Six months into my first real tech job. I spent 7 years as a lawyer. I'm 34. Every person on my team is younger than me, has a CS background, and casually throws around things I have to google later.
The stuff I thought would transfer has transferred (structured thinking, stakeholder management, reading rooms). The stuff I didn't anticipate is the sheer volume of assumed knowledge that nobody explains because to everyone around me it's like oxygen.
I'm not bad at my job. My manager actually just said my work is above expectations. But I still feel like I'm going to get "found out" every single day. I'm not sure what getting found out would even mean at this point. Found out as... someone who changed careers? I know that. Everyone knows that.
I don't really have a question. Just needed to put this somewhere.
5 replies
corp_refugee
the "found out" feeling is so irrational and so persistent. I left a finance career 3 years ago and I still get it occasionally. It doesn't mean anything is wrong, it's just your nervous system catching up to reality slower than your actual performance.
apm_aisha
"above expectations" from your manager is not nothing. that's not politeness. managers at most companies don't say that unless they mean it. hold onto that.
pivot_pat
i know you're right. it's embarrassing that i can hear the feedback and believe it intellectually and still feel this way. but i guess that's kind of the whole thing with IS.
consultant_cam
I went consulting to in-house and felt this for about a year. The thing that helped was finding one person on the team to be honest with. Not venting, just one conversation where you say "I'm still learning the landscape here" and let them point you toward the things you're actually missing vs. the things you just think you're missing. Usually it's a much shorter list.
director_dee
For what it's worth: people who can read rooms and manage stakeholders are rare. Rarer than people who know what a PRD is. You brought something real with you.