I read about a developer who had a rough time
A few weeks ago, I saw a story about an enterprise developer who joined a startup. This guy had 8 years at big companies. Really good engineer. Knew his stuff with complex systems.
But it didn’t go well.
He spent three weeks building this whole user authentication system with different user roles, database migrations, and a bunch of configuration stuff. The startup just needed basic login so users could save their work.
He kept asking for detailed requirements. Wanted to know exactly how many users they expected in two years. Got frustrated when the product team changed things after talking to customers.
“This is the right way to build it,” he kept saying.
They had to let him go after two months.
I realized I have what he didn’t
Reading that really got to me. Not because I felt sorry for him, but because something clicked.
I actually have the skills he was missing.
I’ve been building MVPs for five years now. At my day job and with side projects. I’ve shipped things from scratch. I’ve seen features get used in totally unexpected ways. I’ve had to rebuild entire flows because the first version confused everyone.
But I always thought I was behind somehow. Like I wasn’t a real developer.
I was pretty insecure about it
Every time I looked for jobs, I worried. “They’ll see I never worked on big enterprise stuff. Never dealt with really old codebases. Never had to solve those scaling problems.”
I figured it would get harder to find work each year. Companies would want someone who understood microservices and knew how to deal with technical debt from years ago.
I felt like I was missing something important.
But here’s what I’m actually good at
Looking back, I can do things that enterprise guy couldn’t:
I can sit in product meetings and say “hey, we can get most of this working with way less effort if we just change how this part works.”
I know when something is good enough to ship and when it needs more work.
I can build systems that handle changing requirements. With MVPs, everything changes constantly.
I actually like it when users tell us we built the wrong thing. That’s how we learn what to build next.
I can explain technical stuff to business people and business needs to other developers.
This stuff is actually specialized
I’m not someone who lacks enterprise experience. I’m someone who knows how to build things from zero.
These are really different environments. Different problems to solve. Different skills you need.
The enterprise guy knew how to make existing systems better. I know how to figure out what system to build in the first place.
He knew how to work with complicated codebases. I know how to start with simple ones that can change quickly.
Both things matter. But they’re not the same.
Maybe stop focusing on what you don’t have
You might be doing what I was doing. Thinking about all the experience you’re missing instead of what you’re actually good at.
What problems do you handle easily that other people struggle with? What do your coworkers always ask you about?
That’s probably your strength.
Don’t feel bad about it. Just get better at it.