Did everyone have newbie troubles? 2

[MelissaBerrett]

OR JUST ME?
I just graduated from college with BSBA in CIS and Finance and started a job in (in the financial department) for a Health Services Firm. I specifically told them in the interview that I did not want to be the "Solo" provider of all IT knowledge (mainly, and honestly because I'm not fully confident in my abilites) Well, here I am, 1 month into my job and they want me to be the answer to all thier IT problems. Wanting me to program thier way to success, and I don't think I can do it. Most questions they ask me I have to get back to them in a few days, not immediatly like they want. I feel like college just didn't give me enough education, or something... am I retarted, or did all newbies feel the strain of entering the "Real World"? How did you deal with it?

 

[CajunCenturion]

Welcome to the club, Melissa. Of course we all had similar type growing pains. Your best bet is to keep plugging away, and as you learn more, and gain more experience, you'll gain more confidence in yourself, and your co-workers will also come to appreciate you more and more.

You're quite fortunate in that you have lots of resources at your disposal, such as Tek-Tips to help you along.

Don't be afraid to ask question in this, or one of the other Technical Forums. There are lots of good people who contribute, and add value to this service.

I wish you well. Good Luck
--------------
As a circle of light increases so does the circumference of darkness around it. - Albert Einstein

 

[heyitsthephoneguy]

Here here!

I just started at a company....and I've got three years of experince under my belt. It's tough when you first start something new....you are in a position of having to ask a lot of questions (My favorite...it took me a week to find the bathroom because I was too embarassed to ask.).

Just say to yourself after each embarassing situation...That's something I won't have to ask about again. The more you absorb, the less you have to ask about. Eventually you'll be the one people are asking the questions of !

Hang in there. Besides it's not what you know, it's how much you can look up

 

[DarenNM]

I have to agree with CajunCenturion and heyitsthephoneguy - having the ability to be able to look-up information is important. We are all learning all of the time - technology just moves too fast not to.

I have found that is important not to try to bluff people if they ask a question and you don't know the answer. Just say you will look into it and get back to them as soon as possible. Various people have told me that they appreciated that I gave them an honest answer rather than trying to bluff. It sounds as if you have taken that approach already, so I would say keep it up.

Good luck to you.

Daren
Must think of a witty signature

 

[KenCunningham]

"Besides it's not what you know, it's how much you can look up " Hear, hear. I'd just add that it's also knowing where to look - like here for example. All the best - you'll soon get up to speed.

 

[TomKane]

It's the same for everyone when they start out. Be sure to take notes of things that happened and how you fixed them - could be invaluable.

 

[visualuser]

Melissa,

Wow, it's almost like I wrote this myself. I'm still in my first job out of college with like degree. I've been here almost 4 years and I'm in a situation sorta like you. All I could do the first year or so was to absorb as much info that I could and keep my head up. You are going to make mistakes; you are a human being.

As far as your current job, you can be successful! You've already proven that you are a winner by your school achievements. Believe in yourself. Just think of this job as preparation, not destination. Good luck and keep fighting!


Jeremiah 29:11

 

[drd2k]

I've been doing the IT thing since before it was IT. Things will never change, we do what we do to help others, help our business and grow personally. The more you "help" the more you are asked/expected to help. Soon you will see that users will say it is always your fault. So be it! That's when you start to grow.

Don't worry about not having all the answers right now. No one can have all the answers all the time (or even some every now and then). Use the skills that got you through school and keep growing. You'll work it out in the end.

Think about it, you could be selling used cars......

 

[MelissaBerrett]

WOW, such encouragement. You all changed my views. Thank you, and long live IT!!

Melissa

 

[dkediger]

A few more thoughts - I've been in this industry for 15 years:

1. No one - and I mean NO ONE - will ever know everything there is to know in what we do. It simply changes too quickly, and the pace of change has quickened over the years. The approach is to be honest and develop your research skills and sources of information. On that front, welcome to Tek-Tips!

2. You will run across people who do claim to know everything - take them with a grain of salt and try to distance yourself from them if possible.

3. You will need to do some subtle education of your superiors that the IT world does change, is about options, and it is impossible, and not even prudent, to have a snap answer to everything. Hopefully, they have not been exposed to many people in the #2 category. If they have, you're probably in for a rough ride.

4. Be Confident! They chose you for this job for a reason - in this job environment they had plenty of candidates to select from - so you have some qualities they value. Just continue to be upfront about your comfort level.

5. Don't focus on the minutiae unless/until it is needed for a specific job function. Try to become aware of industry trends, but don't try to drill down on them unless you're really interested presonally in it or it is needed for your job.

6. Do something totally different with your free time away from work!

I also have recently moved into a health care related position, and learning the related terminology is a daunting task - I can feel for you there.

 

[JesseL]

Melissa,

This isn't advice, but i hope any others can feel what i am talking about. I am kinda in the same shoes as melissa but worse (I think). I graduated college 1yr ago with a A.A.S in CIS and was fortunate to find the job i have now. I was hired for technical support, and for the past 6months, i have been designing a relational database using MS Access. I did all this by myself! nobody to help me, except tek-tips LoL. I even used ALL VBA code in forms and reports. I feel good about this. But since monday, things have turned around.

I work for a custom wood-working company, and have an office in the drafting dept. The Project Manager asked me on monday what i felt about using AutoCAD instead of continuing doing programming and database work. "Your a bright guy" he says. I felt really uncomfortable about that. I worked really hard on this database, and i feel confident about it. I was honest with him, and I told him that I DO NOT want to do drafting. I told him i went to school to be in the IT industry, and i actually love what i do, even though i do not make that much money right now (hopefully the time will come when i make more ) So, I have been thinking about finding a new job, but the economy sux, and the IT industry is very competitive.

