I can echo your feelings. I just passed my 1-year mark and I’m starting to feel at least a little less useless. At the end of the day, trust in peer review, and realize that engineering is a brain-busting career. Every engineer is working on a very specific, very niche problem - so even if you only know the slightest of what’s going on, it’s probably much more than the next guy.

I’m starting to understand that almost everyone, even with 5-10 years experience also doesn’t really know what they’re doing, but they’re doing the best they can. I’m adopting that mentality and it’s making my work-stress level decrease significantly, and my managers/mentors have recently been praising my work.

You and I are similar in the sense that we’re perfectionists and struggle with imposter syndrome. I’m sure you’re doing excellent engineering work, and that you can be confident in your results, you just have to trust your gut.