Moving to a Senior Engineer role.

Hi all,

As you might see in my previous posts, I have been stuck in a rut for a number of years and I am starting to believe I am not as good of an engineer as I think I am.

I am very slow in regards to obtaining certifications (in the process of getting my AWS solutions architect associate for the last 6 months) and I am in a conglomerate where the most important thing I do is rack devices in the DC since I live nearby.

Recently I have been looking around for a more senior role, but the questions I got asked make me want to cry afterwards. From questions that make me think "I read and knew about this 10 months ago" to "Why is this a network engineering question, this is more of a linux/developer one".

I am thinking of getting a pay cut to join a smaller organization that does more work so I feel more productive and not hate my life that much. Unfortunately job satisfaction is important to me and I do not know how to do anything else, although I have tried having hobbies. I definitely do not want a career change because I cant live with minimum wage.

The fact that I live in London, UK makes the whole job market a lot more competitive.

Ideally I want a more hands on project role with the opportunity to learn stuff in a "normal" pace. By normal I mean a place where you can do your job and have a bit of a challenge unlike some small MSP that you are constantly firefighting, or a huge company where all you do is paste the config given to you by the architect team (what I am currently doing).

My previous role was Technical Design Authority in a small company of 50, only to find out that the company was a scam to put it simply. Its like I was given the job and title from Michael Scott from "the Office" which means nothing since there were no designs to authorize.

I tend to learn by doing instead of studying and this is why I have been struggling a lot. I like being pushed and having a mentor. Does that make me inadequate for a senior role? I am curious to know more about networks but it seems that I have missed the boat because everything is slowly moving to the cloud and more roles require automation/programmability which I am really bad at.

Thanks for listening, I would appreciate any input.