“If you’re as good as you think you are, it’s their loss.”

I was relaying the results of my latest job interview to a more experienced developer (the company passed me over for another candidate) and he responded, “If you’re as good as you think you are, it’s their loss.”

If he’d physically slapped me, it would’ve had less of an effect. I was stunned by his question and asked myself: Was I as good as I thought I was?

A series of questions then followed as I thought this through over the next couple of weeks:

Was I applying for the right job for my skillset?

Did I need to pivot?

Did I need to practice more?

Were my expectations too high (was I applying for too senior of positions)?

Why was I losing the positions I was applying for?

The short answer after some serious self evaluation was no, I was not as good as I thought I was. I determined that I was trying too hard to check too many boxes and wasn’t learning enough about each topic. I needed to dial back my expectations of the role I could land.

This may sound defeatist but it was actually empowering. His words helped me recalibrate and ultimately land a job more in line with where I was at the time.