New Job and Confidence

March 6, 2016 8:39 AM

How long does it take to feel competent at a new job?

As some of you know, I just started a great new job two weeks ago. Just the 5th and 6th day in I have already been working by myself on tasks 90% of the time. It is pretty much things I've known and done before but it's just the little things I need to remember and learn like their processes, the way they do things, etc. so even though I work on my own a lot I still ask my trainer a lot of questions and note it down. I am paranoid of annoying her, as much as I try to write notes down I run into new situations that hadn't been really explained.

To reduce annoyance I try to ask them all at once with a list. She told me I'm catching on really well and showing initiative by heading straight to working. My boss also says I'm showing a remarkable job taking tasks head on and we are off to a good start.

Yet, I'm still paranoid. My very first job severely hurt my confidence and questioned my competency because everything I did was never good enough. And I just expect the worst and wait for my new job to hate me.

I feel like I know what I'm doing my second week in but I still feel the need to ask questions. How long did it take for you all on average to feel completely independent?

posted by Asian_Hunnie to Society & Culture (15 answers total)

I think it depends on the scope of the job, but for me my very first job as a Sonic carhop took about two months and my current role as art program director and professor took a year. And even then, to never have to ask questions is not a great goal; no job is 100% independent.
posted by vegartanipla at 8:56 AM on March 6, 2016 [2 favorites]

This will vary significantly from job to job. I my professional job it took 3-6 months until I'd experienced most different tasks and was able to work largely independently for somebody at my level at the time but that's due to work cycles taking this long. If your work cycles, whatever they may be, take a couple of weeks to a month it'll take less long because you'll have come across the different tasks you're meant to handle much faster. I'd expect the number of questions to drop quite a bit after one cycle and to reach a fairly low level after the next.

If everybody is telling you you're doing well why do you question that? Ask your trainer how they want you to approach collecting questions, if there's a time to ask questions, that is significantly less disruptive in terms of how they structure their day and do what they ask.
posted by koahiatamadl at 9:01 AM on March 6, 2016

*Completely* independent? A decade or two, in my kind of work. But my work has always been project-based and highly technical, and the timeline of a project is pretty long. We work up the ranks, junior - intermediate - senior.

It is completely appropriate to ask a lot of questions and be uncertain at first. Within a month or two the juniors will have a handle on the kinds of basic tasks they're given under guidance of someone more senior. It takes a few projects of similar type, and therefore a few years, to be adequately competent and independent, at which point you make it to intermediate level... 50-75% of the work I can just get done, and have checked by a senior, with relatively minimal editing made.

As an example for a new-hire we recently let go who "just wasn't working out" after a year there - the guy wasn't engaged... he wasn't interested, wasn't catching on. The work he did always had to be re-done, he needed to be micromanaged to get anything useful out of him. We gave him lots of chances, he just wasn't stepping up. He was as good at his job a month-in as he was at the end of the year.
posted by lizbunny at 9:06 AM on March 6, 2016

In my team, we expect five-plus YEARS for people to feel competent and find their niche. Sure, they can work unsupervised well before that, but I've deleted over a million lines of code in my ten years on the team without having removed significant functionality. There's a lot to learn. I still ask questions because there are things I don't understand after ten years, and I'm considered one of the "go-to guys."

Is that typical, even in my field of software development? Not hardly. But if your co-workers think you're doing okay, trust them. Every job is different.
posted by DaveP at 9:19 AM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

In my experience, it takes about a year to get really comfortable in a new job, with new knowledge and new processes.
posted by suelac at 9:41 AM on March 6, 2016

My first job to feel completely independent? four years.
My second job to feel completely independent? three days.
My third job to feel completely independent? three months.
My fourth job to feel completely independent? two months.

My first job was right out of school. My second job was a fast-paced freelance gig where I was often the only one in the office at 2 am (night shift in a mostly day-shift workplace). My third job had a department of people who didn't respect me until I pointed out major flaws in their ten-years-old workflow. My fourth job trusted me enough to land a client and pay me a commission.

I guess my point is it will vary with your experience and the culture of your workplace. Be confident that you're doing the best work you're capable of.
posted by infinitewindow at 10:01 AM on March 6, 2016

About questions:if a manager does not get any questions from a new hire, he sees trouble coming. Likewise, dumb or repetitive questions are a bad sign. Questions showing some comprehension are reassuring.
posted by SemiSalt at 11:37 AM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

My profession involves mandatory job rotations every 6-12months, so I've changed jobs a lot. It usually takes about 4 months for me to get to know all the local processes and the quickest ways to get stuff done. In terms of promotions, every time I've changed grade it has taken 2 years or so to be comfortable (and not like an imposter) in my new role.
posted by tinkletown at 11:53 AM on March 6, 2016

I agree that it varies drastically between jobs - my experience as follows:

Crappy retail / cashier job without any actual responsibility = a couple weeks to feel comfortable. In that kind of job, I've felt fully competent after say, a month, and exactly the same a year later.

Low/mid level assistant job with some responsibility, under close supervision = a couple months to feel comfortable. While I felt confident six months in, I was definitely better at my job a year in. After a year, it was pretty stagnant - no more growth.

Professional job without close supervision where I was fully responsible for managing my time = six months to feel like a non-disaster & realize that I might eventually be comfortable, a year to actually start to feel competent. Two years to feel like I was good at my job, and I kept getting better at it over time.

If your boss told you she is pleased with how quickly you are catching on, there's no reason to doubt that! If you have coworkers with similar jobs, you could also ask them how long it took them to start feeling comfortable/competent in their work. And nthing that asking questions is normal and a good sign - the frequency of questions will likely change over time, as will the types of questions you ask, but virtually all jobs require that you ask your boss questions to some extent.
posted by insectosaurus at 12:21 PM on March 6, 2016

The learning curve at my old job was about 3 months to anything even close to independent work. Probably about 6 months to reasonably confident IF you were an internal hire.
Every job is different. If you are operating as well as you seem to be then you are doing awwsomely well. Don't stop asking questions for a long time.
posted by SLC Mom at 1:09 PM on March 6, 2016

So much depends on the nature of the work and your prior experience. But in my experience, about a year.

It sounds like you're doing exactly the right thing in being assertive with your learning process. It's the jobs where I've been afraid to ask questions or where questions have been discouraged that I've had poor experiences. Sounds like you are in a positive environment so far ... keep doing what you're doing!
posted by bunderful at 4:44 PM on March 6, 2016

Response by poster: @bunderful, yes my very first job condemned me for asking questions. They said I was a know it all, challenged and questioned authority, etc. SMH.
Thanks everyone.
posted by Asian_Hunnie at 6:33 PM on March 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

I've trained lots of people at highly detail-oriented jobs and it usually takes about six months for them to be mostly autonomous, a year for them to be a fully-functioning part of workflow (i.e., able to answer outside questions and make judgements about priorities and timelines).

In every healthy workplace I've been in, asking questions has been highly encouraged.
posted by stoneandstar at 9:48 PM on March 6, 2016

I would say for the first 4-6 months of your job, your job is to relax, learn the ropes, and get along with your co-workers while you evaluate the position. I would avoid asking too many questions, because a big part of fitting in and getting along is to make yourself seem easy to work with. Seriously, I would look at not stressing out as being a big part of what you should be doing now.
posted by xammerboy at 7:54 AM on March 7, 2016

Response by poster: @xammerboy, it would be difficult for me not to ask questions when tasks are thrown at me in different directions from people and I have to handle it lol. It's so much to learn with little details, I just hope I'm not burnt out.
posted by Asian_Hunnie at 9:36 AM on March 7, 2016