I got into a small consulting Infra engg startup as an intern. I had no prior skills or experience in this domain. I couldn't answer 9 out of 10 questions in the technical round. I remember the last question, it was - are you willing to learn? I said yes unaware of the struggles ahead!
In my 1st week of the job, I was asked to complete some courses. The content was so advanced for me to understand, hence felt overwhelming. By mid week, I was ready to call it quits.
I got into a call with my CEO, told him I don't think I can complete the courses within the target. I remember his words - Right now you are in the valley of disappointment (Atomic habits ofc!), I know it sucks to be here, but if you persist this, there are exciting times ahead!
He showed me the graph and all, I was convinced that this is the truth. Since then, I fucking clocked 13hrs average everyday to learn things, complete projects on my own, gained confidence of my fellow teammates and seniors. I got Full time offer. Internship salary - 15k/m. Full time offer - 25k/m.
Once in full time, didn't stop, worked on projects, delivering outcomes, gained 2 hikes in 8 months to salary bump of 50k/m. It wasn't easy, everyday was a struggle. Every once a while I thought I should quit! But wanting to prove myself(having put this much effort already) and having no other backup pushed me!
With time, things that were difficult started to make sense. I got more responsibilities, got into calls with clients, I could explain stuff, people would listen to me. I with < 1.5yr experience would talk about things and leads in the call would be like, you talk like 5yr experience person. I felt amazing, recognized.
Quit it once I reached my inflection point to join where you are @GrumpyIce with a pretty massive 5x base hike . Worked there for sometime until I quit it to pursue another stream.
Lesson learnt - Everything is daunting until it starts to make sense. Relentlessly keeping at it is way to go!