"Rather, it means to realize that one has indeed done the one or other thing that was interesting, even if at the time it was just a job."
This is exactly my experience, too. It's hard to "play up" what I've done, because once I've done it, it seems like anyone could pick it up right away; things I've done are obvious to me, so it's hard to figure out what to say about them. Actually, the same thing applies to commenting and documentation: once you know enough to write comments, it can be hard to figure out what to write to speed understanding when you or someone else next looks at it.
This is exactly my experience, too. It's hard to "play up" what I've done, because once I've done it, it seems like anyone could pick it up right away; things I've done are obvious to me, so it's hard to figure out what to say about them. Actually, the same thing applies to commenting and documentation: once you know enough to write comments, it can be hard to figure out what to write to speed understanding when you or someone else next looks at it.