Ask HN: Imposter Syndrome as Senior Engineer

I’ve been in the industry for around 8 years and technically senior for 3 of those but I don’t feel like it. I don’t feel like I am an authority on much of anything, I second guess myself on technical decisions I make all the time, and I’ve never really felt like I’ve had a mentor in my career that I’ve been able to learn the ropes for how to do this successfully, I just keep trying to learn and do my best.

I’m applying for jobs as a senior engineer and having people reach out to me for senior positions but in the back of my mind I am nervous to even apply for these because if I get through the interview and start working I just feel like I’m going to get in trouble for “faking it” or something. It doesn’t help that a lot of my career has been “full stack” work so I feel like my knowledge is an inch deep and an mile wide.

Confidence is something that has been hard to come by in my career and I think that’s a big part of where this issue comes from for me but it’s also only when I’ve been confident that I’ve gotten burned big time on a decision I made or something else. What can I do to convince myself that I’m someone that deserves the title?