Even Senior Engineers Don’t Know Everything (And That’s Normal)

I used to think developers at big companies like AWS, Meta, or Google had it all figured out.

Like they just open a file and instantly know what to build. No Googling. No confusion. No “wait, why is this breaking?”

But the more I’ve worked in tech and talked to other developers, the more I realized…

That image is completely wrong.

The reality no one talks about

One thing I keep seeing repeated across developer communities is this:

Even senior engineers feel like they’re still figuring things out.

I saw a developer working in a big tech company say this:

I work at a big tech company… and I just barely feel like I know what I’m doing.

That line stuck with me.

Because this isn’t a junior dev. This is someone already inside big tech — and they still feel lost sometimes.

It doesn’t go away with experience

You’d think this feeling disappears after years in the industry.

It doesn’t.

Here’s a discussion where experienced developers talk about impostor syndrome even after decades in the field:

One comment basically summed it up:

Even after 12+ years… still there.

And another senior engineer mentioned something even more interesting — that impostor syndrome doesn’t really disappear, you just learn to live with it.

Senior developers still Google everything

This one surprises a lot of beginners.

A senior developer openly shared this:

And honestly, it’s very real.

They said things like:

• they still Google basic things

• they still rely on Stack Overflow

• they still don’t memorize everything

Which basically destroys the idea that “senior = knows everything.”

It’s not true.

Senior = knows how to figure things out faster.

Even “senior” doesn’t mean what you think

Here’s another interesting perspective from a developer reflecting on their experience:

They basically realized that:

The definition of “senior engineer” is not about knowing everything…

It’s about handling uncertainty better.

So what actually changes when you grow as a developer?

Because something DOES change — just not what people think.

You don’t suddenly know more things than everyone else.

What changes is:

• you panic less when you don’t know something

• you get better at debugging unfamiliar problems

• you know how to search faster

• you rely on documentation without hesitation

• you accept that confusion is part of the job

That’s it.

The real skill in software engineering

It’s not memorizing frameworks.

It’s not being “the smartest in the room.”

It’s this:

Being able to figure things out when you have no idea what’s going on.

That’s literally the job description.

If you feel lost right now…

If you’re constantly:

• Googling things

• stuck in bugs for hours

• feeling like others are ahead

• thinking you’re not good enough

You’re not behind.

You’re just doing the job.

Even people at big tech companies are doing the same thing — just at a different scale.

Final thought

There’s no magical moment where you suddenly “know everything.”

That moment doesn’t exist.

What actually happens is:

You just get more comfortable being confused.

And that’s what makes you better.