I’ve only been in my first role for about two months and this one hit the hardest for me personally.
I imagine it has a direct correlation with impostor syndrome, but I spend a lot of time writing things over and over again because in the back of my mind I’m thinking “is this the correct approach? Will they think I’m failing if it’s not how they’d do it?”
I consider myself lucky that I’m in a position with a great team that’s very helpful but I struggle to balance the line of when to ask questions - which often stems from not trusting myself to be to their standard.
I also had the problem of not wanting to ask questions and look stupid, and my manager told me to ask the questions I need to get the task done. Very simple and effective.
Also, instead of re-writing things in solitary many times over it would be a lot more effective to write something pretty good (In your eyes) and then ask for feedback on it. That way you can either validate that you're doing a good job, or start to learn what "good" looks like.
> I also had the problem of not wanting to ask questions and look stupid, and my manager told me to ask the questions I need to get the task done
my concern with junior engineers is when they ask no questions (they have weird hang ups or they’re completely off the rails) or ask the same questions over and over (didnt admit they didn’t understand the first answer, or they’re not writing things down).
any number of distinct questions is generally fine.
It's a hard one to learn in the first 5 or 10 years or so I think. For me the correct approach is the one that solves the problem, feels good enough for the user (with varying definitions of good enough depending on the business goals), and doesn't create a maintenance headache.
There is a large amount of room in there for correct solutions.
That’s actually great. You are playing and exploring, which will definitely lead to deeper skills. It’s not impostor syndrome, it’s just realizing where you are and putting in the time to improve.
It’s only an issue if you stress out too much over it, or if you spend too much time doing it.
Maybe schedule a time for this type of work, like 1h a day, or 3h. Really depends on the type of work you’re doing and what the circumstances are.
I’ve only been in my first role for about two months and this one hit the hardest for me personally.
I imagine it has a direct correlation with impostor syndrome, but I spend a lot of time writing things over and over again because in the back of my mind I’m thinking “is this the correct approach? Will they think I’m failing if it’s not how they’d do it?”
I consider myself lucky that I’m in a position with a great team that’s very helpful but I struggle to balance the line of when to ask questions - which often stems from not trusting myself to be to their standard.