For one thing, don't compare yourself to a lot of the HN or Silicon Valley crowd. There're plenty of really smart people on here, so your perception of what's n

For one thing, don't compare yourself to a lot of the HN or Silicon Valley crowd. There're plenty of really smart people on here, so your perception of what's normal may get skewed. Can you be hired as a developer? It sounds like you've produced some code and even got paid for doing it! From personal experience, I have met plenty of "professional programmers" who are paid decent salaries, yet are terrible or mediocre programmers. The "rock stars" or genius coders out there are outliers. The average programmer is actually quite mediocre. I'm not saying aim to be mediocre. But I am saying don't be intimidated by the stories of outliers. There is a lot to learn, and it never ends. It's a path of continuous learning and improvement. So keep coding and working, and you'll eventually get there. On a more explicit piece of advice, perhaps something is wrong with your resume or cover letter? Have people peer review or critique it, maybe it needs fixing.