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Why Asking for Help Strengthens Engineering Teams

How I Overcame My Fear of Seeking Support as an Early-Career Software Engineer

Anna Carey
The Startup
4 min readFeb 3, 2021

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Photo by Hannah Busing on Unsplash

I know that for many developers, especially those early in their careers, asking for help can be intimidating. I often fear wasting someone’s time or exposing myself as less skilled or smart than my team initially thought.

In my first month as a software engineer at Artsy (and barely six months into life as an engineer after transitioning from a career in communications), I was struggling through a ticket assigned to me as a “good first issue.” (The team estimated the task to be straightforward enough for someone new to the team.) After a few hours stumbling between the ticket, my code, and Google, I made very little progress.

Early and often, my fellow engineers at Artsy encourage me to ask for help when I hit roadblocks. Even with the support explicitly offered to me, I was shaky. The extra 10 seconds it took to type out my question in Slack was just enough time for me to chicken out.

Opening up with my team members about my concerns, I learned that asking for help is not just for me but ultimately benefits my team. Sharing their insights below, I hope other engineers, early-career or not, feel empowered to ask questions, stay curious, and prioritize…

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The Startup
The Startup

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Anna Carey
Anna Carey

Written by Anna Carey

Software engineer @Artsy. At the intersection of storytelling, art, and technology.

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