Life goes on, waits for none. Today, what seems impossible to us might come true in the coming days. It just takes strong determination and a mindset to break through the barriers. Something like that I just experienced taught me a great lesson.
Recently, my immediate senior, who used to lead the whole product development strategies, resigned for some personal reasons. Now, all his responsibilities are on me. Kinda messed up as it's getting a pile of stuff that I need to chew slowly and steadily.
Isn't it kinda stressful at the beginning to jump upwards?
He has given me hints of such a scenario for a long time. He kinda trained me for the odds ever since I have been under his supervision. I didn’t take that seriously back then, but now?
We had an issue regarding the deployment of the product. It was a completely new issue that we hadn’t encountered so far. I was kinda struggling, on top of that, the client was kinda less cooperative, which made the matter worse. But, in the past, these used to be done by him; he would pass me the issue and direct me to a few possible solutions. I would trail and for the errors I would just knock him on my next seat and ask, he reviews and shares insights.
But now? None to give hints, none to review, none to validate. Oftentimes, I feel like knocking him, as promised, he will still guide me if needed, as there could be dependencies. But I'm like, “Why bother him, he must be busy with his current workloads. And, how many times would I knock him? Better to work on myself and be self-sufficient.” That's the motivation I have for myself.
You know what, this is it, that's all we need. We know we have the address to knock for any queries, but why bother? As long as the issue is diggable by ourselves, the knowledge and information are available, then why shouldn’t we take that step and be our own instructor? Can't rely on someone else for a long time. As the position and responsibilities increased, so we gotta act like that, like being in the driving seat. After his departure, now the whole development and related responsibilities are on me, whether I can cope with the situation or not. It's on me to fix the ongoing issues so we can push them later.
That's what I'm doing right now. Trying to solve the issues by myself, from top to bottom, no middleman. As the senior role is vacant, the responsibilities are not mine, so I should be careful as well by showing my expertise and hands-on testing, so I can easily grab that position
So yeah, I can't run away, nor can I knock on someone for help who is not bound to us. Instead, I can invest more time and dedication to replace the queries/issues with successful ones. Trying to be a self-efficient version to guide the new me in the coming days for sure.. That's how we grow.