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Impostor Syndrome: Success with a Side of Doubt
We all wear masks in public. Occasionally, the masks wear us.
My doctoral degree path was not typical. While most students go into a doctoral program soon after their master’s studies, I waited. I waited a lot. Even getting my master’s degree was not typical. My undergrad GPA was a miserable 2.4, so no master’s program would take me. I struck a deal with the admissions people at the university: I would take one (expensive) course at a time and earn an A. After two years of that (six courses), I would be accepted into the full program.
It was an expensive proposition because I did not qualify for any financial assistance. Even when I was accepted into the program, I did not qualify for assistance because I was not even a part-time student. I worked nights at the laboratory and went to school during the day. Eventually, with a lot of help from friends and colleagues, I got my Master of Public Health (MPH) degree. And my GPA was a 3.97.
Armed with that degree, I worked at the Maryland Department of Health from 2007 to 2013. And it was around that time that impostor syndrome set in.
For the uninitiated, impostor syndrome is a psychological phenomenon where people who are perfectly capable and qualified to do a job feel like they’re getting away with…
