Navigating the New Role: How to ask that Next Question
Being new to a job is a lot of fun.
Joining a team, getting to meet everyone, and becoming acclimated to your role are all accessible “challenges” to help you build confidence.
Has this ever happened though? Right when you start to become comfortable, you get assigned a task that you realize you don’t actually know how to do. All the confidence you’ve built up zips away and you have to meander back to your boss or coworker and display your somehow astounding lack of knowledge once more.
At least, I thought that was how it had to be. Now, I’m not so sure anymore.
What’s the harm in asking?
Growing up, I was encouraged to ask questions. I was never a “but why?” kid (i.e., someone who is constantly following up the answer to one question with “why?”), but I certainly asked my fair share of questions. In my house, my parents approached our curiosities with a “what’s the harm in asking?” approach. The worst thing that could happen (at least as far as we were told) is that the person being asked could say no.
That’s not a bad approach for an elementary schooler, but when it comes to the workplace, I think it pays to be a tad savvier. Although I tend to agree with the sentiment of asking questions when you need to, I think it’s missing an important addendum.
Simply put, I ascribe to the approach of “What’s the harm in asking, so long as I ask with intention?” In other words, how can you get the answers you need to continue the job as quickly as possible?
Asking good questions
Admittedly, this is a skill I’m still learning myself.
Asking good questions can be really hard, especially without a lot of background knowledge. I’ve found that I get the most positive (and helpful) responses when I ask questions with a certain structure:
- Provide a broad idea of what you think you need
- Provide some context as to where you think the answer might be, as well as an idea of where you’ve already looked
- Ask for clarification
For example: let’s say I need to learn how my team pushes our code to Github. It’s a simple task, but it can vary depending on the team. Looking for help online will almost certainly provide some answers, but with a “localized” problem like this, asking for specification is probably the best idea.
Following the structure above, I’d pose my question like this:
“Hey, Greg! I need to push my latest branch to Github and wanted to know if we have any naming specifications for our branches or any other tasks to complete before our code gets merged. I looked at Confluence, but didn’t really find much pertaining to our team’s specific practices — is there a particular page I can read or someone you can introduce me to so that I can learn how this is done?”
Now, that’s a decent question. Providing information like “I’ve checked here, but couldn’t find it,” is a great way to expedite the path to information and show that you’ve done the legwork on your own.
Storing the information
Asking for the same information twice is a tough position to be in.
It's something I’ve done many times and it’s never fun. Finally, after sheepishly asking about some team process for the third time, I made a Notion doc called “SOS Help” to store information that I needed most frequently.
While I’m not suggesting you need to be as dramatic as me, creating a sort of personal-wiki is a great way to prevent repetitive asks. These documents might also be super helpful for someone else onboarding at a later date — having them at the ready is a great addition for any team (and makes you look great too!).
Continuously asking for help can be challenging, and it can be damaging to your morale and reputation if you do it without care.
However, if you ask with intention, write down your answers, and pay that knowledge forward, it can be a rewarding rather than a daunting process.
Remember, most co-workers are happy to lend a hand! Just be respectful and do what you need to do before reaching out.
