Ok so I've only had my technician license for about three months and I've been lurking on the local 2m net every Thursday night trying to get the hang of things. Last night I finally checked in and the net control asked me if I had any traffic and I just said 'negative' but then I accidentally keyed up again when two other stations were already in QSO and stepped all over them. I didnt even realize I'd done it until net control said 'please hold' and I just wanted to disappear.

Nobody was mean about it but I've been overthinking it ever since. Is there like an unwritten rule I missed about waiting to hear the full exchange before transmitting again after you check in? I feel like I skipped some step that everyone else just knows. My elmer moved out of state before he could really walk me through net procedure stuff so I'm kind of figuring it out on my own.

Oh man don't sweat it, we've ALL done something like that at least once. Stepping on someone is basically a rite of passage and the fact that you felt bad about it means you're already ahead of a lot of people who don't even notice they did it.

The basic thing with most directed nets is once you check in you just wait until net control calls your callsign specifically before you transmit again, unless it's a roundtable style net where people just talk in turn. But even experienced ops mess this up especially if the repeater has a weird hang time or the net control talks fast. The Thursday night crew at my club is super patient with newcomers, most nets are honestly. Just keep showing up, you'll get the feel for the timing after a few sessions and it'll be second nature.

yeah i was terrified my first few nets too honestly. one thing that helped me was just listening for like a month before i ever checked in, just so i could hear how net control handles things and what the flow is. also the ARRL has a net directory thing and some nets actually publish their script or preamble online so you can read through it ahead of time and know what to expect. not all nets are the same either, some are pretty formal and some are super casual so it just takes a bit to learn each one's vibe