Time spent as a junior engineer is a unique and important experience. We are new to the field, hired with the understanding that we are, as tour title states, juniors in our expertise. Because of internal pressures, external attention, imposter syndrome, and all of the other things that cause us to second-guess ourselves, the time we have in this role can easily go under-utilized. Often it feels as though we have to prove ourselves — we need to keep up with everyone else, know everything, and not let any cracks show.
Now, of course we were hired to do a job. We need to, first and foremost, meet the expectations set forth for us with competency and thoughtfulness. But those expectations are (hopefully) based on seniority level, and by definition are not going to include keeping up with or matching the knowledge and experience of those engineers more senior to us.
As a junior engineer, one of the most incredible learning resources we have comes from proximity to the other, more senior engineers who we get to interact with every day. And until we reach the top — the point at which we are, ourselves, the most senior engineers in the room — that isn’t going to change. We need to do everything we can to soak up knowledge — to understand how they make decisions, how they navigate ambiguity, how they assess tradeoffs, and ultimately, in a world that is…
