Do you constantly look under-confident at your job and need to be pumped?
If yes, stop.
It’s OK to feel overwhelmed, but it’s not OK to constantly show it.
In this article, I will explain why it’s important to display confidence and how to achieve it.
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Why it is important to display confidence
Have you noticed how we are all attracted to confident leaders?
Because they are reassuring and look like they know where they are going.
Well, turns out confidence is not just a good thing for leaders.
It will also tremendously help you as a junior frontend dev.
Here are 3 reasons why:
Reason #1: The more confidence you display, the easier it is to trust you
Imagine you are sick 🥴.
You go to the hospital and have the option between two doctors for your treatment.
The first doctor talks confidently, speaks assertively and can reassure you while being honest.
The second doctor talks tentatively, hesitates a lot, and doesn’t give you a clear answer.
Which doctor are you more likely to choose?
If you’re like me and most people, you would choose the first doctor.
Because if someone doesn’t trust themselves, why should you trust them?
This also applies to you as a junior frontend dev.
If you don’t trust yourself and make this evident to everyone, it will be harder for others to trust you.
Reason #2: The more confidence you display, the more ownership you can get
Since you get more trust, you’ll also have more opportunities than a less confident dev.
And when you can turn these opportunities around, you get even more ownership.
Reason #3: The more confidence you display, the less effort it takes to reassure you
Unfortunately, people will generally try to comfort you when you show under-confidence.
This is OK in small doses.
However, if you consistently need reassurance, it could be tiring in the long term.
Time that could have been spent mentoring you is now spent comforting you.
This is rarely sustainable.
How to Build (and Show) Your Confidence
Displaying confidence is hard.
I know because I still have to force myself to do it after 5+ years of experience 😅.
However, you can use these 5 hacks to feel and look more confident.
Hack #1: Don’t bite more than you can chew
This hack is obvious.
However, it is easy to fall into this trap 🪤.
We generally fall into it because:
We volunteer for too many projects to show willingness
We volunteer for projects without knowing the scale or discussing with a more senior dev first
We suffer from people-pleasing and can’t say “No”
Unfortunately, when you bite more than you can chew, your confidence will take a toll since you are more likely to:
underperform on tasks and lose some of your confidence
overwork, which leads to tiredness and feeling overwhelmed
etc.
What to do instead:
Have a clear idea of your workload and make it clear to your manager
Only volunteer for projects you have 100% confidence in at the beginning, then be more audacious over time
Re-evaluate your workload with your manager regularly (and drop some tasks if needed)
Hack #2: Give yourself permission to ask for help
Whenever I felt under-confident, I wanted to do everything alone and didn’t want to ask for help.
As a result, I would get stuck and not ask for help 🤪.
This would undermine my confidence since I was expecting to do something, then realized I couldn’t.
A good remedy is to ask for help when you’re stuck after some time.
This is great because:
It stops the stress buildup since you’re forced to stop and interact with others
It helps you brainstorm with other people and feel less alone
It often enables you to realize the task was more challenging than you expected
Hack #3: Take regular breaks
After working long hours, your productivity drops, and further work can become counterproductive.
Your brain is tired, and you make more mistakes than actual progress.
Unfortunately, this can break your confidence since you keep spending time on the problem without progress.
The solution is simple: take regular breaks. At least one break every 90 minutes.
Unfortunately, this can be hard to do (at least for me 😅).
What helps is to:
Schedule catchups/meetings that force you to stop
Interact with your colleagues
Do something not related to coding, like code reviews
Hack #4: Track your achievements regularly
You may not realize it, but you’ve already achieved much as a junior frontend dev 👏.
Unfortunately, it’s easy to focus on what you don’t know instead of what you’ve learned.
This can undermine your confidence since you feel like you don’t know enough.
I have some good news: “None of us know enough. What we don’t know is way more than what we know.”
So don’t let this hold you back.
Have a place to track your achievements to see how far you’ve already come.
This will boost your confidence 💪.
Hack #5: Share experiences with your peers or discuss your journey with others
As soon as you talk with other junior devs or senior devs about their early experiences, you’ll realize that feeling overwhelmed is normal.
In fact, the tech space is fast-changing, complex, and varied.
It’s normal to feel overwhelmed initially, especially when navigating old code or completing your first tasks.
Instead of panicking, embrace the process 😌.
Expect discomfort to be part of the job.
Stay calm and learn.
Summary
Feeling overwhelmed as a junior frontend developer is normal.
However, just because you feel overwhelmed doesn’t mean you have to show it.
Instead, strive to display confidence so you get more opportunities and trust.
Ensure you don’t bite more than you can chew, build a support system, and interact with your peers.
I trust you’ll be successful 🚀.
That's it.
Don't forget to drop a "💖🦄🔥".
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