One of the hardest things to accept when you start a co-op or a new job is that you’re not supposed to be good at it yet. Somehow, we walk into professional environments expecting to immediately perform at the level of people who have been there for years — and when we don’t, we assume we’re failing.
The truth is much simpler: You’re not bad at your job. You’re just new.
When I started my co-op, I spent a lot of time observing. Not just the work itself, but the people doing it. I watched engineers approach problems in completely different ways. Some were methodical and quiet; others talked through every step out loud. Some worked fast and refined later; others moved slowly but precisely. It took time to figure out what style worked for me — and that didn’t happen overnight.
In the beginning, a lot of my work, honestly, wasn’t great. I submitted reports that got ripped to shreds with heavy edits. I got back an unhealthy amount of feedback. And while it was frustrating at first, I slowly realized that this was part of the process. You don’t magically learn how to write clear, concise technical reports without first writing a few bad ones. You have to miss the point before you learn how to get to it.
Over time, the feedback changed. Comments became smaller. Edits became suggestions instead of corrections. And eventually, I wasn’t just receiving feedback — I was reviewing others’ work myself. That shift didn’t happen because I suddenly became smarter. It happened because I had learned the system, the expectations, and the language of the job.
What surprised me most was that it wasn’t until the last month of my co-op that I realized I was good at what I was doing. I quickly realized people had been counting on me for things I never expected to be trusted with. Not busywork. Not “just helping out.” Real responsibilities. That’s when it clicked: I hadn’t been pushing paper. I had been learning.
The beginning of any job is heavy on onboarding for a reason. You’re watching videos, reading documentation, studying the 90-day plan, and trying to piece together how everything fits. You’re absorbing far more than you realize. Some of the most valuable learning I did didn’t even happen at my desk — it happened during lunch, when coworkers turned conversations into Thermodynamics 101 or impromptu technical roundtables. No judgment. No pressure. Just people who understood that being new means learning.
And that doesn’t stop at entry-level roles. No matter what stage of your career you’re in, you’re constantly learning. New systems. New standards. New teams. Feeling unsure doesn’t mean you’re incompetent — it means you’re growing.
So if you’re early in a co-op or new job and questioning whether you’re cut out for it, give yourself time. Growth doesn’t look impressive at the moment. Sometimes it looks like confusion, questions, and drafts that need red ink.
That doesn’t mean you’re bad at your job. It means you’re exactly where you’re supposed to be.
