Impostor Syndrome: A Personal Take on the Workplace Epidemic
Impostor syndrome is a workplace epidemic. It affects people in every profession regardless of a professional’s tenure or years of experience.
Joshua Omale, a user-experience designer at HackerNoon, shared his experiences with impostor syndrome. This is his story as he told it, lightly edited and republished with permission.
What is impostor syndrome?
Impostor syndrome involves feelings of doubt and incompetence about your capabilities even though you might be a professional with many relevant years of experience and lots of achievements.
You typically feel that you are a fraud and fear that you would be discovered one day as a phony by your colleagues and peers. You also feel that most of your achievements are a result of dumb luck and good timing and not personal skill.
According to a recent study, about 70% of people experience impostor syndrome at some point in their lives. This means that a lot of people around you have likely experienced it. Even Einstein got a taste of it!
Impostor syndrome in the tech industry
The tech industry can be an intimidating place. Impostor syndrome typically exists more among women in tech and among people that didn’t have any tech background prior to going into tech professionally.
According to a 2018 survey by Blind, more than 57% of tech workers feel like impostors. The survey included professionals from some of the most prominent tech companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Uber.
Blind asked the respondents one question in the survey: “Do you suffer from impostor syndrome?” Blind found 58% of the 10,402 respondents surveyed had experienced impostor syndrome.
A software engineer expressed feeling like a fraud even though he had 14 years of experience. Another verified professional on Blind also said they had some self-doubts after joining a big tech company.
Why is impostor syndrome so common?
Impostor syndrome is mainly brought on by:
1. A major milestone
Often, when we get a big job or complete a degree, negative thoughts tend to creep into our heads about whether we truly deserve that success. These thoughts then evolve into doubts about our capabilities and skills.
2. Evolution of technology
Technology evolves at such a fast rate. You can be an expert in a particular technology today, and then it becomes obsolete in two or three years. This may be why most experienced developers feel like frauds.
3. Perfectionism
Perfectionists focus on how things get done and the outcome. Impostor syndrome in these individuals is a result of setting unrealistic goals. The perfectionist carries around a hundred-percent-or-nothing mindset. A 99% performance is considered a failure.
4. Unrealistic expectations from the media
We’ve all heard stories about young tech geniuses that taught themselves five languages and learned to code while they were still crawling (not necessarily a fact). While it is good to learn tech at a young age, the constant portrayal makes some professionals feel like impostors.
In reality, most people did not learn professional work early on in their lives, and that’s okay.
5. The internet
Have you ever been trying to fix a bug in your code, and instead of going through the code manually, you search for the error message and get an instant solution?
We all search for solutions when stuck at work. Does that mean that we would not be able to do our jobs if Google did not exist properly?
Is there a solution to impostor syndrome?
Sadly, there are no vaccines for impostor syndrome, which has become a workplace epidemic. Whether you are a designer or a developer, impostor syndrome could still weigh you down.
In the journey to train your mindset to rediscover your value and potential, some proactive steps need to be taken. Some of these steps include:
1. Acknowledge your feelings and identify priorities
Before you can solve any problem, it must be first identified as a problem.
You need to acknowledge that you feel like an impostor. This helps separate how you feel from who you actually are. Always remember: “We are not always what we feel.”
It also helps you learn more about these feelings. In reality, that feeling might never truly go away forever. Instead of trying to find a permanent cure, you can work on identifying the smaller factors that trigger it. Ask yourself questions like:
- Why does getting a new job make me feel like a phony?
- Why am I not happy that I achieved XYZ?
- Why am I not confident in my work?
Even if you do not get a clear answer to these questions, identifying the problem makes you feel more empowered.
Also, identify your strengths and weaknesses and work on them individually. Instead of saying “I suck at being a designer,” say “I suck at designing fintech logos” and consciously attempt to work on becoming better at it.
2. Challenge your doubts
To get to where you are as a professional, you must have achieved many things. It might have been graduating from university, being part of developing a product that has been launched, or having your designs shown on social media platforms. No matter how small they might seem, these achievements are evidence that you are good at your job.
There would always be room to learn more and become better in every profession, but that does not mean your past achievements automatically become void.
Anytime you feel like a fraud, refer to the small wins you’ve had in the past. You can also refer to times clients, colleagues or superiors have commended you about work you have done.
Learn to always celebrate small wins!
Give credit where it is due. When you remove a repeated semi-colon from your code, you fix a bug, and that’s a win.
3. Do not compare yourself to others
While there can be healthy comparisons, people often compare themselves to others the wrong way. Comparisons can either propel you to push yourself harder or just make you feel like you are a fraud. Remember that every human is different and has unique abilities.
It’s okay to run life’s race at your own pace. You might not succeed in every task you take on, but that’s okay. It’s okay to need time to learn something new, even if another person might grasp it immediately. Develop your own abilities. Success does not always require perfection. It requires hard work.
4. Talk about impostor syndrome
Most people do not like talking about their feelings of being a fraud because they are scared their worst nightmare might become a reality: I am actually the red crewmate. I am an impostor!
But in reality, talking about our feelings makes us feel better about it, especially when we talk to someone going through the same thing.
Always take the quote “No man is an island” literally. You do not have to handle it yourself. Talk to a classmate, colleague, or mentor. This can offer some sort of guidance, validate your competencies and encourage you to grow.
You can also mentor a few people about your work. This helps reinforce your skills and abilities.
The bottom line
Insecurities never entirely go away. Even as I write this, I feel like an impostor. Just remember that these feelings are natural, and it is okay to feel them. Be conscious about not dwelling on feeling like an impostor for too long, so it doesn’t affect the quality of your work.
You deserve that position. You deserve that promotion. You deserve that new job. You are not an impostor!