Impostor Syndrome for Developers From Emerging Countries Is a Real Access Gap
Daniel, a 27-year-old Brazilian developer, shares how he overcame impostor syndrome to land his first international tech job in 2021 after starting to code in 2011. He argues that the self-doubt many developers from emerging countries feel is not purely psychological but rooted in a genuine inequality of access to English-language resources and global tech culture. The internet and early technical content were built primarily in the US and Western Europe, meaning developers from countries like Brazil face real structural disadvantages in language, education, and connectivity. Brazil ranks 75th out of 123 countries in the EF English Proficiency Index 2025, still within the low-proficiency band, highlighting the language barrier many developers must overcome. Daniel emphasizes that conflating poor English with poor technical ability is a logical error, not a fair self-assessment, and urges developers to separate questions of access from questions of skill.
This is an AI-generated summary. ShortSingh links to the original source for the complete article.

Discussion (0)
Log in to join the discussion and vote.
Log in