i joined 9 months ago as l6 in non tech role with 14 yoe. Ive worked at other fortune companies and have led teams. In my current role I am an IC and after 9 months am not really sure what I am doing. I have tried to learn, read wikis, ask for help, etc.. I feel I am unhappy because I suck at this job however cant leave because I relocated here. How can i suck less at my job? Do others feel this way?
When in a state of confusion and lost mind, ask questions. Ask as many questions as you can. And from the answers you get, you can deduce what you should do next. Asking questions is something many are afraid of and that’s very unfortunate. I think “Ask questions” should be one of our LPs. Talk to your team, manager, skip manager, sister teams, reach out to people that have answered similar questions on sage or wiki and ask these people as many questions as you can till you understand things. Remember: No question is a dumb question.
Thank you for this!
first, try breaking down what exactly you're not good at. are you not good at using a certain tool? sql? asking questions? pushing back on other teams you need support from? understanding key metrics? what your goals are? once you have a list of things you don't think you're good at or unsure of, think about whether or not it's important to actually be good at them. for example, when i first joined amazon last year (non tech, L6), i had no clue how to do sql. i had to pull data a few times and it just took up a lot of my time trying to learn and i felt stupid and kind of like shit. then i realized that it's actually not critical to learn it because i can outsource it to BI or other supporting teams. i'm on a different team now and i could benefit from learning it, but because it's not critical to the success of my role, i just outsource it. that way i can focus on developing skills and thinking about the projects that actually define the success of my role. then, now that you know the things you're not good at that you NEED to be good at to succeed at your role. start working on being better at that. ask your coworkers and manager for help. ask if these are the right things to focus on. you need to ask a lot of people questions and have ownership (sometimes be pushy about lol) for your own growth. amazon is a very "ownership" driven culture so you have to be the driving force behind your own development. good luck!
Thanks for taking the time to respond! This was very helpful.
Get a mentor who is in your job family and role. I think that might help.
That’s actually a good suggestion. I mainly don’t want to look weak but most days I don’t know what to do. Also, other days I feel frozen since I have so much work and no idea how to get it done which leads to procrastination or me doing nothing. I really want to learn and do better just need some guidance.
Asking for help is not a sign of weakness. Happy new year!