#129 - The Transition Debt!

29 Oct 26

An Engineer's career is a series of transitions: from education to a first job, from graduate to Chartered status, from technician to team leader, from team leader to Chief Engineer, and from one programme, platform or employer to the next. Every one brings anxiety, uncertainty, imposter syndrome and risk. The Engineers who manage them best aren't the ones who feel no fear, they're the ones who recognise the pattern.

Trial Brief

Engineers are trained to manage technical risk, but rarely to manage the personal risk of starting something new. Yet transitions run through the whole of an engineering career, and how well you handle them shapes how quickly you become effective, how well you lead others through theirs, and how you feel along the way. The good news is that the pattern is predictable, and once you can see it, it becomes much easier to manage.

Trial Execution

Consider how many transitions a typical Engineer goes through. Leaving full-time education for university or an apprenticeship. Starting a first job. Moving from doing the engineering to leading the people who do it, then to leading leaders, and setting direction as a Head of Engineering, Chief Engineer or Director. Some Engineers change trajectory entirely, moving between sectors, disciplines or into consultancy, and for everyone, eventually, there is retirement.

The same applies in our personal lives, as we move through the seasons of life: from single person to perhaps entering a relationship, to parenthood, to the children leaving home and starting out on their own. The two spaces overlap, and a big change in one tends to be felt in the other.

Each of these brings a high degree of anxiety, uncertainty and risk. Many Engineers also feel imposter syndrome, the quiet suspicion that they're not as capable as the role assumes and that someone will soon notice. That's a common reaction to unfamiliar territory, and it's particularly sharp in a profession where being wrong can have real consequences.

I've written before about joining my first submarine and setting sail almost immediately for the polar ice cap, with no choice but to learn fast. I've also spoken about the leadership transitions that followed, each of which felt less like a promotion and more like being asked to unlearn the thing that had made me good before. The pattern was the same each time.

Trial Findings

When an Engineer starts something new, they are almost never starting from zero. They bring transferable skills: analytical thinking, structured problem solving, discipline, and an instinct for how systems behave and fail. That's a genuine foundation, and it's worth remembering on the days when it feels otherwise.

What they don't yet have is everything specific to the new situation. In engineering, that is a lot. The technical detail of the system, platform or product. The tools, processes and standards. The governance, delegations and who holds which authority. The safety culture and the unwritten rules about what is and isn't acceptable. If the role includes more leadership responsibility, they need help developing that too. It takes time to learn and adapt to the new environment: its people, its pace and its expectations.

The transition debt

In the first three months or so, this shows up as asking others for advice and guidance, managing anxiety and working through fears. It's entirely natural, and it has a cost. The new starter is drawing on the time and knowledge of the people around them, often senior Engineers and subject matter experts whose time is already stretched. In effect, value is being taken out of the organisation and a debt is building up.

Over time, things shift. Confidence grows and the new normal starts to feel more normal. The person becomes more independent and more at ease, asks fewer questions, and starts adding more than they take. They are paying the debt back. By around the six-month point, the debt is effectively repaid and they are a net contributor.

That has two practical implications for Engineers.

If you're the one in transition: Expect the debt. Needing help in the first months isn't a failure and doesn't mean you were the wrong choice. It's the price of getting up to speed, and in a safety critical environment, asking early is far better than guessing. Recognising what you feel as the anxiety of a known pattern, rather than evidence that something is wrong with you, makes it easier to ask for help and keep going.

If you're leading someone in transition: Build the debt into your expectations. A new Engineer who is still asking lots of questions at week six isn't underperforming; they're where they should be on the curve. Your job is to make it safe to ask, provide the technical and leadership support they need, and avoid judging a three-month Engineer against a twelve-month benchmark. It's also worth planning the support properly, with a named mentor, a clear picture of the authority they do and don't hold yet, and early exposure to real problems with someone close by.

Recognising your pattern

The most useful thing you can learn is how you personally respond to change. Some Engineers become quiet and withdrawn. Some overwork to prove themselves. Some retreat to what they know best, the technical detail, instead of engaging with the new part of the role. Knowing your own reaction helps you spot it earlier and manage it.

So the pattern repeats. After going through a number of transitions, the journey becomes a familiar one: the uncertainty at the start, the debt building, the confidence returning, the debt being repaid. You still feel the fear, but you recognise it, and you've seen it end before. That familiarity makes each new transition easier to manage than the last.

The Common Thread

Transitions are a constant in an engineering career and in life, and each one brings anxiety, uncertainty, imposter syndrome and risk. They follow a recognisable pattern: a period of building a debt as you learn and lean on others, then a period of repaying it as confidence grows, with the balance typically cleared by around six months. You don't have to avoid the discomfort. You need to recognise the pattern, understand how you respond to it, and give yourself and the Engineers you lead the time and support it takes.

Trial Sign-off

One practical action

Think of the last major transition you went through in your engineering career, whether a new role, a new programme or a step up in responsibility. Write down how you responded in the first three months: who you turned to, what you worried about, and when you noticed things getting easier. That's your personal pattern. Keep it somewhere you can find it before the next one.

One question for reflection

Which Engineer in your team is in the first six months of a transition right now, and what would help them through the debt phase faster?

Have a great week!

Steve

If you're interested in through-life Engineering Leadership development from first time Engineering leader/manager, through Head of Engineering up to Director, see the link here.

For short courses which target specific leadership issues, see this link.