Imposter syndrome is a huge issue, especially in the tech industry.
I've started a collaborative blog site to try to conquer this. Anyone can write something, from your experiences to imposter syndrome, to a mistake you made. Hopefully this will help readers to understand that they're not alone.
How do you normally deal with this feeling of inadequacy? Does it pass for you? Do you let yourself feel that way, or do you take steps to conquer it? What are your tips for overcoming imposter syndrome?
Oldest comments (18)
I feel this like every month. I just give myself time with other things except coding. Imposter Syndrome often happen due to burnouts and seeing people better than you so I think about what I have and what the other person doesn't have. It does take time but works at least for me.
Since my first year in university, I’ve been going through imposter syndrome for a long time when I attended the Computer Science class. There were so many brilliant students. I thought to be good with computers, but I was wrong. Everyone seemed to be better than me; at least I saw them like that. I was even afraid to say something stupid.
On the other hand, I met guys who lacked in things I instead knew, too. Relating with students was an important step, not only for the friendship I have with them now but also because “we were in this together.” We helped each other, and that was invaluable.
Today I work in a software company; this shows I was wrong when I thought I was not suited for Computer Science. Even if I still face imposter syndrome, I live together with it. I know who I am, what I can do, and what’s my knowledge. At the same time, I know there are better and worse people than me. Imposter syndrome helps me remember I still have a lot to learn, but I don’t let it outdo me.
I accept it and try to understand it logically. You can use imposter syndrome to motivate you to do better, and not suffer too much from it
I experience this syndrome like almost every team meeting, there are technologies that a lot of them knew but I don't know and I always felt I am the dumbest person in the room.
I can't really say any tips as I am still overcoming it but I keep myself updated and whenever I knew the topic I share my opinion what I really think about it.
I find the impostor and destroy them with my strongest necromancer spell
this problem hits me all the time. I think it is all about knowing things. normally this happens to me when I cant do something new or having hard time for debugging. or expectation from manager or your boss at work. the solution is just stop coding and give a break to your self.just remember your knowlege has been improved scence the first day you became a developer. your are handling stuff now that you didnt know about them last month. do not compare your self to others . accept what you already are and try to learn from others, see their codes , try to discuss about problems . try to underestand their approach to problems. this gives you presspective . human mind can grow , can develop new thing from other things. you are a developer , your job is to develop new things . dont fear to ask your questions. always try new tools . write down your gap knowleges and study about them. after 5 years experiance in development I findout we need to improve the skills already have rather than learning new topics . this is like opening doors that you wont be able to close them . if these open doors increases you dont have enough time to close them . just remember if you can develop things from nothing , you can develop your self too , matterials doesnot matter.
I think for me it was after doing some teaching. In order to teach something, I needed to make sure I knew why I was writing code in the way I was writing it; and several times, as I went over what I was about to explain in my head, I realised I didn't fully grasp why things were the way they were, and so I did some research into it so that I could explain why I was writing the code that way.
After a while of doing that, I realised that I was filling in a lot of gaps in my knowledge, I now knew not only how to do something by why I was doing it that way and not one of three other ways. I felt that did a lot to banish impostor syndrome because at least for the stuff I was doing, I now knew I had a solid understanding of it and wasn't just doing it because I saw someone else do it in a tutorial once.
Other than that, it was just time. As I progressed with my career, and could count more successes as part of it, I think slowly that built up some self-confidence that I lacked.
Remember that everyone has it, and a lot of them actually are impostors:
For me, I've accepted the feeling will always surface from time to time. It's hard to completely avoid it. However, knowing that it's there can help push it aside quickly.
Everyone is always learning. Each of us has a unique set of experiences and those experiences form our understanding of tech, programming, and everything else in our lives. Knowing that, we all have something to offer.
The best way to combat impostor syndrome is to keep showing up. Keep learning. Continue searching for knowledge. That's what I've learned and that's what we're all doing anyway.
It's OK to stumble around in the dark to find the light switch because every new problem starts with some darkness.
I have this a lot. I've started trying to track how I'm talking to myself, even outside of the moments where my stomach sinks. A lot of the time when impostor syndrome feelings are running high, I have something in the back of my head calling me names and making statements that basically say I am not able. I try to tell that voice to shut up, and I argue with it.
I think I need to do some work on why my performance at my job is such an important part of my self-esteem. Work is just work, but it feels like more than work.
this may help you to understand yourself a little bit and find the way to go, tell me if it does :)