I have been working as a verification engineer for slightly over a decade. In more recent years I have also become I manager of other verification engineers.
During this time I have gone through a typical career path (typical at least for the market I am in), which means single contributor, team leader, project manager and finally a manager of a whole department.
Along this journey, I have seen and been part of many situations, some of which are not as nice as others. I learned something new from each of them, and each taught me a valuable lesson, which helped me grow as an engineer, a leader, and a person.
My goal in this post is to present these situations, so that when they eventually do happen to you, you do not view them as something catastrophic, and rather accept them as a part of your learning curve. Even if you are not a verification engineer, I am sure this article will be useful to you, as similar things happen accross a wide variety of related careers.
Team leader resigning from the company in the middle of the project
If you are a junior engineer working on your first project, you most likely admire and respect your team leader.
I remember when I started, my team leader had a whopping twelve years of experience, and to me, it looked like they owned the world (of verification, to say the least).
[Good] Team leaders help you get your job done, provide support, and absorb clients’ requests and sometimes criticism, and it’s only natural that you become attached to them.
What may happen is that this person resigns from the company for whatever reasons. My experience shows that juniors will often perceive this situation as if the world is ending. “Who will now help me when I get stuck?” “Will I be able to deliver my results?” “Who will lead us now?” These are only some of the questions that usually arise.
Getting stuck in a task is no pleasant feeling, but quite regular for every engineer.
It is important to be aware that people come and go, and when your team leader leaves, someone else will replace them in that role. This will give you the opportunity to work in a different way and with different rules and as a direct consequence, you will become more flexibile and agile.
You will get stuck in the task and not deliver results on time
As much as you will always try to estimate properly and deliver your results on time, it will happen that you will simply get stuck in your task, which will cause you to delay the delivery.
In some cases this will involve a not-so-pleasant conversation with either your manager or client, in which you will have to explain why it happened.
When this happens for the first time, it looks like the world is ending, and it is important to understand that it is not. 🙂
While you should always try to prevent it from happening, it will happen sooner or later, and you will live through it, and the project will continue.
Granted, you may have to put in additional work, but again, it’s all part of our careers.
You will make a (silly) mistake and will have to explain that to a client
This is similar to the above case. As much as you will try to do your part in the project perfectly, you will make a silly mistake, which will cause you to delay some delivery.
As a verification engineer speaking, this may happen on Friday afternoon after that company beer party, when you are preparing to initiate a regression to be run over the weekend. Then you forget to update the configuration of your random test. You come on Monday to work and see that the results are basically invalid. What can I say, to some extent it happened to all of us.
Acknowledge what happened, explain it to your manager honestly, and work on improving and learning from it.
Your vacation will not be approved
If you communicate your vacation plans well in advance, getting it approved should be no problem.
However, statistically speaking, it is very likely that over the course of your career, you will be in a situation in which your vacation request will not be approved, or even worse, it will get approved, but later on, you are asked to delay it.
The typical scenario is as follows. The project got into a crisis. When you are about to take a vacation, you are “asked” to work extra time to keep the project on track.
credits: yakovlevmax0/pixabay
This should really not happen often during your career, but it will happen at one point. You should try to be open to the situation, willing to make a compromise, but with a clear message that the next time you will not be very happy about it (translation: I will do it now, but next time it’s a nope).
If you are working in a service company, consider your partnership with the client and understand that you are valuable to someone and are needed to enable them to succeed.
You will be asked to work during the weekends
credits: mohamed_hassan/pixabay
This is similar to the above situation. As much as managers are obsessed with proper planning, it will happen that the project will run into a crisis, and in order to deliver on time, you will be asked to work over the weekends.
Don’t be one of those people who get frustrated immediately when it happens. Understand that it is an exception; be a professional and help your business partner or client get the project back on track.
Set a clear boundary that you were generally willing to do it now, but it should not be expected to become a habit.
Project you are working on will be canceled
It may happen that the project you are working on will be canceled for whatever reason.
My experience shows that young engineers always perceive this as if something very bad happened, think if they are somehow responsible for it, and question what will happen now.
In reality, project cancelation will happen, and you should not be concerned about it. Frame the situation as an opportunity to move onto a different, maybe more exciting and challenging project, where you will work with different people and learn new things.
You will be working under demanding team leader
Until you become one (if that’s what interests you), you will work under many different team leaders, each of which will have their own unique style of managing.
Some will be more people oriented, some more towards results, some will be very strict about stuff, and some will be relaxed and you will drink beer with them after work hours (in that case think twice before unleashing all the details of your private life 🙂 ) .
Get ready to work under some demanding folks out there
For your own development, it’s very good to work with different kinds of people, because you can learn something from each even if it means only learning how NOT to manage people.
When you work with a team leader whose style you don’t like, be open to learning from it and consider it as just another stepstone in your career development.
It will not last forever anyway. (On a related note, you should always aim to communicate with your manager what you are unhappy about).
You will suddenly be moved to another project and different team
Sudden move to another project is stresful as it involved getting out of the comfort zone.
This one is especially painful for juniors if it happens during their first project. In time, you will realize it’s all part of the job.
If you are working in a service company, it may happen quite often. At the end of the day, you will be assigned where your skills are most needed.
If you are being moved to another project, know that it’s because you can help over there and contribute to reaching a project goal. Don’t take it personally or even think about it too much.
As engineers, we fix problems and provide solutions, it doesn’t really matter in what project or task. Be okay with it and accept it as a part of your career.
You will work with the people you don't like
Yes, I waited for the opportunity to include a Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy scene. It’s very fitting for this point
It is best to accept it right away: you will work with the people you dislike during your career.
Of course, your goal should be to eventually cooperate and surround yourself with the people you are compatible and can achieve results with, but that will not always be possible.
When you do end up in a team with someone who constantly pushes you over your limits, be a professional and don’t let it get in the way of work.
Situations like this will allow you to demonstrate your emotional and social intelligence, in which you can clearly separate your personal feelings towards someone and your professional relationship with them.
It goes without saying that you should try to talk to this person and see if the situation can be improved.
You may be idle between the projects
This situation is pretty rare and unlikely, but you may still be idle between the projects. While nobody likes this, chances are it will happen to you.
I advise giving your company some time to assign you to a project before deciding to take on more drastic measures.
Also, use this time to learn a new skill, read that book you have been postponing for ages, relax, and accumulate the extra energy – you will need it.
My five cents
My goal in this article was to present some of the typical challenges you will encounter during your professional work.
While written primarily from a verification engineer perspective, I am sure other careers are not devoid of similar, if not the same, situations.
If you pre-frame your career in this way, it will be easier to face these challenges and accept them as an opportunity to learn and grow instead of being bitter about it.
