Ask HN: How to manage personal expectations and self-doubt when starting?
I&#x27;m a few days into a new job as an entry-level software engineer at a FAANG. I studied applied math, and worked as a quant analyst at a fund before switching, and also a small startup, but our dev environment was extremely informal and kind of do whatever is appropriate since we were building from scratch. I&#x27;ve always had an enjoyment for coding and solving problems, but right now I feel I&#x27;m in way over my head.<p>My biggest concern is the size&#x2F;scale of what I&#x27;m working on. There are endless holes of methods and implementations, and I have no idea where I end up. For example, I see many classes&#x2F;methods that basically just join other classes&#x2F;methods. In my previous roles, where I was either coding just for my own consumption or had full leeway in choosing what and how to build, I knew where everything I did fit.<p>Just getting my dev environment set up was way over my head. I followed onboarding guides, but it was me typing in commands into my terminal and trusting it - I had no idea what it actually did.<p>I hear about imposter syndrome a lot but I feel like in those cases they have the skills and not the comfort, whereas I don&#x27;t have the baseline altogether. I was a good interviewer, DS + algos&#x2F;Leetcode interviews came naturally to me and I worked hard at them, but that&#x27;s about it. Before switching I was excited because I felt it would be a great opportunity to learn how these big companies work tech-wise, but now I feel like I was handed the blueprints to the Soyuz spaceship in Braille and told to figure it out. I&#x27;m not exaggerating when I say I know 0 about what&#x27;s going on. My team is extremely accommodating and tells me this is natural, but I feel like they&#x27;re underestimating how far behind I am.<p>I&#x27;m not terrified about getting fired, but I&#x27;d still like to do well in this because it truly interests me. How can I keep myself in check and be honest as to when the &quot;you&#x27;ll get it with experience&quot; period is over and it&#x27;s just clear I&#x27;m not the right person?