One Year In
TL;DR - things are good, new jobs are challenging, but that's how we learn
Recently, I passed the 1-year mark at my “new” job. I guess I can’t call it my new job anymore. It’s going well, but boy, it’s been a year! I’m really proud of myself and what I’ve accomplished. But it wasn’t easy, even if this wasn’t my first (or second) data job.
Before this role, I had close to a decade of experience in analytics & data science, and before that, I had about a decade of experience in marketing & public relations.
You’d think by now, starting a new job would be a breeze! Low stress. No worries. I’m smart, experienced, highly qualified, right? I’m a fully-functioning ADULT (I’m over 40, FFS), I’ve got this stuff figured out!
Hello, imposter syndrome!
The secret is that imposter syndrome never really goes away; you just get better at not letting it hold you back. (And realizing everyone else has it.)
So, the point of this post. What is it? I guess just to share a realistic view of year 1 of a new job.
Embrace the onboarding phase
I can always tell when someone is a junior/entry level/trying to land their first job, because they talk about wanting to “hit the ground running.” They want to make a good impression and be useful from day one.
You’re lucky if you can log into your laptop and check your email and Slack/Teams on day one. You’re probably not doing any work on day one, maybe not even during week one.
If you’re really lucky, you’ll get some actual documentation for onboarding. How to do this or that thing that is necessary for your job, with step-by-step instructions.
But it probably hasn’t been touching since the last person onboarded. Depending on the size of your team, that might have happened a while ago. Technology changes. UIs change. Tools change. The onboarding doc that you were just given might already be a little out-of-date. And your first assignment might be to update it when you discover the parts that are out-of-date. (You know, for the next person, who might not start for another year or two.)
Anyway, the point being, you will not be useful and impactful on day one or week one or even month one.
Depending on the role, it might take you until month 3 or month 6 to feel like you’re actually worth your paycheck. That’s ok. That’s normal.
And the more data you have at your fingertips? The longer it takes. Even this week, I had to use a new-to-me dataset for a project. And I was talking to my colleague, who has been here for 4 years, and he didn’t even know we had data from that software in our data warehouse. So, just learning the data takes such a long time. And, well, understanding the data is pretty foundational to our work in analytics and data science.
Validate assumptions
This is a very important habit, especially when working with data. But also just … for working in general.
This is the … 8th company I’ve worked for. There were things I just assumed were standard operating procedures that I’ve come to learn aren’t. So ask all the questions. Even if you think “this is a dumb question” or “the answer to this is obvious.” Sometimes the answer will surprise you. Ask the questions while you can still play the “I’m new here” card.
A good culture makes a difference
I’ve been lucky enough that with my last few job changes, I can be picky and hold out for an opportunity that is a definite “yes!” versus something I have to mull over to decide if I want to accept. And this field also pays enough that I can live a comfortable life without holding out for the highest possible salary, or feel like I have to constantly job hop for more money.
That is to say, my company has a culture that fits me very well. I work on a good team, with very supportive bosses (not just my direct manager but my skip level and skip skip level). Even though the last few jobs I’ve accepted have all had good bosses and usually a good culture when I started, things can change. Bosses leave, teams get reorganized, companies get acquired. I’ve wound up under bosses who left a lot to be desired, and after an acquisition, so did the new company culture.
Now that I’m back in a situation I chose, the difference is huge. I’ll be transparent and admit that the salary I accepted for this role wasn’t my target salary (although it was an increase over my last job). But I have never once regretted accepting this job instead of holding out for more money.
Change is hard but that’s how you grow
“You have to get comfortable being uncomfortable.”
A former VP used to say that to our team. That was the VP who put me in my first analytics role, so yeah, she knew what she was doing when it came to managing.
Anyway, growth does not come from being comfortable. If you aren’t challenging yourself, you aren’t learning, and you aren’t growing.
Yes, that means putting yourself in situations where your imposter syndrome kicks in. I’ve had so many moments over the past year where I’m like “sh*t I guess I gotta actually learn how to do that thing I’ve been avoiding.”
So I’m happy to report that I’m getting much more comfortable using the terminal and virtual environments, lol. Hearing your boss more or less say “you really should know how to do that” will light a fire under your ass.
Have you started a new job in the past year? How’s it going? What have you learned?