Ask HN: First month job anxiety. Am I actually an impostor?

I'm curious: Did those verbally talented people also produce complex working code?

My experience is that people who sound impressive and accurate rarely do.

Don't stress it too much. Any high level job at a big company: unless you've got a concrete project assigned to you, the first couple of months are going to be eating out of your nose. As long as you don't stand in the way, nobody cares. They all had to go through the same phase, so no one thinks you are slacking unless it goes on for years.

Go to all the meetings you are invited to, help where you can and all will be OK.

As for reaching out to people: learn (project) management/ communication/leadership skills. There are a lot of good resources on amazon about this (research yourself what you actually need). You probably can talk to your boss about this, he then will feel happy he can help you with something and give you tips and explain about the culture etc.

Best of luck and as I said, don't worry too much: if the culture is a fit you will be fine.

Lots of good advice here. I'll make some assumptions, such as that you were doing well as a contractor. And that generally means you've adapted some form of The "Feynman Algorithm":

1. Write down the problem.

2. Think real hard.

3. Write down the solution.

Crucially, you've had an approach to point 0 (only implied above) - figure out what the problem is. What is the domain? What is the data like? What does the problem suggest for transforming the data? About transforming the data model so the hard problem become easy?

As a contractor, you'd probably work on point zero with your client - and as the relationship would typically be new, both of you knew this part was essential. What does the client (want to) do? How can you help enable that?

Now, you need to figure out point zero again, in the context of a large organization: large new code base, large new domain(s), large new company culture.

Ask your manager or Co worker for a mentor. Pair program. Read code, read commits from your co-workers. Try to understand the data model(s). Read bug reports.

All those things should help with point zero (let's call it context). Now you should be ready to apply the "algorithm" ;)

[ed: and yes, learning/internalizing enough context to be useful takes time!]

First of all you made it! You are in the top 1% or so of people who apply to be hired at these places. I remember some stat that tens maybe a hundred thousand people apply to google a year and only a select few make it on. Don’t be ashamed! Be proud. You have nothing left to prove just do your work. All the gladiator level proving has been done by your interview and your previous body of work. It’s a huge accomplishment.

Do you have a mentor? Someone you admire with decent people skills that can help you learn the soft skills to help you both accel but also assuage your concerns? I’d look for someone like that because they might have gone through the very same thing you did. Or they might know of someone with a similar personality type and know how to help you.

Just be happy and confident. Again you made it. Someone thought you were good enough to join the team. Be patient but also find ways to insert yourself into cool or interesting projects so that you both get exposed to the business but also show initiative and maybe put your name on some cool projects.

It takes me 1 year to train new hires in my team. I would not sweat it.

Develop good rapport with you Manager. Ask them what their biggest challenges are right now. Try to find ways to help them and provide more perceived value.