Sometimes attitude matters as much — if not more — than technical skills.

I’m in bed, 10am, recovering from the Friday night pint. If you’ve worked in the UK, you know exactly what I’m talking about.

Phone rings. “Hhmmm.” “Hey Robin, sorry to bother you, we need you in the office.” Small adrenaline shot. “The artists have been working through the night, we’ve got a problem sending the delivery to the client. Apparently you’re the person in charge…” Big adrenaline shot. “They can’t go home until it’s fixed.” OK.. I’m stressed.

I get dressed fast and jump on the tube. Big VFX studio in London, dozens of artists stuck on a Saturday morning — and they’re calling me, the junior who’s only been there a few months.

It’s on the tube that the stress really hits. I’m chugging water to be presentable and my mind is racing. I don’t know everything yet. This is my first job. They’re going to figure out I’m not up to this. I’m going to look like an idiot.

I arrive at the studio. They’re waiting for me like I’m the messiah. “Ah Robin! Thanks for coming in. We called the others but apparently you’re the expert.” Maximum pressure.

And then something shifts. I’m on site, people are counting on me — no more time to stress, I need to find the fix. I switch to solution mode.

I find the logs. The error isn’t in the part of the code I usually touch — it’s deeper in the stack, somewhere I don’t really know. But there are clues. An HTTP request to an IP that isn’t responding. I ping it — the machine is down. With the IT guy, we identify the server and restart it. Ten minutes later, everything is working.

A huge wave of relief washes over me. The artists are going home.

Monday morning, I’m still the same junior developer. No new technical knowledge. But the VFX supervisor knows my name, and the Head of Production waves at me in the corridor.

Just because I showed up on a Saturday and restarted a machine.

Takeaway: Technical skills take time to build — that’s fine, that’s expected. But showing up, staying calm when everyone else is panicking, and switching to solution mode under pressure — that’s what gets you noticed, especially early in your career. You don’t need to have all the answers. You just need to be there and try.