend.
Friend: the main issue overall was that your CV created the impression of a non-dev masquerading as a dev
Me: no, I view myself as capable of learning anything. I'm a problem solver. Relationship issues? I might be able to solve it. Coding issues? Gotcha there. Sleep issues? Let's figure it out. You want to make music? Let's jam. Space ship needs to go in space? I'm light on knowledge but I can figure it out. I'm willing to learn anything at expert level with the concession that I won't be the best expert. But even experts will be like "he can run with us".
It still bugs me that I'm light on knowledge in several fields. I know it's not feasible to know everything, but I can't help but be curious and just try to do it anyway.
I have several instances of professors mentioning how they were astounded that I was capable of learning their course, given my profile. But the thing is, when one gives it their all they are capable of _so much_. How can't they see that?
The issues I'm running into is I show my full self at a job. Job interview-wise this is not a smart move, but I can't help it. The world is fascinating, I can't hide it!
I've always had a tough time in the job market, given that I always had to hide this part of myself. Does anyone have tips on what a generalist like my profile can do?
1. Self-censor to align with the opening you're interviewing for: works fine until it doesn't. Even if you manage to get in, you'd likely be a miserable guy who happens to have a good bank balance. Been there, done that.
2. Start your own thing: As you said, hard evidence is going to be the best argument to back your claims up. I'm struggling with this a bit, but bootstrapping a small software business doesn't sound financially daunting to me. Worst case, a huge time sink with zero returns. Moving to parents' basement helps.
Generalists can spread themselves thinly across disciplines and never hyperfocus, so again: another caveat. It depends on your situation whether you want to specialize or generalize, and this can be a case-by-case basis.
There was some old post about a job interviewee at FB getting treated poorly because he thought his linux experience should in some way count toward the Solaris requirement (it didn't).
saving money = making money.
One reason I will call hubris, evident from your post. Your background in psychology may inform you that people who have put more than four years into (for example) software development may not appreciate someone with less experience calling themselves an expert. I expect that would go for relationship counselors, somnologists and neurologists, musicians, actual rocket scientists.
I can't speak to your actual expertise or abilities, but your self-description reads like a case study of the Dunning-Kruger effect. You can think about why potential employers might find that overall impression off-putting and hard to believe without more evidence.
Businesses recruit and hire people who can add value and solve problems. You have to sell yourself as a fit for the organization, and someone who can add value, right away. In the absence of objective metrics of competence (the case with software development for the most part) employers tend to look at experience, track record, reputation. They probably won't give a lot of weight to self-assessments like you offer, or hearsay opinions of college professors.