Apply for that job, send that message, take that risk

This is a love letter to all my fellow overthinkers out there ❤

There will be an extremely rigorous examination at the end, so you better pay attention, lest you face the consequences

But the role is above my level!

Maybe you are qualified but don’t believe it yet

Maybe you aren’t, but you could land an interview for a better fitting internal role. Either way, let the employer decide

Do it

But how qualified do I have to be?

I don’t subscribe to the rule “if you have 50% of the skills, apply.” My guideline is simply “apply to any interesting jobs in familiar domains”

Learning ability and conceptual knowledge are far more important than tools. For example, if you know JavaScript, you can be productive in Java fairly quickly. If you can make Excel charts, you aren’t starting from scratch with Sheets or Numbers

Here’s a real list of “required skills”. The recruiter told me they only care about AWS when I asked about the “must haves” and “nice to haves”

Agile SDLC, Scrum, Kanban, Application Architecture, Data Architecture, Infrastructure Architecture, Microservices Design, Java, Kotlin, Python, JavaScript, Groovy, J2EE, Spring, React, Angular, JQuery, HTML, CSS5¹, Bootstrap, XML, JSON, Android SDK, iOS Development, Cross-Platform Tools (e.g., Flutter, React Native), MVC, MVP, MVVM, Automated Testing, Blackbox Testing, Functional Testing, Regression Testing, Smoke Testing, System Integration Testing, Unit Testing, User Acceptance Testing, Cucumber, Espresso, Robolectric, Selenium, Appium, Jenkins, Maven, Apache Ant, Docker, Kubernetes, Git, GitLab, GitHub, Bitbucket, Apache Kafka, Apache Tomcat, WebSphere, SQL, Cassandra, Oracle, Teradata, DB2, PostgreSQL, MongoDB, Dynatrace, Splunk, Prometheus, Grafana, AWS, Azure, Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Terraform, REST, SOAP, GraphQL APIs, Performance Optimization, Load Testing, Containerization, Orchestration, Infrastructure as Code (IaC), Cybersecurity Practices, Secure Development.

A prior role of mine had a similarly lengthy list. I used a third of the technologies on the job and so many more that weren’t listed at all

Maybe it’s everything used at the company. Maybe ChatGPT wrote it all. Even if everything is relevant, it’s just a wishlist at the end of the day. How many people can confidently say they are proficient in 50+ technologies?

Another role listed a select few technologies, but wanted 5+ years of professional experience in cloud, but I had 0. I got an offer despite never using anything they asked for 🤷‍♀️

You’ll find out in the interview process whether they want an expert to upskill their team or someone who can update a backend that happens to be in Java

What are you waiting for? Do it

But I don’t know how to—

I’ll stop you there. Taking risks is the only way to grow. What skills will you gain if you already know how to do something from start to finish?

When approached for an opportunity to lead an important C# project, it doesn’t exude confidence if these are the first words out of your mouth:

But I’ll be busy next week, and I’m not sure I’m the best fit—I’m not emotionally prepared to use semicolons after so much Python, and I’m not sure if NuGet is pronounced like the chicken or Nu Metal², but I can try

Show your commitment, then share your reservations and their potential resolutions. Just say yes. I don’t care if you aren’t sure you can do it

I don’t care if you embarrass yourself by saying “Noojay” during a lunch and learn, and afterwards everyone points and laughs and says “There goes Noojay McPackageSon” when they see you in the hallway. Hypothetically of course 😅

Sounds exciting, I’d love to work on it. I’ve worked with languages similar to C# like Java, so it shouldn’t be difficult to get started. I’m going on vacation next week—is it OK if I ask teammate to stand in for me for that time and pick up from there?

If you’re unsure, say yes and come back later. This approach works especially well with deadlines

Sounds exciting, I’d love to work on it. I’ll discuss with the team where this fits with current work streams, and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible

Then, bring up any concerns you may have the next day

We’re already working on X and Y, which is taking up most of our capacity. Where does this feature fit with our other priorities?

But what if I fail?

If you take on work that minimizes your chance of failure and its impact, there isn’t much payoff when you do succeed

Even failure moves you forward—you can only learn so much from where you are

Do it

Motivation is the reward, not the prerequisite

If your metric for success is studying your entire flashcard deck every day, it most likely won’t be sustainable. You’ll feel like a failure any time you had a hard day, you get sick, or just don’t feel like it

Set a very reasonable goal you can meet even on your worst days, like studying one flash card. When you’re not up for more, you can meet your goal and no more. Other days, studying one card will motivate you to study 25 more! This metric defines success as doing anything that gets you closer to your goal

Failure is ironically still success under this mindset. For example, you can’t know what to study before finding your gaps, and from there, you can focus your efforts more effectively, which indeed constitutes moving closer to your goal

But—

Do it

Should you do it?

I used a literary device called foreshadowing at the beginning of the article to warn you about this test since I have a humongous brain³

So, should you do it?

• A: Yes

• B: No

If you answered Yes, good job, you win a gold star

Alternate text for golden star award

If you answered no, did you even pay attention? I am very cross with you. I said there would be a test and repeated it like 2090392 times⁴. I will personally ask my cat Gandalf to bite your ankles, and they will happily oblige

I hate to do this to you, but I warned you, and you didn’t listen, so it’s time to face the consequences of your actions. Gandalf recognizes that wall behind you and is en route to munch and crunch your ankles until you repent. See you in 5 minutes

Do it

You can read 2849248 articles and watch 48982 YouTube videos on how to get motivated to do things, but what good are they if you don’t do anything about it?

My challenge to you is to think about what you’ve been procrastinating, and take the smallest step to get started

Do it

---

I wrote this article after seeing someone elegantly respond “do it” when someone asked if they should interview for a role above their level. I had spent 10s of hours responding to similar posts with paragraphs of why that person is worth it, when a few words would do—they needed confirmation they were on the right path, not a lecture!

I’ve second guessed my emails so many times, just for a friend or coworker to say “that’s fine.” I’ve second guessed my relationships with so many people, just to have them greet me with open arms after years of not talking. I’ve stared at a blank project since I wasn’t sure of the perfect code to write, just for the solution to fall into place after getting started. If you are second guessing yourself, feel free to reach out, and I will utter the fabled words—do it!

Footnotes

1. CSS5 right after the RFC to recategorize CSS Levels was made—the audacity! ↩

2. NuGet is pronounced like “New Get.” And The Winner Is, NuGet ↩

3. This is literally me ↩

4. I actually repeated it 13 times. Close enough ↩