As a web developer, my greatest struggle is believing in my knowledge and worth.

No matter how much my skill level may increase, it seems as though it’s never good enough. There is always someone out there that knows more than I do, or can do the things I do much better.

I have only really been in this field for about 3 years professionally, so in most cases, I’m a young gun. It seems everywhere I look I see guys that have been doing this 3 and 4 times as long as I have. There are days when I feel like I just don’t know enough and am not a real asset to my team and community.

I have been blessed with an amazing team. They have all been in this industry much longer than I have and have tons more experience. The best thing about them though, is their willingness and desire to help me grow my skill set and learn as much as I can from them.

I will admit, there are days when it’s overwhelming. It seems as though the world of development just keeps growing and growing. It seems almost impossible to keep up. I realized the other day that I’m not the only one who feels like this. I was talking with one of my coworkers the other day who has been working in the development world for over 10 years. He started talking about feeling like he didn’t know enough and that there were so many people out there that knew so much more than him.

I wonder how I will feel in 7 years…

I think there are positives and negatives to this part of our industry. I think allowing this feeling to fuel you into working hard and pushing yourself to be the best developer you can be is great! We just need to be careful about allowing this feeling to settle in thoughts of inadequacy.

Let’s make sure we are pushing each other to be better. And let’s not forget the way it felt to be the new kid on the block.