The Wednesday Wellness threads are meant to encourage users to ask for and provide advice and motivation to improve their lives. It isn't intended as a 'containment thread' and any content which could go here could instead be posted in its own thread. You could post:
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Requests for advice and / or encouragement. On basically any topic and for any scale of problem.
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Updates to let us know how you are doing. This provides valuable feedback on past advice / encouragement and will hopefully make people feel a little more motivated to follow through. If you want to be reminded to post your update, see the post titled 'update reminders', below.
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Advice. This can be in response to a request for advice or just something that you think could be generally useful for many people here.
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Encouragement. Probably best directed at specific users, but if you feel like just encouraging people in general I don't think anyone is going to object. I don't think I really need to say this, but just to be clear; encouragement should have a generally positive tone and not shame people (if people feel that shame might be an effective tool for motivating people, please discuss this so we can form a group consensus on how to use it rather than just trying it).
Jump in the discussion.
No email address required.
Notes -
Feeling positively overwhelmed at my new job.
My team is 'cracked' (as the kids call it) and I'm going in with a combination of excitement and nervousness. I've prided myself on being a clinger, hanging on for dear life. Today, I'm once again the stupidest guy in a room. I'm looking forward to it.
In my experience, surviving is an stronger motivator than thriving. I've jumped into the deep end of the pool, goal for the next 1 year is to survive. (Gotta hit that 1 year cliff)
How do you get up to speed in a situation like this?
I often find myself, well, maybe not the stupidest, but far from the smartest in the room. I don't want to interrupt the smart people when they're going a mile a minute doing something important every time I lose the thread, but if I never ask questions I never get better at keeping the thread. What do?
If you're hired, you have earned the right to be there. It means you are smart enough. A new employee seems stupid because they're ignorant and unfamiliar.
To that end, your goal should be to rid yourself of that ignorance and get familiar with the standard work-loop. This is very important. You only get better by doing. Best to pick up the smallest item that you can take to completion and build up momentum.
Once you find your bearings, you can nerd out with your coworker. To become an expert, one must obsessively chase excellence in their craft. By definition, they become nerds about some aspect of their job. If you start a conversation with them about that obsession, they are generous with their time. In fact, they'll often go out of their way to help you learn.
On your side, it means working hard, being proactive and following up on these resources/engagements offered by people. Yes, that means your first couple of months will demand longer hours. But for it most part, it's just time, repetition and focus.
You have to. You should. And you should more of it in your first few months. It's easy to get stuck in "you don't know what you don't know" if you don't deal with it early. The only way to mitigate this risk is to ask.
Set the expectation up front. I explicitly told my manager that 'I will be a loud idiot [1]' for the first few weeks. He agreed and encouraged it [2]. Everyone has been there before.
Have clear escalation ladder when asking for help. Mine goes something like: 'Spend a few hours trying to self-start -> Look for wiki -> DM a coworker for resources -> hop on a call -> sit side by side for spoon-fed demonstration'.
[1] in those exact words, but I did repeat it in more professional phrasing right after
[2] Takes some luck to have the right culture / leadership
edit: accidentally replied from my main account :|
If you're a software developer, I highly recommend sitting shoulder-to-shoulder or screen sharing with a coworker to see exactly how they work. It sounds intrusive, but there are a ton of subtle things that good devs do, that never gets brought up in conversations. It gives you a real feel for what your flow (as a fellow dev in the team) should look like.
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