What do you do if you're an engineer struggling to believe in your abilities?

Self-doubt is a normal part of every engineer’s growth journey. So most importantly, be kind to yourself. Belief in yourself often begins with simply deciding to do so. 1️⃣ Embrace Reality: See things as they are, but not worse than they are. Don’t just focus on your skills, also reflect on your humility, authenticity and passion. 2️⃣ Replace Limiting Beliefs: Identify beliefs that undermine your confidence. Challenge and swap them with empowering ones that support your abilities and goals. 3️⃣ Seek Feedback and Adapt : Observe those you aspire to be like and let their examples inform and improve your path to achieving your own aspirations.

When faced with uncertainty, it's critical to keep track of your accomplishments, no matter how tiny they may appear. This actual evidence serves as a powerful reminder of your abilities, delivering a well-deserved confidence boost when needed. Consistently examining your accomplishments instills a sense of pride and reinforces your conviction in your engineering abilities, allowing you to approach future projects with fresh vigour and confidence.

If you're doubting your abilities as an engineer, start by acknowledging your achievements and learning from past successes. Set small, achievable goals to build confidence gradually. Seek feedback and mentorship from experienced colleagues to gain perspective and guidance. Invest time in continuous learning to update your skills. Remember that engineering involves problem-solving and iteration; challenges are opportunities for growth. Practice self-care to maintain a healthy mindset.

Seeking feedback as an engineer involves actively soliciting input and constructive criticism from trusted sources such as colleagues, mentors, and supervisors. Actively listening to feedback, reflecting on it, and considering how it aligns with your own self-assessment are key steps in the process. Regularly seeking feedback, expressing gratitude for received feedback, and incorporating it into your ongoing professional development efforts contribute to continuous improvement and growth as an engineer.

Beginning with small, manageable objectives that contribute to larger projects is an excellent strategy. By accomplishing these smaller goals, individuals can gradually build a track record of success, which serves to reinforce belief in their skills.

Setting goals is a fundamental aspect of personal and professional development for engineers. When setting goals, I like to follow the SMART criteria: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Actively networking is essential for engineers to build professional connections, exchange knowledge, and discover opportunities for career advancement. During my time in university studying engineering, I realized the importance of networking early on in my academic journey. Although I am still navigating my way through coursework and projects, I understand that building connections with professionals in the field could greatly enhance my future career prospects.

Confidence is not a destination, but it is a journey. Be a learner and learn a new thing everyday, no matter how old you are. If you are in the early stages of your career, I would tell you this, that every single person who achieved something big in their life, was once at the same position, where you are right now. In my first job interview, I sucked and ended up not getting a call back. It does not mean I am not worthy. It just means that I needed to learn more and experience more. When you know what you are good at, you will automatically excel and show interest to learn it more.

For engineers struggling to believe in their own abilities, a good practice is to identify the business metrics you are responsible for in a project and to measure how they are tracking towards success (not only at the end of the project but through milestones and weekly at least a quarter after it is released). Numbers rarely lie so it's easier to be proud of your achievements in this way. In the cases you do not belong to a feature development team (like platform, security, business systems, etc.), there are still engineering metrics that are measurable. You may also ask the partner teams directly how things are working for them qualitatively.