I started my journey at Kaito Insight almost 2.5 years ago. I had just graduated from university with a biomedical engineering degree and just decided to jump into analytics with almost no experience. I knew very much about biological cells and how to build “human spare parts” for cancer patients, but very little about analytics or how to build software.
I am happy to admit now how noob I was, although it took a lot of growing – and stupid questions. I’d like to share a few tactics that helped me along the way.
1. Embrace the Advantage of Being a Novice – ask questions
When jumping into the deep end of new things, make the most of your cluelessness. You have now the right to ask, and sometimes questions that feel stupid and the must-have-an-obvious answer might prove to be the trickiest ones. I found questions like “why x is done like this?” very insightful. First, it helps you to build an understanding of the subject. Second, that question is often very usable even later in your career.
By asking simple questions, you get better at challenging the decisions that are being made and you can even use the same trick on yourself when you are the one making the decision. Moreover, the simpler a subject can be explained, the better you understand it – so asking the super simple stuff probably makes you a master in that subject.
Like Kaito, many companies have buddies that help you with onboarding. I used the same tactic at the very beginning of my career by finding a buddy solely for my simple technical questions. I found a person who was eager to help and knew my level. Though, this can be a double-edged sword: it can boost your confidence when you don’t have to admit to everyone that you don’t know something but on the other hand, you get only one opinion, which might be fallible.
2. Don’t try to understand it all at once – split it into pieces
I sometimes find myself reading code and understanding nothing which is all right! The first time I found myself in that situation, I felt horrified. But then I remembered a method I used in a cell biology course during my bioengineering studies: I had a long text about a cell’s biological mechanisms in front of me with a lot of complicated protein names and descriptions of cell processes. I accepted that I cannot understand it all within the first reading, so I just skimmed through and got an idea of what the text covers. Then I had a little break and did something else. The brain processes the idea even if you don’t actively think about it and the text feels much more understandable next time. The same method is fully applicable to code as well. If there is still something unclear, reach out to your asking buddy – I am sure your question is valid.
3. Be bold – make mistakes
I often find myself pondering how come this is so difficult and how I always find a new way to make mistakes, especially with GIT. Nowadays I have overcome this thought by thinking that always doing things right teaches you very little. For example, I rarely make the same mistake twice, which means that my problems are always “new”, and there is some learning ahead. You might do your merges every time perfectly, but if you haven’t made any mistakes, how would you know how to fix them? You are mastering a new skill here, and part of mastering it is knowing how to correct missteps.
I hope you found these ideas helpful, so we both have learned something from my mistakes!
28.04.2024
