The Tool Desk
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Missing a joke in a fast-moving meeting, searching for the right English word, or feeling unsure about unfamiliar workplace norms does not by itself show that you lack the skills for an international role. In his account of applying for work outside Brazil, Developer Advocate Daniel Reis argues that language access, familiarity with job expectations, and role-specific qualification are separate questions. His experience is a useful lens—not proof that every uncertain applicant is qualified.
Why a capable developer might still feel like an impostor
Reis recalls joining a European team’s daily meeting and laughing a few seconds after everyone else because he had missed a joke. Before interviewing for his first job outside Brazil in 2021, he says he already had been coding since 2011 and had worked as a Developer Advocate and Microsoft MVP. Even with that experience, he worried he would be exposed as a fraud.
That contrast—experience on one side, fear on the other—is the starting point of his essay. Reis argues that a developer can have genuine skills and still face unequal access to language, information, or workplace context. He puts it this way: “The impostor syndrome of a dev from an underdeveloped country is not only psychological. A big part of it is a distorted reading of a REAL inequality of access.” That is his interpretation of his experience, not a clinical definition or a conclusion about every job seeker. Read Reis’s essay on DEV Community.
Three questions that should not be collapsed into one
Reis describes three doubts that came up as he applied for roles beyond Brazil:
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- “Is my English good enough?”
- “Do I really understand what this job is asking for?”
- “Am I actually qualified for this?”
The first is about communicating in English; the second is about interpreting the role and its working context. The third concerns whether you can do the work. A language or context difficulty may make your abilities harder to demonstrate, but it does not answer the qualification question on its own. Reis’s three-question framework is a way to sort the doubts, not a validated test of readiness.
What English-proficiency numbers can—and cannot—tell you
The 2025 EF English Proficiency Index reports Brazil at rank 75 with a score of 482, compared with a global EF EPI average of 488. Brazil’s reported skill scores were 516 for reading, 468 for listening, 442 for writing, and 464 for speaking. These are country-level index results, not an assessment of any applicant or a measure of whether someone can do a particular job. See EF’s Brazil results.
The same EF page reports a Federal District score of 541 and Rio Grande do Sul at 539. Among the capitals listed, Florianópolis scored 577 and Porto Velho 408—a 169-point difference. InfoMoney also discusses a 169-point gap between the highest- and lowest-scoring Brazilian capitals. The figures describe variation in the index; they do not establish why an individual feels uncertain or what that person can achieve at work. InfoMoney’s discussion of the 2025 capital-city gap.
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Check the role’s language and context demands
“Good enough” depends on what the job actually requires. A role with frequent customer calls, written documentation, or live discussions may put different demands on English than one where most work is code review and asynchronous communication. The job description, interview process, and conversations with the hiring team can help clarify those demands. Look for what you will need to explain, write, understand, and coordinate—not an abstract standard of perfect English.
Workplace familiarity is a separate issue. If a description uses terms or expectations you do not recognize, identify the specific uncertainties: responsibilities, decision-making, collaboration, or how success is judged. Ask the recruiter or interviewer for clarification where appropriate. Learning the context can make it easier to judge whether your experience matches the role; not knowing an unstated convention is not automatically evidence that you cannot do the work.
Assess qualification through evidence, not a single feeling
To examine the third question, make a practical inventory of evidence relevant to the role. This is a self-assessment aid, not a treatment for impostor feelings or a guarantee of a hiring outcome.
- Projects that show skills the role asks for, including the problem you addressed and your contribution.
- Responsibilities you have handled, especially those comparable to the role’s day-to-day work.
- Problems you solved and the decisions or trade-offs involved.
- Feedback, outcomes, or demonstrated skills that help substantiate your account.
Compare that evidence with the requirements rather than treating every listed qualification as equally essential. If you find a genuine skill gap, name it specifically and decide how to address it. If your experience matches the work but the unfamiliarity is mainly linguistic or contextual, you have identified a different problem to prepare for.
Recognize the skills that may not fit neatly on a résumé
Reis describes learning to code with Pawn scripts for SA:MP on a computer with 512 MB of RAM, learning English through technical material, practicing regularly, and taking English lessons from João Correa before applying for international roles. He interprets that path as evidence of independent learning, adaptation, persistence, and making things work with limited resources—not as a set of traits shared by every developer from a particular country or region.
He writes: “That’s not a gap in your CV. That’s autodidactism, adaptation and resilience, the stuff companies say they want in every job description.” The useful prompt is to make your own relevant work visible: describe what you learned, the constraints you navigated, and what you delivered. Those experiences can strengthen an application when they connect clearly to the role, but they do not substitute for skills the job genuinely requires.
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Use practice and tools as support, not as proof of readiness
Reis recommends using available supports to build access and confidence. Self-directed practice can help with technical vocabulary and explanations; English tutoring offers another way to work on communication; interview practice can help you rehearse describing your experience aloud. His essay does not establish that one approach works best for everyone.
He also suggests using AI tools to translate, explain concepts, review English, and practice interviews. His advice is to go beyond small lookup questions, ask more ambitious questions, check the answers, and keep learning. Treat generated explanations and corrections as material to verify, not as an authority on the job or a guarantee of employment. As Reis puts it, “Not knowing how to use the tool is the same as not having the tool.” The broader point is to learn how to use available support effectively; it does not mean that tools erase differences in access.
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