
Ask HN: What to do if you're not great at your job - xupybd
Has anyone else found they struggle to develop their skills as quickly as their co-workers?<p>If so how have you dealt with this?<p>It&#x27;s depressing to think I&#x27;m not as useful to my work place as they need me to be. I don&#x27;t need to be the best just as compitent as I should be at my level of experience.
======
lethologica
This was the entirety of my university life. I was constantly dumbfounded by
how my peers could seemingly instantly grasp any number of complicated
theories whereas I was always left feeling behind, struggling, and stupid
because it would take me 10x longer than them to understand the same
principles.

There's a quote by record producer Jimmy Iovine that has always stuck with me
since I heard it: "I always felt that I had to work harder than the next guy,
just to do as well as the next guy. And to do better than the next guy, I had
to just kill."

Unfortunately, there wasn't a cure to this. If they put in 3 hours to learn
something I had to put in 30. It took me a while, but I came to realise that
there was nothing I could do about this. They either had natural talent, were
more intelligent, or some combination of the both. And you know what? That's
fine. I still put in all my extra hours, I was still getting passing grades,
and I still graduated. Sometimes, the only way for people like me (and by the
sounds of it, you) to compete is to just put in more time. But sometimes,
that's not enough either. When it comes to that, you have to just realise that
comparing yourself to your peers is wasted energy. Are you better than you
were yesterday? Yes? Good. That's all that really matters.

~~~
xupybd
Thanks I think you're correct. It's hard to take the clear disapointment from
my bosses. But I can't do what I can't do and just have to aim to be better at
a pace that I can. Some emotional disipline might be the best way to go. Am I
doing better, rather than am I living up to the hopes of my bosses.

It's scary though would I be employable if I disapoint them too much. Will I
get a terrible reference? Who knows.

I miss doing labour jobs were I could work my ass of all day and feel like I
did a great job.

~~~
solipsism
_I miss doing labour jobs were I could work my ass of all day and feel like I
did a great job._

Nothing at all wrong with that kind of work.

~~~
xupybd
Only the pay. I'd love to go back to that but I wouldn't be able to keep my
house and make the change.

~~~
arthev
Get a different house?

------
downerending
I've had a number of jobs in my career. In some, I've been great. In others,
not very good. I've been pretty much the same person each time, and the
descriptions for these jobs have not varied that much. The particulars can
really make or break things, though.

People and jobs are like locks and keys. Some fit, some don't, but that
doesn't necessarily mean that the key (or the lock) is bad.

If you have the option to look for other positions, inside or outside of this
company, you might consider it. It's a lot more fun to be a big fish in a
little pond than a tiny one in an ocean.

~~~
eanthy
I agree with this too. Especially if what the company does is not of interest
it's also very difficult to care about what you are doing or even improve in
it. Just find another position where you fit.

------
n_ary
I like to list some advises from various mentors:

\- struggling means you are learning, if things are easy you need to find
something new to do

\- having self-doubt (imposter syndrome) is common among people, when you gain
knowledge, you are confronted with the vastness of it resulting in doubts,
only ignorant people feel they know everything, smart and knowledgeable people
knows that they have much to learn

\- everyone struggles, some are just better at hiding it

\- if someone appears to simply "get it", it is more likely that they have put
in more time and effort on the topic on the topic, some people are born with
the "knack" but rest of us just need to put more effort and time

I still find hope and inspiration from these when times are hard and I
struggle/feel stuck etc. :)

[ Edit: Formatting ]

------
thiago_fm
Just keep studying. You probably need to put more effort, of course, don't
over do it, but don't waste your time with crap.

I'm one of the slowest learners I know of, but I never give up. I've actually
have developed a lot of patience to look at the same thing 100 times until I
learn.

I can speak a few languages, code in many languages, moved abroad etc. We have
so much time to learn in our lives. If we never stop learning, we can
definitely be a tower of knowledge, no matter how big our "learning rate" is.

If you know how compounding interest work, you know that TIME is a more
important factor than the INTEREST, as TIME makes things exponential. It might
sound a bit cliche and cheap, but don't doubt yourself. Be the one that puts
the biggest effort to compensate that. Don't waste your life thinking that you
aren't good or fit for something.

If your work is too demanding and nobody fired you, that is fine. Keep going,
more effort. If somebody decides to fire you for that reason, there is always
less demanding work, you can keep studying and come back to your position and
even achieve more later. As long as in the end you can take enough calories
and don't die to sickness/violence(which you can't control very well) if you
keep putting time into your own improvement you will make it.

The truth is that most people I know, after their 30s, they don't want to
learn anymore at all, or they don't even feel that they need to, or that they
aren't competent, they are all on auto-pilot. From the 30s to the 70s+ you
have most of the people that way and no matter how slow you are to learn, if
you just take it seriously, I bet you will be miles away from them.

~~~
croh
Thanks for good advice.

[https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-
habits](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40121378-atomic-habits)

------
quintes
How about thinking of a development plan.

What are you struggling with? Why? How could you improve that? By when? Make
those goals SMART.

Get your manager to support you through your plan.

Check in, keep yourself accountable to your goals. See how you’ve grown and
celebrate those wins.

------
1zero
Yes! This is a self-perception thing. In reality its all about value that you
bring. So many good points are written here on this post. But I would say:

1\. Do not compare yourself to peers. Everyone has self-doubts and no one is
fantastic at everything. But some will talk a great talk and try to convince
others of their prowess. You just need to be you. Only you can sing your song.

2\. Add value wherever you can. This is what the business pays you for. This
is why they hired you. Think about it, if you were not providing value you
would not be there.

3\. Own your world. Take responsibility for everything you do. Work hard to do
the best you can.

