mementomori

I have had great experiences sharing on HN so I am somewhat comfortable to share vulnerably about this issue. I have 2 years of experience in writing software but about two decades of experience in professional work in other industries. To be honest, I had not been professionally successful and this has been a great source of suffering for me. Recently, I spoke to a hiring manager of a particular team at a large non-tech corporation, and expected to be considered for a mid-senior job like SDE II or the like, but the lead recruiter sent me a listing for "lead software engineer." I am a little confused. Flattered and ambitious, of course, but also cautious and wondering if it was a mistake. At the same time, I am not sure I can actually do the job, although I am excited about the project and I performed well at the first contact with the hiring manager. I literally felt possessed by a very intelligent person and spoke very well. Afterwards when I looked into the topics being discussed, I knew I had many days, weeks, or maybe months of studying to do to really know what I am doing. Does anyone have any experience with this situation, and if so, what happened then?

I've been interviewing for two months (the Leetcode variety) and didn't get any offers. I find that when I can't understand a piece of code, I spend a lot of time on one question. This is what happened at my last job. I often spent a lot of time figuring one thing out, and there wasn't enough help available. It seems to take me a longer time to figure things out than other people, and it seems like most teams just expects you to figure it out and then deliver. Usually after the honeymoon period, I cannot maintain interest in anything, and even though I know I need to, I just can't no matter what. It's probably an attention/cognitive issue. Anyone has experience and found a solution for that? Also, at what point do you decide that a particular career is "not a good fit for me" or "just difficult in the meantime"?