Definitely experienced it in my first few years in tech... I'd made quite a career leap and I honestly _did_ feel like a fraud. But I'm here now and I'm happy and I know where I fit into the mix and I no longer feel like a fraud.. I feel like someone who is growing with my role and where I fit in the community.
This did resonate, though (reminds me of the buzz words in mental health that gain popularity every year or so)
>it minimizes the impact that this experience has on people that really do suffer from it
when i was in grad school all the faculty were off doing startups and they had the grad students teaching the undergrads because they were never around.
we were all petrified, felt totally under qualified and did as much as we could do to fill the perceived skill gap.
i think without an exception we excelled. the courses were harder, graded better, got better student feedback, covered a lot more material and engendered a reciprocal student response that the distracted and jaded profs never got.
a little performance pressure isn't always a bad thing
Diagnosing oneself with imposter syndrome (or, at the other end of the spectrum, recognizing the Dunning–Kruger effect in oneself) is a perfect catch 22.
This article hits the nail on the head: being slightly paranoid and doubting oneself is a pretty essential part of being a good developer. It's (in most cases) pretty normal. The key is to try and detach your self-worth from the problems you face. You aren't any less good because you couldn't solve that bug last week.
Sure, but "putting in the hard work" doesn't equate to "deserving to be there" either. Add in females and minorities getting easier entry into universities, grant money and scholarships and voila, you've got plenty of people who work hard, who don't meet standards, with others that could achieve more locked out because they're not felt sorry for and celebrated with their inclusion.
Many of the women that I know in IT workplaces, that were hired under the auspices of "culture", were hired because they were attractive and notionally competent on paper or shoed-in because they fit multiple minority demographics.
When a mass of people are definitely imposters, those that fit the same demographics can definitely feel like they're imposters when they're not. I find it amusing when someone's hired for all the wrong reasons and turns out to be the best fit of all for a position. I've experienced that myself.
I'm highly aware of what I don't know and often very keen on learning new things.
The only thing that makes me feel like an imposter is looking for a job and seeing insane requirements for something I'm pretty sure I could do with a Bachelors. Then I think, wait am I too stupid to know how incapable I am?
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[ 1.6 ms ] story [ 36.5 ms ] threadThis did resonate, though (reminds me of the buzz words in mental health that gain popularity every year or so)
>it minimizes the impact that this experience has on people that really do suffer from it
we were all petrified, felt totally under qualified and did as much as we could do to fill the perceived skill gap.
i think without an exception we excelled. the courses were harder, graded better, got better student feedback, covered a lot more material and engendered a reciprocal student response that the distracted and jaded profs never got.
a little performance pressure isn't always a bad thing
This article hits the nail on the head: being slightly paranoid and doubting oneself is a pretty essential part of being a good developer. It's (in most cases) pretty normal. The key is to try and detach your self-worth from the problems you face. You aren't any less good because you couldn't solve that bug last week.
Many of the women that I know in IT workplaces, that were hired under the auspices of "culture", were hired because they were attractive and notionally competent on paper or shoed-in because they fit multiple minority demographics.
When a mass of people are definitely imposters, those that fit the same demographics can definitely feel like they're imposters when they're not. I find it amusing when someone's hired for all the wrong reasons and turns out to be the best fit of all for a position. I've experienced that myself.
The only thing that makes me feel like an imposter is looking for a job and seeing insane requirements for something I'm pretty sure I could do with a Bachelors. Then I think, wait am I too stupid to know how incapable I am?