It's Okay to Suck

It's Okay to Suck

It's honestly fine.

I have over 11 years of professional web development experience and a Computer Engineer degree and when I started a new position at a big company about 2 months ago, I sucked.

It took me 2 weeks to build a single screen in their React Native app. But you know what? I accepted that it's impossible for me to just slot in a completely new code base and team and just hit the ground running. So I asked questions and scheduled calls with the engineers that actually built all that stuff to better understand everything.

And I did my best to code up to their standards. And my PR review still needed a bunch of minor changes.

But nobody minded. In fact, my engineering manager commended my communication skills and proactive attitude.

I know that my experience is not gonna be the same for everyone but for a lot of people, they accept that new hires take a while to get going.

Don't know who needs to hear this but it's better to ask questions and risk looking like a fool than struggle with something for days that someone else could help resolve in minutes.

Almost everyone I know suffers from Impostor Syndrome, which is roughly the feeling that you are where you are because of trickery and you'll soon be found out and fired because everyone else seems to be doing better than you. I'm saying "almost everyone" because impostors don't suffer from it. However, you need to trust the people that hired and manage you and trust that they, in fact, know better. If you were honest in your interviews, you didn't trick anyone. You might take longer or shorter periods to learn than your peers. But you might have something they lack.

Perhaps, you are a master of communication.

It's okay to suck because everyone feels the same way. The trick is to try to suck a little bit less day by day.