Gregor OjstersekFounder & Author, Engineering Leadership newsletter

I Was Being Stubborn as a Junior Engineer

13 May 2025 · 1 min

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In this reflective monologue, the speaker recounts his early career mistakes as a junior engineer, focusing on his stubbornness, pride, and fear of appearing incompetent, which led him to avoid asking for help and attempting to solve problems alone. He explains how this mindset hindered his professional development. Over time, he realized that collaboration, peer learning, and openly seeking assistance are far more effective for rapid growth. He now embraces teamwork as a "cheat code" for faster, more fulfilling progress, and encourages other engineers to adopt a collaborative approach rather than competing in isolation.

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I've made many mistakes as a junior engineer, and only after I grew as an engineer and also as a person, I realized that these are the things that it would be better if I did them differently. I was being stubborn and tried to learn and figure out everything on my own. I was too proud a lot of times to ask for help or to learn together with someone. I believe I was afraid of coming out like I'm not smart enough or I'm not good enough to be an engineer. What I found out later is that it's important to not compete with others but instead collaborate. There is no better way to grow than growing together with people who are on a similar path than you are. The path is much more fulfilling, faster, and overall better. It's a cheat code for growing faster. I didn't use it enough when I started, but I sure do use it now, and it helps me a lot to continue to grow and progress.