“I lied my way through a job interview, got hired, and now I’m in over my head, but no one seems to notice…”
I applied for a job I wasn’t qualified for out of desperation. I’d been unemployed for 4 months, rent was due, and I was down to my last $300. The job posting was looking for someone with “2–3 years experience” in a field I had barely touched. I had none.
So I Googled some terminology, watched a few crash courses, and walked into the interview like I belonged there. I threw around a few buzzwords I barely understood and smiled a lot. Somehow… it worked. They offered me the job the next day.
Now I’ve been working here for three weeks, and every day I feel like I’m walking on a tightrope. I have 20 tabs open at all times — ChatGPT, Reddit, Stack Overflow, YouTube tutorials — just to survive the day. What’s crazy is no one has said anything. My manager compliments me. People come to me with questions. I’m scared they’ll eventually realize I’m improvising everything.
But at the same time…I’m learning. Fast. I’ve already automated part of my workflow. I fixed something yesterday that the team had been ignoring for months. I don’t know if I’m still faking it or actually growing into it. But I’ve never been this motivated (or this scared) in my life.
Here’s what people had to say to OP:
PhatCatOnThaTrack said:
It has been three weeks and you’ve already solved an issue from before you were hired. I would just keep it up. Imposter syndrome is real! Maybe this is the universe throwing you a bone.
Agitated-Yesterday28 said:
Fake it till you make it!
Hour-Time-6618 said:
You seem to be social, are willing and able to learn and you have other skills that allow you to better your work. That’s probably worth more than 2-3 years of experience to them.
99999999999999999989 said:
Welcome to the professional world. Keep doing what you are doing now, never look back, never confess. You are learning in the most efficient way possible and in a year or two you will have true skills in this field. You’ve got this, man. To be 100% honest, I would wager that at least half of your peers are doing the same thing even if they have experience and/or degrees.
dskillzhtown said:
I’ve done that before. The pressure/anxiety got me to become one of the best employees there within a few months. I think because I was researching and learning the best way to do things, it made my work better than others who had been doing it their way for years.
Emotional_Many_7706 said:
We’re all doing this. Half the crap I say in an interview is polished turd. But I’m paid a pretty penny to lead a team of software engineers. I’ve been doing it for years. I still have no clue what I’m doing. Currently on a work holiday. We’re all pretending.
