Even the most tenured person doesn’t know it all. Sure, they may know more than you, but that doesn’t make them better — just more experienced.

The fear of not knowing enough held me back for a long time. I felt like if I wasn’t an expert, I didn’t deserve the job or role. I had to learn more, become “the best,” and have dominion over all the facts before I’d be worthy of a title. Until I mastered a topic, I wouldn’t participate for fear of coming off as lesser.

It wasn’t until I took the plunge to switch careers, even though I didn’t feel qualified, that I realized being an expert in something doesn’t make you more worthy.

When you find yourself in a new industry, surrounded by acronyms, processes, and concepts completely foreign to you, it’s overwhelming. You may wonder how you’ll ever know enough to even DO your job, much less be good at it.

Putting myself into the (very uncomfortable) situation of being unfamiliar with everything was the best learning experience, because I realized I don’t need to know it all — I just need to be able to find answers.

Part of finding answers is figuring out who the subject matter expert is. This is someone who has thorough understanding on a specific area. The first step is figuring out who to start with — which can be difficult if you don’t know people’s roles or domains. You just have to ask one person, and keep getting redirected to someone else until you land on the correct target.

Being a worrying soul, I had to overcome the concern of being annoying. Would asking a million questions of the specialist make them frustrated with me? Would they think I was stupid?

Knowing I had tasks to get done, I told myself to consider it from their angle — if someone new came to me with questions, would I be annoyed? No — I’d be flattered they came to me for answers, and more than happy to help them out, especially if it could make my own job easier in the long run.

I had to get comfortable messaging or emailing coworkers I was unfamiliar with. It was that or sit there paralyzed until the answer magically appeared. There were so many re-written emails and chats before I ever hit send, but eventually the button got clicked.

Digging for answers in advance of contacting others set me up for success — sure, I broadened my own knowledge through that search, but it also made people happier to answer my questions.

When going to someone for help, if you can tell them what you’ve already found through independent research, what your current understanding of the situation is, and what questions remain that you need help with, then they recognize you as an active participant instead of a passive one.

People are far more willing to help you when you’ve done the leg work to set a foundation of knowledge, and they aren’t having to start from scratch. It shows initiative instead of relying on someone else to supply all the answers. The fact it also saves them some time doesn’t hurt.

Learning how information is provided and organized within your company is another tool. For instance, work instructions on internal processes may be housed in a particular program like Confluence, while product information may be found on a separate website. There may also be storage drives where even more documents and information are housed. Knowing where to look for particular topics will cut down on search time.

Whether it’s related to work or not, my lesson learned boils down to this: Let go of needing to know everything.

For me, it has been freeing beyond words. There isn’t the stress of expecting myself to have every answer. I’ve learned to trust the people around me to be the experts on their subjects, and know there are resources I can go to for help when I need information.

Be willing to do the work to find an answer, and find ways to make your search efficient, but release yourself from the expectation of having it right off the top of your head.

It’s a lot easier to enjoy life when you don’t burden yourself with being the resident Know-It-All.

-Katy