Ā #CareerAdvice #ImpostorSyndrome #JobStruggles
Hey there fellow help desk specialists! š Have you ever felt like you’re still clueless even 5 months into your job? Because that’s me right now š
I started off knowing close to nothing when I began my current position, but now, I can handle our daily tasks fairly well. However, when faced with new situations or environments, my brain just freezes up. Sound familiar?
Currently, we’re dealing with the aftermath of the Crowdstrike mess and I feel like I’m drowning in uncertainty. My supervisor reassures me that I’m doing fine, but I can’t help but doubt myself. š¤Æ
So, my question for you all – is it normal to feel like an idiot 5 months into the job? Any tips on how to relax and stop overthinking every little thing? I could really use some advice right about now! š
Possible Solutions:
– Consider seeking out a mentor or colleague for guidance
– Taking a step back and acknowledging your progress
– Remember that it’s okay to ask for help when needed
– Practice self-care techniques to reduce anxiety and boost confidence
Let’s chat and share our experiences! š¬ #HelpDesk #OnTheJobLearning
I still feel like an idiot 10 years in a whole lot. It is easy to forget and overlook the times when I donāt feel like an idiot though.
I promise you’re more competent than you think. I’ve seen some people in this industry that really make you wonder. Keep learning, you’re doing great.
7 years here and I still feel like an idiot. You are still better and more experienced than many others out there.
Don’t stress. Take it one step at a time. There will be a day when some junior asks you about the same thing and you’re going to laugh and give them this same advice.
Take care.
I amazed that you were hired without any experience though. That doesn’t happen anymore these days. Did you have a diploma or degree that was IT related? Or did you have IT certs? Was the pay below the standard norm? Sorry don’t mean to be nosy but in this job market, most companies will nit take a chance on a newbie because they refuse to train any longer.
If your supe says you’re fine you’re fine. I honestly struggle with the same thing, and I’ve been at this for 2 years. I work at an MSP and have been responsible for two different technology stacks (VMWare and Azure) and am one of a handful of people remotely competent with Linux at my company and *always* hit stuff that makes me feel stupid.
I technically work as a “consultant” and am often barely a step ahead of my clients on stuff, because I’m the one who is supposed to know/research/maintain systems, and they just do things on it when they don’t need me to.
I basically came from zero on enterprise stacks like VMware, Hyper-V, and Azure, and am managing to do alright, with my entire chain of command cheering me on, while feeling stupid every day. When I can’t believe in myself I believe in my leaders that believe in me which sounds corny, but I swear works.
This sounds like more anxiety/imposter syndrome than anything else. If itās something that happens regularly, you should really consider talking to a therapist about it!
I’m in my tenth year in IT and this year is the first I have stopped feeling like an idiot 50%+ of the time. Here are some things I realized somewhat recently that helped me start to get over it:
1. Lay people hold IT people in quasi awe. This is a double edged sword. You will never feel half so smart as these people think you are. (I honestly have no idea why restarting it fixed it, but, hey, it did!) However, you also don’t realize that things that are to you exceptionally mundane are impressive to them. Don’t let their awe intimidate you. (Or go to your head).
2. Because normal people hold IT in quasi awe, they like watching IT people do stuff and like asking questions. This can be super flustering if you don’t actually know what the problem is or exactly what to do. It’s okay to admit you are unsure. I am often saying things like “Huh, that’s interesting, it shouldn’t do that” or “Well, that is weird” or “Well, that is a new one.” And 99% of people are chill or amused and do not judge you. If anything they are often interested or amused that their problem is apparently novel. “Leave it to me to break it so much you don’t understand it.”
3. Assess your environment in relation to your own lack of knowledge. Some of your lack of knowledge is always on you, but as you gain experience, and assuming you aren’t lazy, if you feel you just aren’t growing, a good deal of that may not be you and may be your environment. Are your coworkers and supervisor patient with you when you ask questions? Is your documentation where you are crap? Do you get met with hostility when you show interest in anything even mildly outside your “official” lane? Is their a training budget or incentive pay for certs or degrees? Is your workplace in general very slow and samey all the time and there’s just nothing new to do? Every environment has some aspects of stuff like this that kneecap you because no place is perfect. Realize even now that *some* amount of your ignorance is due to less than ideal processes like this. This should come into sharper with focus with time.
4. There is an ungodly, monstrously huge, improbably gargantuan amount of things to learn in IT. You will touch some single digit percentage of it all in your career. You will become an expert on some single digit percentage of it. If you put 100 seasoned IT guys in a room, 99 of them will always know more about some specific system or process or concept than you do, but eventually you will know more than all 99 of them about some specific things too.
Imposter syndrome is very common in tech fields just because there is always something you haven’t encountered before and there is always something new to learn somewhere. It is more important to know how to go about dealing with people and how to go about dealing with new things than it is to be able to already know the answer every time.
Iām 10 years into the job and still feel like an idiot.
Yes.
Next you’ll watch those 5 months turn into 5 years.