Feeling overwhelmed with everything I need to learn at my new job

build some positive momentum for yourself by tackling your most straightforward tasks immediately. this will give you confidence when you deal with ambiguous problems that might take a while to solve

read more code than you write for the first 90 days, and write as much as you can. find the thorniest code reviewer on your team and make sure they review as many of your CRs as possible. implement every nit, no matter how small

basically, be a sponge and reach out early/often for help. your team will appreciate your dedication and you'll learn much more than silo-ing yourself and watching tutorials

good luck! you got this 🚀

I would set an expectation that it's very normal to feel overwhelmed when you are starting a new job. Take a deep breath and understand that the anxiety is completely normal, the imposter syndrome is completely normal. Most teams expect that the first few months will be a period where you'll be learning and making mistakes.

I actually think your bias of starting on tickets immediately is actually good. A lot of people fall victim to reading through too much documentation or passively going through tutorials where it impacts them from actually getting any work done.

You're probably in a place where every corner you turn just seems like there's a block. That's okay. Write down any questions or misunderstandings you have so you can ask your team when they get back.

As far as a problem solving framework, I would try to timebox each problem to a few hours. If there's a problem where you aren't actively making progress after making your best attempt, I would meet with someone and lay out the full context of how you are understanding the problem and solutions you've tried, and they'll probably be able to answer your question or steer you in the right direction. Sometimes, there is just tribal knowledge that's been passed down that can only be answered by someone who implemented the system or has been bit by that problem before.

The easiest way to banish your imposter syndrome and anxiety is to bias towards action and get things done. Follow these principles:

1. Be extremely comfortable losing face and looking dumb
2. If you get stuck for 30+ minutes, ask for help
3. When you get help, thank the teammate who helped you deeply
4. Feedback is a gift. I repeat, feedback is a gift. Never be defensive with feedback. Try to implement all feedback within 24 hours, especially in code review
5. Stack up as many small wins as you can. Once you master small tickets, move on to medium ones, and then big ones
6. Make people like you. Set up recurring 1 on 1s where you can. Plant those networking seeds early and be the friendliest face in the office

Pretty much all of this is covered in-depth within our onboarding masterclass: [Masterclass] How To Succeed At A New Team Or Company As A Software Engineer