I work at a large company as a software developer. Unfortunately, many of the teams are not up-to-date technically speaking.
When I was brought on I was quickly able to pick all of the low hanging fruit. Because of this I have become quite reputable in the company and have been promoted.
Despite this, I still don't feel very strong technically because of the fact that the problems I have been solving really should've been solved before my arrival. Being on here, I have an inferiority complex as my perceived ability is not commensurate with my title at other companies.
In particular -- despite having a few years of experience I haven't actually done anything at scale. Meaning the 100,000s of users (most I've done is 10,000s of internal users and customers). I feel like I haven't actually done serious software engineering work.
I was wondering if anyone has been in this position, being prominent in their company but still feeling poor technically. I feel if I were to interview at say, Dropbox I wouldn't do well just because I'm not practicing the right things at work.
Is quitting the only option, or is there a way for me to introduce solutions to problems that may require more technical expertise, to better not only myself but the company as well?
TLDR: Is it normal to not do "serious" software development work early in your career? Perfect example of this is the NYT article on scaling puzzles. I feel I'm currently not in a position to make those kind of decisions, and can only maybe 50% at most understand the rationale behind them.
