# It's okay to suffer a little bit

I was pairing with my team's Principal Engineer the other day and he said something that really resonated with me (paraphrased): "I'll leave you alone with this to suffer for a little bit. Message me if you get stuck".

Sometimes it's good to suffer for a bit; whether it be a problem you don't know how to solve, a bug you can't figure out, or even trying to find a job. Problem-solving is one of those core life skills we all should work at developing. If you always look for others when you get stuck, you become dependent on them. As you grow as an engineer (or whatever your profession may be), you'll find your role as a leader, whom others depend on, will also expand. Learn to develop these skills even if you have to suffer for a little bit. Struggling is when we start thinking outside the box, trying anything we can to make it work. You know when you're in the trenches when you really need to sit and think about how to approach next steps. Commonly for me, this is when I'm recompiling some code and thinking "if this isn't the fix I don't know what is". When I say that to myself, I know I'm really in deep.

Sometimes I end up figuring it out. Other times, that's when I had to learn to ask others for help (blog post coming soon).

An example of this in my life is when I was a university student looking for my first internship. It was Spring 2014 and my skills as a software developer were PHP, SQL, Javascript and some HTML/CSS. I developed these skills working in mostly open-source developing forum software plugins, and even did a few freelancing gigs on the side. Going into the search, I was extremely confident that I would be hired by a prestigious company in the first round given my experience.

"Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth." - Mike Tyson

I didn't end up getting any job in my field, and spent the summer working in customer service. I was devastated.

During this time I was truly suffering. However, feeling at my lowest was a big boost for my growth. Because of this situation, I reassessed my skills, and decided to learn some of the "hot" new tech at the time: server-side JavaScript (NodeJS). I spent all summer developing my skills and working on projects to make me more employable. During the next co-op cycle, in Spring 2015, I interviewed with a few companies, and chose to begin my professional career as a full-stack developer intern at SugarCRM in the Bay Area. Looking back, I'm glad I didn't get a job during that first year.

It's okay to suffer a little bit.