Make the good enough decision
TL;DR:
Indecision usually means you haven't defined what you want beyond "better," so write down your markers and accept good enough when something fits. Most decisions risk only time, money, or ego, so decide, see what happens, and adjust.
The third company I worked for as a QA was the most fun one. There were 9 QAs there – one being our manager – with a bunch of developers, 2 DevOps guys and 2 project managers. The HR "department" was the CEO's wife, and there was the CEO.
That was it, flat hierarchy at its finest.
I applied for a QA engineer position after getting my entry-level certificate a year before that. I was still green.
The interview process was dead simple. A recruiter approached me, we had a phone call, then I met with my later manager (super nice guy) and his manager, the CEO, to tackle the technical interview, which I'm sure I didn't ace at all. Then I met with the entire QA team for a team fit, and finally had a “negotiation” with the CEO. Everything within 1.5 weeks.
At that time, I was employed. I asked for a whopping 17% raise after a successful year, to cover my rent, which had decided to go up. I felt I was in a pickle. My manager and his manager told me no. No reason, just a no.
I told the CEO my range, which was a 43–57% raise on my current salary. No, this won't be about negotiation tactics.
This was the range I toured with at the time, and nobody offered me a salary. I sat through dozens of highly technical interviews and nobody said yes. You sense that, right? My base wasn't really high to begin with, but it was only me who knew that. When was the last time you asked for a 57% raise?
Then there was this guy. Looked me in the eye, asked what I would be happy with after I told them everything I believed in as a QA. I told him the range above, he nodded, and I left their office.
That afternoon he sent me his offer of 57.5% above my current salary.
I remember all the blood leaving my head. I was so shocked. It finally worked.
I'd like to emphasize that I changed nothing during that stretch of me looking for work. I was the same guy, with the same knowledge, same preparedness, same beliefs and same "cockiness" about how I believed QAs should work within software development.
The only difference was the guy in front of me, who dared to make decisions.
I knew very little of him. He didn't seem unique in any way. He was confident, yes, but other than that, a totally regular guy. You wouldn't tell that he had delivered HBO GO to an entire continent.
Later I learned that he was different in the way he thought.
He knew what he wanted, and that wasn't necessarily 100% confidence in his decision. He was happy with good enough because he valued his time much more highly.
People sit with being indecisive and blame it on overthinking or uncertainty. I was anything but a certain choice at that point in my career. I knew how to talk, and I was certainly passionate about what I thought about my profession, but I was far from technical excellence.
I decided to stick with my strategy and he decided to stick with his, too, not to dwell on minor things. My salary was minor compared to the responsibility of delivering working software for HBO.
This is great. But why does this matter on a self-development blog?
Because this applies to how you make almost any decision.
I never asked, but I'm sure of how he made decisions. He knew the set of markers he was looking for, and if somebody fit those markers, he hired them to finally work on more important stuff. You know, like managing a company.
Those markers in our case meant that he had a range in his mind that was fine to him in terms of expense. He wanted to make sure enough that the people he hired knew relatively well what they were doing, meaning I obviously had to prove I saw how software development worked and could do my job when they asked me. Not perfectly, well enough, to not cause them major trouble. And I guess it was also somewhat important that he didn't hire douches. The entire QA team confirmed that. I still have friends from there. That's it.
I didn't become too much of an outlier for any of his criteria. So he hired me.
The indecision that you might face can stem from not knowing. You not knowing what you want in the first place.
For something to be better doesn't really make sense; you can't measure anything against "better."
If you could take away one thing from this post, let it be this one. Write down what you want as precisely as you can, beyond "better." Do your homework, research what you are interested in, ask AI, as it's perfect for this. Then make up your mind. You don't have to go all the way to writing up SMART goals; just be reasonable. Try to say it to yourself in the mirror. If you laugh at saying the goal out loud, you know your answer.
My goal was reasonable too. I needed a 17% raise, but after my research it turned out that I could ask for 60%, as I was underpaid in my previous role. So I just needed time.
This is important, and I'll show you a trick to deal with "uncertainty."
There are five stages of agile development.
Ideate – Plan – Develop – Deploy – Measure, then repeat.
Meaning:
You need an idea as the entry point. In his case, he needed a new QA guy.
Plan what you want to do. You are here, so do your research and write down what's in your head. Do everything you humanly can to create your markers; this was the hiring phase, where he had to define what success looked like to him. Within range, knew how to test software, wasn't a total douche.
Make the decision; this was hiring me. You know, without ruminating for days when you meet somebody who is good enough, not wanting to find the perfect unicorn for the same amount of money.
Then see what happens and make corrections if needed. He didn't need to make corrections with me.
I remained with that company for 1.5 years and switched for another 36% increase in my salary. The guy was right in hiring me. I did everything he asked of me, and I left only after it turned out that HBO had insourced its development. He had to downsize the QA department a year after I left anyway, and not because they were missing my hidden genius.
To put it simply, the indecision is only frightening because you don't know what's hidden in uncertainty. Unknown unknowns, if you remember.
But you can mitigate this one too. Simple question: what's the worst that could happen if you made a decision?
If the answer doesn't threaten your life or anyone else's, then what else is there? Please don't mistake me for a hustle bro, because that's not my point. I try to show you that most of our decisions hang in the balance because we are afraid of a future that might never happen and is not life-threatening at all.
In agile development, the worst that could happen if a new release goes bad is a minor inconvenience that can hurt a company's reputation but 99% of the time doesn't really affect users too badly. Companies usually rebound pretty well.
You don't need to sweat all the decisions either. Worst-case scenario, you lose time, money, or reputation in most of the scenarios if they go bad. If you can afford those losses, then it's only your ego that's going to be hurt, and trust me, your ego is resilient enough to take those hits. I mean, don't gamble when you're at the end of any of those, but if you have relative safety around you, you can take slight risks.
In the best-case scenario, you might actually get your 57.5% raise.
PS: I know I said I wouldn't publish for a month, but I wrote everything that I wanted in Hungarian, so here I am. I missed you too.
I just launched a campaign that helps solopreneurs overthink less. If you feel the pull, I wrote an entire landing page just for you. I'm curious to read what you think.
It’s perfectly okay to ask for support. You don’t have to figure everything out on your own. While I believe everyone is their own best expert, I’m also a big believer in asking for help to create change together. It’s comforting to have someone by our side as we go through transitions. If you’re feeling motivated to expand your comfort zone and curious about how I can support you on your journey, let’s talk.
