How do you deal with it? Have you ever felt insecure at work because you are surrounded by those who graduated from top school/MBA or those who achieved SO many things compared to you?
Rather than that, I’m more worried about your slow as hell HR department -___-
Sorry to hear that. Yeah they are SUPER slow. Seriously.
I had that feeling at Google, not since I left 😉
As far as schools, forget about it. I've worked with a LOT of people over the years and found pretty much every recent graduate is clueless but more or less ready to begin their "real" education. The school might matter in landing your first job, but after that it's all about your accomplishments. You also mentioned people that are more accomplished than you. Think of them as a resource. If you humbly ask someone to impart some of their wisdom, I have found they always do it happily and often even offer to let you shadow them etc. If you jump on these opportunities, you will probably not only learn something, but also find out that they are not so different from you. Maybe you are not as far behind as you thought, and/or you bring your own strengths and skills to the table.
Every day. Really have to psyche myself up for interviews and focus on the fact that I’ve had a great career trajectory so far due to great managers who gave me opportunities AND my own hard work. I live by “fake it ‘til you make it” because I think many do the same.
I tried to "fake it until I make it" but I never made it and am still a shitty engineer incapable of passing interviews and doing so-so at work. I've accepted my stupidity and only feel slightly bothered by more successful people, not insanely depressed like I used to be
I feel your pain.
Fake it til you make it. You will realize that most people don’t know what they are doing anyway. A lot of things are figured out along the way.