So, I guess you can just call it part of the territory in IT.  Maybe it’s just a part of any career field, but I’m wondering it anyone else gets overwhelmed.  I seem to have this problem every time I start a new job.  I start working somewhere and I don’t do much of anything for a while, and maybe I just get rusty or something, but I just don’t feel like I’m ready to tackle anything difficult, and then it happens.

What happens is, I start getting assignments.  Assignments that seem easy to accomplish at first, and then I start working on them and get into the whole can’t-see-the-forest-for-the-trees dilemma.  Such a dilemma has come upon me recently in my new position.  This happens when I expect things to be set up the way that I think they should be done, or the way that I have seen them done in the past.  The problem arises when I find that a system doesn’t meet my expectation, and I keep trying to make it meet my expectation rather than just see it for what it is.  As a result of this, I can spend hours looking for something that just isn’t there, and then the light will suddenly come on.  As it did today.  Today I finally realized that what I was working on was not as difficult as it seemed, and now I feel like I am going to make it.  The doubt has started to fade from my mind and I feel as if I will be successful at my new job. 

So, why am I sharing this?  Is this just Andrew rambling?  Well, maybe I am rambling a bit, but I think it is important for me to express how I am feeling in my new position because maybe it can help others to see that this is normal, well, for me at least.  I want to spare everyone the technical details of my situation.  Very few people who read this would probably understand what I was talking about, and those who did probably would be bored with it.  Let’s just say, it always takes me a while to figure out what the lay of the land is, and what is expected of me, but when I do, everything just works.  If you get in a tough spot with a new position just remember to be confident in you skills, and don’t give up, break big problems up into manageable chunks, and don’t let your assumptions get in the way of the facts.  And KISS (Keep it simple, stupid).