Anyone else feel completely lost in their first engineering job even after 2 years?
I’m working as an HVAC Design Engineer focused on hyperscale data centers, and I’ve been at my first company for about 2 years now. Honestly, I was never very strong in the thermal side back in college, and I joined this role kind of half-heartedly.
Even after 2 years, I still feel like I don’t fully know what I’m doing, and I keep questioning whether I’m on the right path or if I should quit altogether.
Last week, I was assigned a new project, and instead of feeling excited, I’ve just been anxious about how I’m going to handle it—especially things like calculations and pipe routing. My manager is permanently WFH, so I also feel a bit on my own.
A few nights ago, I woke up in the middle of the night with my mind racing about the project—like my subconscious was trying to figure everything out. This went on for 3–4 days, and it’s been giving me a lot of anxiety.
I’m not sure if this is just part of the learning curve, imposter syndrome, or a sign that I’m not suited for this field.
Has anyone else gone through something similar early in their career? How did you deal with it?