DjGilcrease

Yes, the controller/server does need GoLang installed because it runs `go build ...` to build a binary for the target machine OS and Architecture. That is what allows it not to need Go or Python on the managed servers.

Oh god no! I would not trust the government to not read every email for "security" reasons. I barely trust Google / Microsoft / etc to not read my email.

If you are enjoying it, which it sounds like you are, then I would stay and see if you can evolve your role into something even more.

An idea just based on what you wrote is pitch a community outreach program to your company where they sponsor a daily lunch class to help teach programming to those looking for a career change. I know many US states actually give large tax breaks to companies who do things like this.

Don't tell the Owners their money went to waste, but explain to them exactly what you posted here and let them decide to chase the sunk cost fallacy or not.

Without knowing more about the exact nature of the problems with the software you are having I cannot make a recommendation either way from a software development perspective.

I will however say many consulting development companies will continue to promise they will deliver while continually bringing in change orders to the original statement of work "Because 'this' situation was not covered in the original SOW"

If you find the company doing more then 1, maybe 2, small change orders as things evolve in a project of 9-12 months I would just drop them as that tells me they did not properly study the problem and ask the correct questions in order to properly do a SOW, that is unless things in the project are actually changing rapidly / dramatically from the original RFP.

did not seem that hard I did 106 iterations and it guessed correct 35% of the time. Maybe over more iterations I would have gotten less random (due mainly to boredom).

"- I am REALLY bad at algorithm problems and experience serious performance anxiety. Concentrated studying and mass interviewing haven’t led to positive results so far. I can solve most problems correctly given enough time (usually 2x+ longer than interviews)."

I am a principal engineer at a mid size (~4k employees) tech company (F5 Networks), and if someone asked me to do a bubble sort, or other algorithm from memory I would end the interview there, and have. The CTO at a company I was interviewing at asked me to do bubble sort in less then three minutes, I said no, lets just end the interview loop here. Google almost always asks a pure memory algorithm question, though they have been getting better at remapping the algorithm solution they want to actual work they are doing.

As an interviewee the ability to write out some random algorithm from memory, that I could just google for tells me nothing about the type of work I would be doing, how I might fit with the team, how the team thinks and collaborates.

As an interviewer I never ask this type of question since it does not tell me anything about how you think, work though problems, and collaborate with others. I always try to tie my technical questions back to problems I have had to solve in the past two or three months.

For a Software Engineer of any level your ability to think critically, ask the right questions, and work with others is way more important then your ability to bang on the keyboard in the right order. Syntax and idiosyncrasies of a language can be taught to just about anyone who can think critically and knows how to collaborate with others.

"Does there ever come a point where it just isn't worth it to continue trying to be a software engineer who can get into top-tier companies / projects"

Not if you enjoy doing it. If you do not enjoy it and find the work a constant struggle that you dread facing every morning, then move on to something you enjoy.

Also "top-tier" is rather subjective. I will never work for Google or Amazon. I would prefer to enjoy what I am doing, be able to have a life outside work, and get paid more (At least compared to Google and Amazons average pay in Seattle for the same role).