Questions and juniors

Don't worry if you struggle as a junior. Things will get better. Just keep asking questions.

Everybody starts as a junior. But for some reason, most of us forget what being a junior feels like. Maybe it sucks so much that we forget on purpose. I have not. The junior years of my career shaped me very much. And so I am sharing what I’ve learned back then because it could help juniors now.

Ask questions. Don’t be afraid. I know this one is obvious, but as I was writing (and rewriting :)) this article, I realized it’s basically about one thing – asking questions. Every junior I’ve worked with somewhat struggled with that. But asking questions will make your job much easier.

Understand what is expected from you. What’s my role in this? What good output looks like? What will happen with it next? When it should be done? … Anything that pops into your mind related to your assignments and role is a valid question. These questions should help you understand the boundaries of a solution space.

It’s never too late to ask. Yes, I will prepare the interview script. Yes, I see that design in my mind, just to put it into a Figma file. But then … you’re stuck. I bet you know this feeling. It’s because there is a hole in that solution space boundaries. It’s missing information. And you might discover it anywhere down the road from the problem to the solution. Your job is to formulate the right question and find the answer. It can be through a book, an article, Google, or a colleague who can answer such questions.

You don’t have to finish stuff before asking. But you have to put some effort into it. And by effort, I mean thinking. It’s ok to not finish an assignment, but show a list of options and questions you have before you’ll decide how to proceed. Any question is basically a fork in the road toward a solution. It’s always better to figure out which way is the right one beforehand. Don’t forget that sometimes it’s impossible to know that. And then you have to pick one way and be willing to come back if necessary.

Ask yourself. This one is a bonus. At the end of each workday, write down a few bullet points about what you were working on. Then ask yourself what went right or wrong, and what you can do better next time. It will help you uncover general questions about the craft. Answering these is how you build knowledge.

That’s it.

There’s no magic behind anything above. The hard part is practicing all this every day on every occasion.

I’ll be super glad for your feedback. Let me know what you think about all these tips. Don’t be afraid to share negative feedback as well.

Design is awesome.

Tom