4\. Above all, be there for the team. Just like the A-team, its made up of
very different people. You are a key part of that team.

5\. Finally, for your own peace of mind, learn more and study new things. This
will give you the feel-good factor and increase your overall knowledge which
will improve your contribution to the work and diminish the self-doubt you are
experiencing now.

Keep your chin up. I'm positive you are doing great.

------
tmaly
Reframe the problem, look at it from the perspective of value. In most cases
people do not want the smartest solution, they just want something that
matches their world view.

------
NotSammyHagar
First, you are probably not so terrible as you think. Impostor syndrome is
very common, everyone gets it at some point. Just work hard, apply yourself.
Everyone else is just doing their best. I have 25 years as a dev and I've felt
out of my depth, didn't know what I was doing many times.

------
ldd
I'm surprised nobody has quoted Meditations by Marcus Aurelius yet.

> _Thou sayest, Men cannot admire the sharpness of thy wits.- Be it so: but
> there are many other things of which thou canst not say, I am not formed for
> them by nature. Show those qualities then which are altogether in thy power,
> sincerity, gravity, endurance of labour, aversion to pleasure, contentment
> with thy portion and with few things, benevolence, frankness, no love of
> superfluity, freedom from trifling magnanimity.

Dost thou not see how many qualities thou art immediately able to exhibit, in
which there is no excuse of natural incapacity and unfitness, and yet thou
still remainest voluntarily below the mark? Or art thou compelled through
being defectively furnished by nature to murmur, and to be stingy, and to
flatter, and to find fault with thy poor body, and to try to please men, and
to make great display, and to be so restless in thy mind?

No, by the gods: but thou mightest have been delivered from these things long
ago. Only if in truth thou canst be charged with being rather slow and dull of
comprehension, thou must exert thyself about this also, not neglecting it nor
yet taking pleasure in thy dulness._

------
BenjaminW4257
Two particular points that have helped me get better is 1) don't ignore your
inner voice when it tells you are have done/are about to do something wrong
and 2) keep logs of your tasks through the day. Add recurring tasks to check
lists. Automate away dumb work, leaving more time for learning.

RE 1) a lot of my mistakes are the result of/been made worse by ignoring that
feeling that things aren't quite right... e.g. an error message in a log that
doesn't seem to have had any effect and you have seen before, but you don't
quite understand. Don't leave that lie, add it to a TODO, understand it and
fix it.

RE 2) grind away problems with first logging your recurring work, then
automating away as much work as possible. It can be a complicated script or it
can be simply a link in a checklist, anything to save you time. Make sure to
make your manager aware of this work, it can go unnoticed otherwise.

------
JSeymourATL
Find a coach/mentor/peer who can both assess your current skills and help you
level-up.

Assuming there's a specific area you feel weak. Break down the components and
systematically work on getting good.

Not unlike a weight training. Build time into your calendar. Today is leg day!

~~~
blaser-waffle
SQL Day and Arm Day are the best workout days of the week. Prove me wrong.

------
FroshKiller
Develop a specialty. There is some topic that your co-workers avoid or joke
about, some task they take pains to avoid having to do. Specialize in that. It
doesn't have to be anything complicated. You will produce value in greater
proportion than the work you have to do.

I started out supporting accounting software and threw myself into things
other people were afraid of, like intercompany accounting and general ledger
data issues. Be curious about others' blind spots, and people will appreciate
it. You'll become the specialist, the expert, the go-to person for something
other people know little about.

------
paulcole
Just remember that most people aren’t great at their jobs. It’s fine to be
average or below average— most people are.

That’s how I deal with it at least. Do enough to not get fired. Make mistakes
sometimes. Whatever, not the end of the world.

------
solipsism
You need to find what you're good at. Each human is an incredibly complex
array of strengths and weaknesses. We all focus on our specific weaknesses and
compare ourselves to others by noticing what strengths they have that we don't
have. What you need to do is find the strengths you have that others don't
have. Chances are there are some.

Also, make sure you care about doing a good job and improving. Most managers
out there are dealing with one or two people who seem to not give a shit.
Those are are top of mind for the manager. Always give a shit.

------
probinso
remember that there's great value in always being the dumbest person in the
room. as long as you're always learning regardless of your learning rate you
will leave with much more than you think.

that being said, the point at which you should feel comfortable in a project
is the point once you can mimic the whole project yourself. for small projects
this may just take a couple months. for large projects this could take much
longer.

you can narrow your scope bye fixing the range of types of work. this can be
done by restricting yourself to backed, frontend, data... this gives you the
opportunity to get better more quickly because you can focus more. this does
however limits your contributions, may not always be an option, and maybe over
reacting

the other option is to just get better at estimating time. track all of your
time, don't report it if you don't have to. if you become good at estimating
your time, and use those in your projections, you will feel far more
confident. include learning time. this is a skill that most engineers don't
have.

it also helps to remember that regardless of how slow you are, any work your
complete his work somebody else doesn't have to do. how fast do army not be
the most marketable part of who you are. discover if your value add is
elsewhere even if it is just a cog that does things that others don't want to.
that it value and appreciated. other values may be communication,
documentation, education, management, culture, ...

also, when always pushing yourself it's easier to feel behind. you won't need
to push yourself your whole life. a co-worker of mine said he would never work
at a startup again because he always had to push to learn new technologies and
had to wear too many hats. he is an Excellent developer (better than most I
know who love working at stadtups) who didn't thrive in that environment.

------
orionblastar
I would use Yahoo, now Google I use, to look up stuff I didn't know how to do.
That was in the late 1990s and it is like reading a tech book. You can catch
up if you do that.

Don't let imposter syndrome get you, you get paid for your labor not your
skills. Just don't fall behind on your projects, if you do ask for help.

