Im a software engineer and have had to deal with this for interviews as well. Your approach is spot on and props to you for meeting the problem head on despite anxiety / fear / other words for these negative feelings.  A few things off the top of my head from reading your post.  Your perception of your stutter is both worse and better than in reality (lol). The interviewers will obviously notice and as your friend mentioned, yes it is probably actually trash. But communication is more than simply the words you say / how fluent you are. I don’t know how to explain this but everyday people stutter, obviously not in the way we do but I find we focus and hyperfixate on our own fluency far more than we would if we had the perspective of a « normal » person, if that makes sense? So I’d say stutter freely and just leave that out of your head, especially during the interview if / when you have micro moments when your mouth isn’t cooperating lol.  People WILL judge you for it but the judgments made will quickly subside and be replaced with what you have to say and who you are which will be far more lasting. Some people won’t be able to get over it, even if they wanted to but typically these people don’t become doctors. Also yeah I’d say be as pragmatic regarding this as possible so letting the interviewer know is good too, though I never really did in my interviews but cold turkey stuttering for mere mortals not prepared for our grace can be something lol.  Your point about diverting your energy into a field you know you’d be successful in is probably « true » insofar as it can be true. I think in general most fields which exist do exist because they are complicated / rich enough to warrant their existence. Then, as we grow up and the burden of competency as an adult rises in us we « subconsciously » find passion in what we are good at (not always obviously) and use that to guide our path.  I will say though that once you graduate and start working in environments contrary to your solitary nature (should you choose to work in them) you’ll find that, while you do have a solitary nature arising from stuttering (which I sort of empathize with), it could also be true that you don’t have a solitary nature and end up communicating / socializing far more than you’d think you would. At least many, many people here (myself included) this is true.  There really is something to be said about fear and how it puts a filter over our perceived future / reality and distorts everything. And that this realization isn’t permanent and, even if you pass all your interviews with flying colors, get the perfect job, … etc etc that you’ll come back to these feelings because stuttering isn’t something you get over it’s just a nice old lifelong companion we got. About 5/6 years ago I graduated from college and started applying for jobs, absolutely certain I was fucked and my degree was useless and I’d be living in my parents basement forever. It was only when I accepted that I need to force myself to be uncomfortable and fail again and again and again, and to come to expect the failure and even look forward to it that I could overcome it.  I feel like you either skipped that part or already dealt with it so I honestly think you’re overthinking it and your brain is trying to solve an impossible problem when in reality you just need to trust the process and be patient for now. Patience with this sort of anxiety and looming dread really is a skill as it demands total mental fortitude, something we can only get internal to us and through suffering!! :D Lastly, your point about your older, married, and successful brother. Don’t forget you could’ve been born blind, or with one leg, or whatever else unimaginable horror we can think of. It can always be worse or better but that’s life. I never really think comparison between people is valid since you really don’t know the ultimate consequences of certain traits even those any culture would think of as good. The world works in funny ways and one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.  I should go to sleep 🫡.