Does anyone have any opinions on this? and has anyone had any similar experiences? THANKS Tek-Tips!

 

[DonQuichote]

Hey, Ksharp,

Does he want you to do drafting or programming? I have been an draftsman for a while and "evoluted" towards AutoLISP programmer (and learned VBA later). AutoCAD can also be programmed in VBA, but for some serious vector calculus you'll want to use lisp. If your boss wants you to program in AutoCAD, you might want to stay...

Best regards

 

[JesseL]

Thanks for replying DonQuichote.

My supervisor was definitely reffering to me drafting instead of programming. Yes, AutoCAD can be programmed in VBA, but I wouldn't know where to start since the drafting that they do at this company is complex. I bought a AutoCAD VBA book over the weekend to give myself a better picture of what kind of code is involved. I know for a fact that nobody knows how to code in the drafting department. I guess I could ask him if he wants VBA code behind AutoCAD to boost productivity, but I have a funny feeling that he wouldn't know what kind of applications that they can use. Time will tell. Thanks

 

[DonQuichote]

If it's an old company, they might have the documentation of an old AutoCAD version (back in the good old days AutoCAD came with documentation) with an AutoLISP manual. If nobody can program at your office, there may be a lot of small libray-kind routines waiting to be programmed (such as automatically filling in a title block). I started to program myself because I was an 'actively lazy' draftsman. If I had to do the same thing 5 times, I'd write a small program for that.

There's a lot to do in AutoCAD. Especially for IT-mided people. It's a lousy drafting program, but a great and open programming environment!

Good luck!

 

[Albion]

1) It's not what you know, it's knowing where to look.
2) The most useful class I ever took in college was Psychology of Human Relations. If you've never had it or something similar, take it, because dealing with people is the #1 priority in your job.
3) Never, and I mean NEVER, say, "I don't have the confidence to do the job." If you don't know something, fake it, buy a book, and learn it.
4) Never be afraid to ask for help.

Follow these simple rules and you will be successful!

-al

 

[heyitsthephoneguy]

Al,

I agree with everything you said other than...

Never, and I mean NEVER, say, "I don't have the confidence to do the job." If you don't know something, fake it, buy a book, and learn it.

If you don't know something, don't "fake it". Explain you don't know the information off of the top of your head, but you will research it and get an answer.

 

[dwmatteson]

I agree completely with heyitsthephoneguy. Never "fake" anything. You should definitely be honest, because you can dig yourself into a pretty big hole by faking it.

On another front, I agree with Albion and others who argue that you shouldn't say that you don't have the confidence to do the job.

There's a difference between saying that you don't have the confidence to do the job and that you don't (yet) have the competence to do the job. The former suggests that you don't think you can do it (and, to some, implies that you're not willing to take the risk involved in finding out). The latter says that even though you're not well-versed in the area, you're willing to learn material (often under pressure) and apply it appropriately.

Yes, you might fail. More often, though, you'll find that you surprise yourself with how much you can learn/do. That will inspire self-confidence, so you ultimately won't have to worry so much about whether you have the confidence to do the job.

In short, one is about attitude, the other about knowledge. You can always find knowledge (see: Tek-Tips!); attitude is something you have to develop on your own.

Hope that's helpful (and doesn't sound to preachy)!

Don

 

[woolstar]

ksharp, I think you've made an important declaration that drafting is not what you want to do. You could do it, but you wouldn't be great at it, or have the motivation to excel at it. I made that mistake once in college taking on a summer job that I wasn't really into, and I sucked at it.

As far as being prepared for a job, I have > 15 years experience in computers and I've constantly tackled new areas where no one had gone before. You just do it. Right now I'm supposed to be designing an analytical reporting system for a drug safety tracking system. I started a few months back with no background in drug safety, never heard of COGNOS, didn't really know what a Data Warehouse was, and had rudementary SQL exposure (I knew the WHERE clause).

Six weeks into prototyping we had ripped through three complete prototypes. Changing the schema daily, building catalogs at a whim, and knocking down mountains of unknowns. We're actually on the verge of a very good prototype, I've learned a lot about datamarts, I can tell the difference between report type and reporter type, and I can make my way through Impromptu/PowerPlay/Architect (cognos tools) while doing some pretty scary joins in SQL for data massaging.

The keys: fail often, fail early, ask, learn, improve and keep going.

Derek
Never a dull moment.

 

[CJTyo]

Melissa,

As long as you were up-front about what you knew/know and be honest as you are asked to learn new things you'll be fine.

I went from being a freelance graphic designer to being asked to develop an Access database (though I'd never done it before, which I told them and then created it including security and all kinds of bells and whistles), to being offered a full time job as the Systems Administrator (though I'd never used UNIX, which I told them and they still gave me the chance to learn as I went). I worked as the SA for almost 2 years quite successfully before I left to get in to technical contracting back in 1997.

As you show aptitude you'll be asked to do more. Accept the challenge and go for it. Personally, I don't think you can REALLY learn technology well in school, you have to get out there in the world and see how it's patched together and figure it out as you go - THAT'S how you learn in this industry.

Good luck to you and keep using Tek-Tips, there are some great people around here!

C


*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
Insanity is a matter of Perception.

 

[JesseL]

This is going to sound like my post from before, but a little different. I have been continuing to work on MS Access database applications, and now things are changing at this company. I was told that I am going to be moving into a new office and I am NOT going to be working on Database stuff anymore I was REALLY getting into it! I am now working for purchasing, and helping out track the flow of information through jobs (which is using MS excell), but has nothing to do with programming at all. This is not what i went to school for! This is a wierd situation for me since I am new to the industry. Well, I am asking for your opinions, and help on my situation. Thank you Tek-Tips! "Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new".
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)