I work at a fairly small company and at the beginning, it was just me and my boss. Looking up to him and having him as the only person around I could compare myself to, I felt like such a newbie for years.
Eventually, we started to hire more people and I was fortunate enough to mentor several of them. It's weird, but I think it was when I was able to answer most of their questions, most of the time, that I realized that maybe I weren’t such a newbie anymore.
I'm kinda in a similar situation right now. Small startup, just me and my boss as main developers with the occasional contractor. Been working for about a year and coding for about 2. Still feel extremely newbish.
You got any tips for being in this kind of situation? Particularly in regards to not having people to compare yourself to
Don't be afraid to tackle things you might think are out of your league.
Learn the apps infra. (You dont have to be devops, but understanding the whole picture helps with the event/request lifecycle. This will help you debug outside of your normal in app context)
Realize that you know more than you think.
Give yourself more credit.
Don't ever let someone tell you that you are 'almost there'. You are there, and you are killing it.
Have the goal to leave the company in a better position than you found it.
Realize they would not be there without your contributions.
Don't compare yourself to others. You are you, and you freaking rock.
I think it's important to realize that you don't have to compare yourself to others to stop feeling like a newbie.
For me, what helped the most, was starting to build a sense of accomplishment.
I started to keep a journal of all the things I had done that made me proud. It could be little things, like helping a colleague or finally fixing an overwhelming bug I had struggled with. It could be bigger things like finishing a client project I had taken on or finally finishing that side project I had struggled to take time out of my schedule to do.
Writing it down was key to me. On days where I feel like I'm no good or that newbie sensation starts creeping up on me again, I look in my journal, and remind myself that I can do this — and so can you! 💪
That sounds like a good idea. I keep a general for general life stuff I enjoy, never thought of keeping one for dev accomplishments. Thanks for the tip!
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I work at a fairly small company and at the beginning, it was just me and my boss. Looking up to him and having him as the only person around I could compare myself to, I felt like such a newbie for years.
Eventually, we started to hire more people and I was fortunate enough to mentor several of them. It's weird, but I think it was when I was able to answer most of their questions, most of the time, that I realized that maybe I weren’t such a newbie anymore.
... I still feel like one, though 🤷♂️
I think we all still feel like a newb. Even years in.
It's not just you 😁
And that's a good thing.
Feeling like a newbie can motivate you to keep learning🤓.
Exactly right! When you stop feeling overwhelmed with keeping up, then you should probably retire 🤣
I'm kinda in a similar situation right now. Small startup, just me and my boss as main developers with the occasional contractor. Been working for about a year and coding for about 2. Still feel extremely newbish.
You got any tips for being in this kind of situation? Particularly in regards to not having people to compare yourself to
Sure plenty of tips.
I think it's important to realize that you don't have to compare yourself to others to stop feeling like a newbie.
For me, what helped the most, was starting to build a sense of accomplishment.
I started to keep a journal of all the things I had done that made me proud. It could be little things, like helping a colleague or finally fixing an overwhelming bug I had struggled with. It could be bigger things like finishing a client project I had taken on or finally finishing that side project I had struggled to take time out of my schedule to do.
Writing it down was key to me. On days where I feel like I'm no good or that newbie sensation starts creeping up on me again, I look in my journal, and remind myself that I can do this — and so can you! 💪
That sounds like a good idea. I keep a general for general life stuff I enjoy, never thought of keeping one for dev accomplishments. Thanks for the tip!