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Discussion on: Managing Imposter Syndrome

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perpetual_education profile image
perpetual . education • Edited

inadequacy that persists despite evident success

In this description: 'evident success' is key / and well, subjective!

We teach many students who have worked for years to learn programming through online courses that gave them the 'feeling of success' - but really... they didn't learn anything they could use outside of the proprietary IDE. It seems like this industry's education platforms are giving people a false sense of security and success - instead of real-world tools and experience to actually build things. Once you've spent hundreds of hours in tutorial purgatory, you feel like you're owed some success. Just because you spin up some netlify portfolio site from github... doesn't mean you know what the heck just happened. There are a lot of people who feel like impostors - because / they are. "I learned HTML and CSS, now what should I do..." - is a clear giveaway. That's a bummer.

And then - for sure - there are people who are well above in their skills who are just too humble to realize their $ value to companies. In another way / that's because they also haven't been taught how to measure that value. That's a very key part in the design process - so, in both cases - we are seeing the people in this field under prepared.

These are all helpful tips to navigate those feelings. At the end of the day - you should be able to measure your value at any point in your career - and stick to the facts instead of your feelings.

If people read these books:

and used MDN as a toolbox / they'd be able to measure their success in an objective way.

Bakers don't wonder "can I really bake a cake?" - because you can just - see if there is a cake on the counter or not.

Be kind to yourself. By being kind - you should also tell yourself the truth - and get the tools to find that truth.