Both professional activities and hobbies
For example… If a new hire is introduced as “good at Python and C++” at work, what does this imply about the person’s skill level in your opinion? Or if someone says they are a “good runner”, what would come to your mind? Or is it field-dependent?
Asking because sometimes I’m not sure if I am under/over-exaggerating my own abilities when meeting new ppl at work/etc…
It’s always in relation to what the speaker considers average in that situation.
If someone at home is good at cooking, they could make nice meals out of fish while everyone else in that group can just make porridge. If someone at work is good at autocad, they can make technical drawings while everyone else can just barely read them.
You are probably underestimating your abilities.
People that worry about overestimating their skills mostly underestimate their skills.If someone says they are “good” at something, I take it to mean competency and some enthusiasm.
They might make a mistake, but they won’t (or at least will rarely) make it twice.
They know how to find the solution to something within that domain of knowledge. It might not be the best solution, but it will be a solution that works.
They are also aware of what they don’t know in within the domain. So, they can do C++ but know they can’t do embedded programming. Or they can do C#, but know they can’t do game dev.And I would take them at their word for that, until they prove otherwise.
If they are below where they claim their skill is, I would try to help them learn (unless they show no interest in improving).
If they are above where they claim, I would tell them this.It’s always hard to judge our own skills.
I assume competent. If you’re “good” at it, you can do it without much more than the expected amount of help.
If you’re a good runner, I’m not expecting you to win, but I expect you’ll be able to finish it.
In my opinion it really depends on the person saying that. There are just way too many factors like Dunning-Krueger, the interpretation of the word ‘good’ (Just sufficient? Above average?), or just their own ego/modesty.
I would say I’m decent with numbers. I don’t like to boast, and I’m sure I’m terribly far from being a prodigy (I am quite far), but I have the feeling I can multiply double digit numbers in my head faster than the average. That doesn’t even tell you much anyway.
Depends on context and the skill in question. For example, in my office, good at technology means you know how to submit a ticket to IT and you don’t have a panic attack if someone mentions excel.
- Have you invested time learning how to do/improve the skill?
- Have you seen progress in your skill level?
“Good” is relative
Above 50-percentile in comparison to others who also participate in that subject/hobby/activity, but usually below the 90-percentile, because then they’d not be described as “good”, but “great”
In my opinion it really depends on what they are talking about if a person says they are good at cooking I assume they are slightly above average if a person says they are good at working on cars I assume they are better than 95% of the population
A lot of people have already pointed out that the person saying it is an important detail. If your mom says you’re good at python, I’m going to get a very different idea about your skill level compared to your boss saying it.
Unless you are selling yourself in an interview context, I think it’s very poor form to qualify your own skill level. Let the skill speak for itself, it’s enough to say that you ‘do python’. Saying you’re good at something often comes off as braggadocios more than it is informative. If you must give context, it’s better to talk about how much experience you have, or other objective metrics
Qualifiers are too context dependant and no matter where your skill level is at, you wont ever have enough context to know how good you actually are, because you can’t know what you don’t know.
Competent and able to handle everyday tasks with ease.
For anything considered complex, able to give a good start and potentially work a partial solution (for running, they can do a good half-marathon without too much trouble).
Not a world-beater, not someone who can handle any task trivially, but someone who can definitely contribute to even expert/Ph.D level fields, if only at at a lower level (ie doing tasks at the direction of the lead researcher/engineer).
If they’re “really good”, I expect all that, and that they can self-lead for complex tasks, with the potential to grow into the latter role of “lead”.
I am, at my worst, “really-good” at a lot of things, but I’ve also met a few rare people who make me feel like I’m in that half-marathon while they’re doing a 100m dash, and they just never slow down. That’s rarely a question of skill or competence for me, it’s more focus and dedication to a single task.
Somewhere in the range of not actively shitty/not shitty enough to notice to moderately proficient. If they do the task no one is likely to notice something wrong.
Imposter syndrome just limits you. Nothing wrong with fake it 'til you make it. If you’re not doing it, someone else is. Just base your opinion of them on what you see, and act the same regarding other’s opinions of you. Actions speak louder than words.
5/10. Understands what’s going. Could certainly be better, but fuck ups are uncommon.
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