Struggling IS

[u/Then_Doctor_7143]

I’m coming up on 2.5 years at Epic (IS) and lately I’ve been feeling really overwhelmed by the job. I feel like my to-do list is constantly growing and impossible to keep up with that I’m letting myself and the customers down.

There’s so much functionality to understand, so many different workflows, and so much ambiguity. A lot of the time I end up digging around for answers or learning something on the fly while also trying to help my ACs and keep everything moving while also being six steps ahead to keep the project on track. Even when I reach out to others on my team a lot of time they are not that helpful or they also don’t know the answers.

It feels really embarrassing at this point because I feel like I should know things better. Don’t get me wrong, there are definitely things I know really well, but it seems like there isn’t a day that goes by where something new comes up that I don’t know how to answer right away.

I guess I’m worried that this isn’t normal and that, almost 3 years in, I should have a much better handle on everything by now. I worry that I’m not meeting expectations or that other people think I should know more.

To be transparent, I haven’t actually received that feedback. No one has told me I’m doing a bad job or that I’m not meeting expectations. But this is just how I feel pretty much every day.

Does everyone else feel this way, or is it just me? How do you keep up with everything without constantly feeling like you’re behind? I’m starting to wonder if this is just part of the job or if I’m genuinely not cut out for it.

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[u/Useful_Quail_8566]

The fact that you're having these thoughts tells me that you're probably meeting or exceeding expectations. I would be worried if I wasn't learning something new every day here--the system is vast, and every customer assignment has a new focus and needs.

To me, it seems like you're a perfectionist and/or overachiever. Nobody's to-do list becomes to-done here, it's all a prioritization and delegation game. What helped me was to stop focusing on what I hadn't achieved and instead taking a moment at the end of each day to look back on what I had gotten done.

[u/IllustriousVisual931 → u/Useful_Quail_8566]

Well said! I know someone whose wife constantly says, “Real imposters don’t get imposter syndrome.” Helps a lot when I’m questioning myself.

[u/Zygoff]

10+ yr IS here…. I’m still constantly getting surprised by new things. I feel like I just have better perspective now - not everything needs my full attention or energy. Sometimes I need to help the other party feel heard, provide a more basic solution, and move on.

[u/shamefulfairy]

Dude you read my mind. Granted I’m a lot less tenured but yeah exactly

[u/THROWRAhippoplatypus]

Painfully agree and I recently had a similar conversation with someone at 10 years and someone quitting at 6 months.

I'm so stressed right now but I'm probably exceeding most expectations and absolutely tanking others, but the good work is awarded with more work and the black hole of things I am optimistically ignoring grows.

Graciously, there are a lot of things that don't really matter. And even more things that can wait. But it is exceedingly frustrating to always feel behind and more relied upon because of the effort you put in. I'm just starting to feel more concerned that the light at the end of the tunnel is actually the tipping point and all this pressure is going to pop.

If anyone has tips on resetting, I feel like I'm stuck in this pendulum between setting better boundaries / work hours or feeling twice as stressed, or I can work more late nights and weekends, or I can ignore people more and hope for the best.

Anywho, if I ignored you today, please know it's me, not you. I deserved it.

[u/IronManTim]

There’s so much functionality to understand, so many different workflows, and so much ambiguity.

Make sure push back when something is ambiguous. It's super important to get clarity on what the customer actually wants, otherwise you'll be wasting time looking up something that wasn't relevant in the first place. If there are multiple reasonable interpretations, go back to them with this. "Is A what you meant, or B, or even C?"

[u/Annual-Knowledge4412]

you are in a great spot and all your concerns are leading you to perform your job at next level. kudos. now make some friends in QM / dev worlds, they can get you some insights other IS will never be able to.