[satori99]

Have you ever stuggled with any programming task you have been assigned by your employers?

My history sounds a bit like yours (minus the family tradgedies). I am a self-taught programmer in my mid 30s, who for years, had only the sketchiest knowledge of advanced algorithims and data structures, but I could make-shit-happen(tm) for my employers regardless. Hell, some of them even thought I was genius, when I knew I was a fraud.

A friend of mine, who I consider to be a 'real' software genius , once told me "Relax, eveyone is a fraud".

She was right.

Being successful doesn't seem to have much to do with how many linux commands you can remember, or if you can write code for a threadsafe linked list on paper. Past projects and a github account that can be checked out by employers are more important.

I used to get really anxious about not having not any teriary qualifications or certificates at all, but it turns out most people who do have them are crap anyway.