New to robotics...feel lost, useless, and robotics career question

[Donut]

My freshman year I joined the team intending to be on programming. I had the least experience of all the programmers and was initially given a small little job (just code to turn a compressor on and off) so I could learn the language and my job could be easily done if I screwed up. I just looked at the code others made and what they gave us to learn, and asked my Dad (who became a mentor) for help understanding things. Next thing I know, all the programmers except for me and the team lead quit or stop coming due to work, and I had the entire autonomous mode and arm code given to me to do. Now I'm co-programming lead and Vice President of the club.

From personal experience, I say finish what job they gave you, then use that extra time to learn everything you possibly can, you never know how much you might end up helping out!

[Uberbots]

best way to get involved: ask a team who is working on something if they need help.
that way, (if they arent snobs) they will most likely say yes, and bam! you have a prt on the team.

you just gotta make sure (if one dya youhappen to be on the other end) that you dont leave someone out, or even worse discriminate.

just last year, we had one of those kids who would discriminate against the weak (aka, the soft-spoken). The disciminees either left the team, tried to sabotage our robot, and one of them actually got a mad parent involved.
it was ugly, but we got thru it (and made a STRICTLY enforced rule against leaving people out)

u gotta be careful. but ask for help, and ask if help is needed. thats all it takes.

[Dillon Compton]

This is only my second year on a robotics team, and I had a somewhat similar experience on my team my rookie year. I dont attend the school which my team is based out of, but I was asked by the team leader (my dad) to contribute my programming knowledge (which is limited, but more than anyone else's) to the effort. I agreed, and my FIRST career began.

I experienced extreme culture shock my very first meeting.
The school at which my dad teaches is in Philadelphia, and the kids on it come from all over the city...I live out in the suburbs, and am pretty much the stereotypical geek.
It was pretty difficult to prove myself to the rest of the team and to get accepted into the group, but I worked hard, learned what I needed to to contribute to any lacking aspects of the team (in my case I learned much more about programming, memorized all the wiring rules and became head electrician, and was integral in design and fabrication of our arm), and by the end I had gone from 'Dillon' or 'Mr. Compton's Son', to 'D-Rock' or 'Ben'(an affectionate reference to a supposed likeness between myself and Mr. Franklin...). Work hard, prove invaluable to the team, and not only will you have fun, become obsessed, and get accepted; you'll also learn some things!

the forums and the whitepapers on this site are a great resource, and there are some useful link on my teams webpage...[shameless plug]...www.masteryrobotics.com. Click on the "resources" or "links" tabs!

Good luck

-Dillon