You Don’t Have to Know Everything to Be Good at Your Job

If you had told me years ago that I would end up working in IT for the Navy, I probably would have laughed. Before joining, my background was about as far from computers as you could get. I was a plant lover with years of experience in the green industry and an associate degree in Horticulture. Computers were definitely not my specialty.

When I joined the Navy, I thought I was signing up for something more along the lines of intelligence work. Instead, I found myself becoming an Information Systems Technician. I was suddenly expected to understand computers, networks, and technology that I knew very little about.

What I learned pretty quickly was that I didn’t have to know everything. I just had to learn how to figure things out.

Sometimes that meant researching the problem. Sometimes it meant digging through instructions or troubleshooting until something finally worked. Other times, it meant knowing who had more experience than I did and being willing to ask them for help. Over time, I was able to stand out not because I always knew the answer, but because I became good at finding it.

That lesson has followed me well beyond the Navy. No matter what field you’re in, there will eventually be something you don’t know how to do. Being good at your job doesn’t mean having every answer stored in your head. It means being resourceful enough to know where to look, who to ask, and how to keep working at a problem until you find a solution.

Sometimes the most valuable thing you can know is simply how to figure it out.