New job - feel so incompetent

[galaxybeyond101]

I am in the second week of a brand new job, after taking some time off working (around 6 months) It is a completely different sector to anything I have done before and I was very surpised to be have been offered the job!

I just feel so incompetant, my manager is very kind and patient with me but I have made so many mistakes already that she needs to correct which makes me feel guilty as its taking up her time. I just feel so stupid and that she is regretting taking me on.

It doesn't help that 2 weeks into the job I have caught a horrible cold/cough and I'm moving house in less than a month so I just feel stressed and yuck.

Has anyone been through this? Does it get better? I have knots thinking about tomorrow and all the things I'm going to have no clue how to do 😓

You need to give yourself three months

Keep going and try and remember all the things you have to do. Write notes. Reread them regularly. You'll get there. They're not expecting you to be perfect from the get go. If they're giving you a chance, take it.

I’m coming up for my second anniversary in my current role - new sector having spent my entire career in the same institution. I’ve only just started to feel like I really know what I’m doing in the last six months. Give it time to settle and remember that they wouldn’t have hired you if they didn’t think you could do it. Good luck and congratulations on the role.

Ah come on....be a bit kinder to yourself.

You can't expect to know everything in max of 10 working days.

I hate when new to team staff are really tough on themselves when they are taking on a new role.

No decent manager expects perfection (ever- it's impossible).

You just need to take it week by week...do you know more than you did last week etc...are you making progress?

I think it takes 6 months to get comfortable with most new roles...not just the technical aspects, but the company way of doing things etc, to build up a network of people to keep you do every query isn't going to manager etc.

Give yourself time. Very few managers are so bad at recruitment that they get it terribly wrong. You were hired for a reason.

I spent my first 3 months in tears - no handover, different job than I was promised yadda yadda yadda.....but.....good location, interesting, learning loads, couldn't go back and most importantly great colleagues. Now 2 years later - still learning loads, job is still changing every few months, but even better team to work with and usually no tears!!!

Stick with it. You'll get there.

I agree with PP, you are being really hard on yourself.

It's absolutely normal to feel like this but (as a manager), I never mind when new hires don't know things, or are taking a while to get used to something provided a) they are open and communicate b) are genuinely trying to learn and improve and c) are open to feedback.

You will absolutely get there, with the right attitude. I am far more concerned (and this has happened way more than I'd like) with new staff who decide that they can't do something (but it's someone else's fault) or they don't want do the assigned work, or that they know better and are going to work entirely differently - that's a sign of a poor attitude which is hard to change, whereas just not knowing stuff is fine and will come.

It’s normal and everyone goes through these stages:

unconscious incompetence (you don’t know that you don’t know)
conscious incompetence (you realise that you don’t know these things)
Conscious competence (you have to actively make sure you’re doing things the right way and double check)
unconscious competence (you do it without thinking)

Everyone is the same in a new job, it takes a good 6 months to feel you’re really starting to get to grips with it and all the idiosyncrasies of a new workplace culture and practice etc.

keep going, you’ll be fine.