How can I work independently?

Hi, First of all, it’s amazing how you are able to see that you need handholding. I was there at your place a year ago. But something changed in last one year.

I took up the challenge to see myself promoted. Now to get promoted, I should be able to handle the responsibilities of a one level up person. Being an IC, i can always look up to my lead/manager and see how he much of effort he handles. I try and read the conversations which are beyond my work. I pitch in case someone is stuck in error. And lastly, I brought my ideas to my manager.

How yes, working independly can be a struggle, especially if you are building something new. But then I realised I can ask questions outside of work. Say through internet, I can search for solutions on web. I ended up taking Claude/chatgpt/perplexity premiums, just to get the right solutions. And if it was more of a technical question specific to a project, (as suggested by my manager) I wrote it down on a notepad for a day or two to articulate my thoughts on what exactly am I looking for and how can I make it easy for the person I am asking to help me reply back.

Lastly, I also ended up taking more time for the first few months (so yes, long work hours), but then I built certain habits, and those habits helped me leap through.

1. I wrote down tasks for each day in the morning.
2. I wrote down and organised common steps ( say to pull requests standards, or login steps, or project notes)
3. I noted people who have worked on the similar kind of projects/tasks.
4. I made doubts section in my notepad, which basically articulated my doubts and questions I have to ask.

Everybody functions in a team, even if they are IC. You will need help, and asking for it is completely okay. Ask the right questions, and your work will get better.

As Ankita mentioned, the self-awareness and vulnerability is a fantastic first step that many engineers fail to step. In a sense, you are already ahead!

I have worked with many engineers who were lacking independence and was able to right the ship with the vast majority of them. The solutions here are split into 2 realms:

Technical

The problem here is that the engineer isn't retaining knowledge. Because of this, they get help, forget the learning, and then need help again. Fortunately, this is much easier problem to solve and we have a ton of resources to help here:

• [Course] Ask Great Questions That Get Great Answers Quickly
• [Course] Level Up Your Code Quality As A Software Engineer
• "How do you get more independent?"
• "What does it mean to not require handholding anymore?"

Mental

This is the classic scenario where your biggest enemy is yourself, generally with confidence issues. There is another scenario here which is burnout. Unlike the technical side, these problems will take more time and are harder to fix.

When it comes to confidence issues, my main advice is surround yourself with supportive people. Build deep relationships with everyone around you, and you'll start getting positive feedback, the fuel to burn away confidence issues.

Since you are a senior engineer at Microsoft (a legendary Big Tech/AI company), you are in a position that 80%+ of software engineers envy. This means you actually have a special power here: Mentoring others. At Meta, I felt like an idiot all the time; there were so many people there who were way smarter than me. But after I poured my heart and soul into growing those around me, those feelings went away. It's impossible to feel bad about your own skills when you have a small army of younglings around you who are reaping so much benefit from your guidance and consider you the center of their work universe.

I'm sure there are at least a couple junior and mid-level engineers on your team (or sister teams) at Microsoft who could benefit from a more hands-on mentor <-> mentee relationship with you. I need to make a course about mentorship, but in the meantime, I recommend this: [Case Study] Mentoring Junior SWEs [E3] to Senior [E5] In Just 2.5 Years At Meta

For burnout, my main advice is to talk to your manager and take a long break (at least 2 weeks). It's the holiday season right now, so this is a good time to do it.

Here's another great thread about this topic: "I've felt imposter syndrome from seeing super talented peers - How do I deal with this?"