Ask HN: I started a new job and I'm scared

The key mistake that I would make was to curl up instead of reach out.

When you are worried or afraid, it can be hard to reach out. But I always got far better feedback whenever I presented my work, and showed the parts that were blocking my progress, and asked a lot of questions.

Often, I was trying to solve a problem that the team had simply not considered.

The problem might be out of scope for the task I was expected to address, and my perspective was due to my lack of context that was considered natural for any new hire.

Or I was unfamiliar with their tools and workflow. This is where it might be best to work through a task in tandem with someone who has been working there for a while. It doesn't have to be a big thing, just something to go through the whole cycle.

You are already asking good questions. On HN. Keep it up, ask your new team. It might be scary but the fear usually goes away very quickly.

With that out of the way, if your bosses want to fire you a week after you've consistently and proactively been trying to learn workflows that are new to you in your new job, you'd actually be dodging a bullet.

> I hate that I am always asking people for help

You only need to do this for "tribal" knowledge, for which you should have (or start) an internal wiki. For the rest, you kinda have to plumb the depths of the public internet...

> like today I asked for help to rebase my branch since I have never done it before

Yeah, I still remember my first rebase very well, thinking I would just lose everything if it went wrong. I tried a bunch of things on a throwaway repo to figure out what exactly happens, which turned out to be very helpful. I particularly enjoyed this talk once I'd found it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ffBJ4sVUb4

> At my old job I was the guy that got things done, gathering requirements, designing and developing new features did anyone else ever feel this way and if so how did you over come, did anyone get fired because they are incompetent?

That is still your skill set, and not knowing something does not make you incompetent; though not wanting to learn new workflows and tribal knowledge does.

I have always had pride in being a newbie to a new team - I get to learn another set of ways someone has thought about working through problems, and more often than not - my new team benefits from the fresh perspective I bring to the table when I start asking questions on why something is the way it is, and to mull over whether there could be a better way to do it before you get crusty. Win-win.

See if anyone on the new team is willing to volunteer to mentor you. That looks nice on yearly reviews for both of you as well. Cheers!

Just wait it out, keep up the hard work and face the fear head on. The fact that you’re thinking about it is a good sign.

I work as a PM, and I’m far less technical and I’m more soft skill oriented than the engineers around me. I notice that engineers have a tendency to have a lower tolerance for failure, and they worry when things don’t go exactly according to plan. I like this quality - keeps everything grounded (including me!).

Don’t let these thoughts cloud your judgement. As long as you keep your cool, and show that you’re making progress, it is probably more worthwhile to wait until you catch up than it is to recruit someone to replace you. If anything goes wrong, it could just be a “bad job experience” to be put behind you anyways. Also, others here are giving great actionable advice.