(Pathachiever11's comment above is my favorite answer so far)
You ask:
"How do I stop worrying about being good enough for my new job?"
Then you state:
"I don't want to leave this role and then find that I'm forced out of the next one in my 3 month probation period for not knowing what they expect me to know."
So is the real issue about feeling good enough or is it your fear of losing your job without a safety net? A good question to ask yourself is, "If I had two years worth of income in the bank, how worried would I be going into this new job?"
Questions:
- What sparked you to look for a new job in the first place? More money? More challenge? Career growth?
- Why did you choose to go on an interview for a skill-set you knew you would need to brush up on fast?
- Do you truly enjoy .NET development or do you tolerate doing it for the money? Is this your passion or just a means to an end?
Knowing what motivated you in the first place can help you analyze whether or not this is a good career move.
Questions:
- How much research did you do on the front end to learn about the company's culture and attrition rate? Previous employees who are on LinkedIn are a great resource to ask. If they have been gone over a year, most are willing to speak with you for 5 minutes and give you their honest feedback on the pros and cons of working there.
- Did you ask if the position was new or a replacement? If it is a replacement, why did the previous person leave/get let go and how long were they in the role? What about the person before them? This will help give you some reassurance or understanding of the risk involved in taking the position. Past behavior often predicts future behavior.
Regarding Your Comment About...
"I don't want to leave this role and then find that I'm forced out of the next one in my 3 month probation"
- Knowing as much as you can about the role, their expectations of you during the first few months will help ease your concern here. It's the not knowing that causes us to stress. Ironically, our personal standards are usually way higher than what is expected of us. We are usually harder on ourselves than others are of us. 'We are our worst critics', as they say.
- Find out what the most important and most difficult task/software/process you'll have to learn in order to be successful. There is always one "thing" in a new job that is the hardest to figure out. For me at my company, it was the software we use to manage candidates. Crazy complicating and I had to generate revenue in the first 90 days so I had to learn FAST. I knew this so I had already been researching the software and ramping up before I even started.
- If you were hired through an external recruitment agency as contract-to-hire: Ask your recruiter if this a "try before you buy" CTH situation or if it's a CTH situation where they company simply wanted to pay off the recruiter's fee over 90 days and then convert you. It's important to understand the company's mindset behind why the company went with CTH. In some cases, the client wanted direct hire/perm, but the recruiter is measured on how many hours contractors are working weekly (billable hours) and may have reduced the total feel to so that the CTH route was more appealing. In other words, it may have NOTHING to do with you and was just a sales approach that the recruiter used to get the most out of the transaction.
If through a recruiter, it's in their best interest to do whatever it takes to ensure you adjust and go perm. The recruiter may not get the entire commission owed until you go perm. They are also measured on the number of billable hours they have each week (how many hours contractors work weekly). If the company were to let you go before 90 days, the recruiter would lose 40 hours a week in their reports AND would have to find a replacement. Time = money. The more time the recruiter has to work on filling this position, the less money they make because they could have been working on a new order rather than replacing someone in a previous order. Point? The recruiter WANTS you (NEEDS you) to succeed. They typically do a quality call to the client every week or twice a month. Put on your calendar a reoccurring 15 minute meeting with your Recruiter to get an update or any feedback they have heard from the client on how you're doing.
I agree with Pathachiever11's comment:
Ask the recruiter involved for feedback. Ask them if they got any feedback from the interviewer. What they said about you, etc.
If you can learn straight from the source (the person who made the decision to hire you) WHAT it was that triggered their choice, it will relieve some of the self doubt you're feeling.
Watch, "The Pursuit of Happiness". Against all odds and facing life threatening odds and fears every single day for several months, the character in the movie kept trying...over and over and over.
CONCLUSION:
- Figure out what your true motivation was to taking this job.
- Then commit to the decision and release the worry because you will need that energy to focus on exceeding expectations daily.
- Address the skills you feel you need more training on and start right way. One of my favorites: Lynda.com
- Join a meetup group, an online chat group or a LinkedIn Developers group - some sort of group that you can meet with or bounce ideas off of when you feel stuck.
- Start looking for a mentor or even several mentors. This takes time if you don't have the contacts in place right now. Identify someone in your field (locally would be great) who is at the top of their game. Start a conversation using whatever platform they use to discuss and share ideas. Build rapport and over time, they will naturally evolved into a mentor-like relationship.
I have a mentor for when I'm negotiating my salary, for when I have an unhealthy conflict with someone at work, for when I need long term career advice, and several mentors that I reach out to when I need to understand an area of my specialization (digital marketing). Without these mentors, I would never had advanced as far as I have in my career.
YOU WANT THE JOB THAT MAKES YOU UNCOMFORTABLE. That where the growth is. Start now to get a support team in place to help you when you get stuck and need a trusted advisor to bounce ideas/concerns off of. If you're feeling unsure of yourself in the first few weeks, trust the process. It means you're right on track. Those first 3 months will fly by and you'll be setting roots in no time!
Wishing you tremendous success in your new job!