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There are a lot of them. Let me just highlight a few…
You can be slow.
Yes, you can be slow and by slow I mean a lot of jiras behind your teammates and this isn’t a funny situation to be in. But it’s going to happen at least once in your project. It might not be because you are sick or had an emergency but simply because you do not know everything. For instance, in that new task/project, you might need to learn a new language or framework and it is going to be challenging for the first time no matter who you are. So whenever the imposter syndrome kicks in, just remember that you can be slow sometimes and it’s perfectly ok. You will get faster with experience.
People are busy.
People will often say that in our software engineering field you cannot do the work alone and it is true but, the reality is that you won’t always find the help you need when you need it. People are just busy working on their tasks or fixing their own bugs. Trust me, the reality in this field is far away from your regular “ A day in the life of a Software Engineer ” video on YouTube. It can take long before someone decides to look into what you are doing and offer to help. The solution to that is to develop resilience and knowing how to work as a freelancer within a team - at least that’s how I can label it - the less you ask for help or need help, the better off you are. Don’t get me wrong though. Ask questions for clarifications but don’t ask people to do your job for you.
Unconsciously seek validation.
When you are just getting started working on a new project, you will be tempted to show to your team what you are capable of and it’s good. But what if it fails, what if it takes longer? What if you actually need a lot of help to come through? And so many other things that can fail. My advice is to step into the job and impress yourself by giving your best. Look at the task, analyze it and ask for clarifications as many times as you need to get the job done. Think of it this way. After being assigned a task, set a goal for yourself like how long will it take you to raise your first Pull Request and after the PR has been reviewed, take note and improve upon it. As time goes on, try to reduce the time and raise more PR and above all, do not forget to document it.
I hope this post will not give you a reason to quit but rather an exposure to what can be your reality. If you are lucky, you may not even feel that way at all then know that you have hit the jackpot which is a company with an amazing culture. My advice is that you stick around for as long as you can.
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